Director: Yernar Nurgaliyev
Year: 2021
Country: Kazakhstan
Alternate Titles: Zhanym, ty ne poverish
Genre: Slasher; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Tired of dealing with his pregnant wife, a man decides to leave on a sudden fishing trip with his friends but a series of misunderstandings and missteps cause them to go on the run from a group of small-time criminals for something they didn't do and must find a way to stay alive and get home safely.
Review:
There was quite a lot to like with this one. One of the more engaging and enjoyable features of this one is the likable and enjoyable setup that gets this one going. Getting to see how wound-up and frustrated he is at the constant nagging and pressure put upon him by his wife over everything dealing with the upcoming pregnancy and the various intrusions on his life that the need to get out and go on the trip with his friends seems entirely logical and worthwhile. This is added onto the hilarious comedy featured here with the friends being out of their element and just being absolutely ill-equipped to be in the environment with their antics and quips that carry on throughout the rest of the film for a lot to like overall.
When the trip brings them into contact with the criminal gang taking their hostage into the wilderness, the craziness here begins to ramp up considerably. The sheer insanity of how they come together, with the car accident involving discarding urine that hits their car accidentally and bringing the criminals to follow them to seek revenge, having the group bear witness to the criminals accidentally kill their hostage and forcing them to chase each other throughout the area creates a series of hilarious misunderstandings about how dangerous the friends are with the second psychopath hunting down the criminals for killing his pet. The supernatural-like ability the killer has appearing in the nick of time and doling out justice to those he comes across are incredibly fun and enjoyable with the graphic gore during these kills. As well as the fun finale that goes way more over-the-top with its action and gore and some crazy ideas, there's a lot to like here for the films' positive points.
There's not too many flaws at all, but one aspect to this one does stand out quite heavily. The main factor here that doesn't make sense is the relationship between the friends who are absolutely not portrayed to be people who know each other at all. The idea is supposed to be that they rag on each other and poke fun but there's more of a mean-spirited jab at each other that doesn't feel friendly at all. As well, the whole conversation about ignoring the wife in labor in order to keep going on their trip is entirely unrealistic for friends to do on a trip like this which just continues the feeling that they're not really a group that's hung out together, which is thankfully repealed mightily at the end with how they work to save each other. Still, there's enough here to hold this back.
Overview: ****/5
A wild and crazy horror/comedy that manages to feature plenty of likable qualities and only one real detrimental factor that isn't that big anyway, on the whole, this is a highly worthwhile and enjoyable feature. Give this a look if these kinds of over-the-top genre features or curious about the country's output, while those who don't like these kinds of entries should heed caution here.
This review ran as part of our coverage of the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival. Click the banner below to check out all of our coverage, including reviews and interviews, from the event:
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