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Visions of Suffering
DVD/APPROX. 120MINS/2006/RUSSIA UNRATED
DVD/APPROX. 120MINS/2006/RUSSIA UNRATED
6
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I was actually excited about reviewing VISIONS OF SUFFERING, especially after seeing the Russian vampire film NIGHTWATCH earlier this year,
which I quite enjoyed. Another horror movie from Russia, I figured VISIONS OF SUFFERING might be fairly interesting. But it was not what I
expected. In fact, more than anything else, it seems to be a movie that really wants to be the Russian ERASERHEAD. Unfortunately, it doesn’t
really succeed.
VISIONS OF SUFFERING begins with a man with glasses (Alexander Shevchenko) walking through the woods during a rainstorm. Up in the trees
above, strange spidery pod-like creatures squirm in the branches. A human-like creature wrapped in netting is hitting something dangling from a
tree with a kind of hammer. The man approaches it. Then he wakes up. It was a dream.
The man with glasses has nightmares every time it rains. His large rotary phone is broken. He calls a repairman from a neighbor’s phone. The
repairman is an old, grizzled guy who tells him about vampires, and about voices on dead phone lines. When the repairman leaves, a weird
creature darts in at him from the hall window and he melts to death.
The man with glasses has another dream. This time he is shackled to a tree and three figures approach him. A vomiting scarecrow/zombie
character, a creature wielding a scythe, and a bloated faced creature with one the spidery pods attached to his face. We never know which one
reaches him first, because he wakes up.
But this time, outside, there is a man in black staring up at his window, watching him. And this one man later becomes three. His dreams have
entered reality. And he starts getting very strange phone calls.
VISIONS OF SUFFERING is full of strange imagery. From a fish sandwich where the fish’s dead, vicious head is still attached and sticking out of
the bread, to a girl superimposed over a drain, to spidery pods squirming and skeletons in cages.
We are then introduced to a priest (Andrey Iskanov, who also wrote and directed the film) who appears to be obsessed with the photo of a girl
(Alexandra Batrumova). He draws lines on his face with make-up and goes to the “Night Club Delirium.” The girl is there. She calls the man with
glasses and appears to be his girlfriend. She says she has to stay late.
At the club, performance artists perform on stage. At one point, a man (Svyatoslav Iliyasov) beats a woman to death with his fists and carries her
to another room where he puts her in a bathtub. The priest buys pills from a drug dealer and hallucinates. The guy who beat the girl gets dressed
and puts on a black beret, then goes from room and room and appears to see vampires rising from their coffins. The vampires are also the men in
the black. One of them is fucking a girl’s corpse. Another’s brain and spine pops up out of his head (in a cool effect) and scans the room with
glowing red eyes.
Back at the apartment building, the man with glasses hears a knock at the door and when he goes to the peephole a blade shoots through,
severing his ear. While outside, fingers tap on the windows, even though he is twenty floors up.
As you can see, VISIONS OF SUFFERING has a lot of imagery, and a very thin thread of narrative keeping it all together. Some of the imagery
reminded me of the vintage look of Guy Maddin’s films. Other scenes reminded me of the work of Richard Kern and, of course, David Lynch.
However, a little of this kind of thing goes a long way, and many of the scenes in VISIONS OF SUFFERING are either unnecessary or go on way
too long. At a little over two hours, the movie is much longer than it needs to be. It would have made a great short film. But as a feature, it gets
tedious.
David Lynch's ERASERHEAD was also extremely strange, but it operated on a kind of dream logic all its own. Even though we were treated to
bizarre imagery, the story always moved forward, and the end result is fairly intense and satisfying in its own twisted way. VISIONS OF
SUFFERING has some really good stuff in it, but there are whole sections that really do not need to be there. The most interesting storyline
revolves around the man with glasses, and if everything else had been cut out aside from his story, I think VISIONS OF SUFFERING would have
worked very well. As it is, there’s a lot of fat that could have been trimmed from the meat of this film.
which I quite enjoyed. Another horror movie from Russia, I figured VISIONS OF SUFFERING might be fairly interesting. But it was not what I
expected. In fact, more than anything else, it seems to be a movie that really wants to be the Russian ERASERHEAD. Unfortunately, it doesn’t
really succeed.
VISIONS OF SUFFERING begins with a man with glasses (Alexander Shevchenko) walking through the woods during a rainstorm. Up in the trees
above, strange spidery pod-like creatures squirm in the branches. A human-like creature wrapped in netting is hitting something dangling from a
tree with a kind of hammer. The man approaches it. Then he wakes up. It was a dream.
The man with glasses has nightmares every time it rains. His large rotary phone is broken. He calls a repairman from a neighbor’s phone. The
repairman is an old, grizzled guy who tells him about vampires, and about voices on dead phone lines. When the repairman leaves, a weird
creature darts in at him from the hall window and he melts to death.
The man with glasses has another dream. This time he is shackled to a tree and three figures approach him. A vomiting scarecrow/zombie
character, a creature wielding a scythe, and a bloated faced creature with one the spidery pods attached to his face. We never know which one
reaches him first, because he wakes up.
But this time, outside, there is a man in black staring up at his window, watching him. And this one man later becomes three. His dreams have
entered reality. And he starts getting very strange phone calls.
VISIONS OF SUFFERING is full of strange imagery. From a fish sandwich where the fish’s dead, vicious head is still attached and sticking out of
the bread, to a girl superimposed over a drain, to spidery pods squirming and skeletons in cages.
We are then introduced to a priest (Andrey Iskanov, who also wrote and directed the film) who appears to be obsessed with the photo of a girl
(Alexandra Batrumova). He draws lines on his face with make-up and goes to the “Night Club Delirium.” The girl is there. She calls the man with
glasses and appears to be his girlfriend. She says she has to stay late.
At the club, performance artists perform on stage. At one point, a man (Svyatoslav Iliyasov) beats a woman to death with his fists and carries her
to another room where he puts her in a bathtub. The priest buys pills from a drug dealer and hallucinates. The guy who beat the girl gets dressed
and puts on a black beret, then goes from room and room and appears to see vampires rising from their coffins. The vampires are also the men in
the black. One of them is fucking a girl’s corpse. Another’s brain and spine pops up out of his head (in a cool effect) and scans the room with
glowing red eyes.
Back at the apartment building, the man with glasses hears a knock at the door and when he goes to the peephole a blade shoots through,
severing his ear. While outside, fingers tap on the windows, even though he is twenty floors up.
As you can see, VISIONS OF SUFFERING has a lot of imagery, and a very thin thread of narrative keeping it all together. Some of the imagery
reminded me of the vintage look of Guy Maddin’s films. Other scenes reminded me of the work of Richard Kern and, of course, David Lynch.
However, a little of this kind of thing goes a long way, and many of the scenes in VISIONS OF SUFFERING are either unnecessary or go on way
too long. At a little over two hours, the movie is much longer than it needs to be. It would have made a great short film. But as a feature, it gets
tedious.
David Lynch's ERASERHEAD was also extremely strange, but it operated on a kind of dream logic all its own. Even though we were treated to
bizarre imagery, the story always moved forward, and the end result is fairly intense and satisfying in its own twisted way. VISIONS OF
SUFFERING has some really good stuff in it, but there are whole sections that really do not need to be there. The most interesting storyline
revolves around the man with glasses, and if everything else had been cut out aside from his story, I think VISIONS OF SUFFERING would have
worked very well. As it is, there’s a lot of fat that could have been trimmed from the meat of this film.
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