An unhappily married woman discovers the truth about a weekend retreat in this award-winning film from the director of Russian Raid.

Lyuba is a woman who is heading for a weekend retreat with her friends Sveta and Zoya. For Lyuba, it’s about getting away from her home life. She has been in an abusive marriage with Sergey, who always looks for one excuse after another to make her look and feel bad without having a care. Feeling uncomfortable about even leaving let alone going to the retreat, Zoya and Sveta convince Lyuba to stay.

Despite arriving late, they are welcomed to the retreat by the head, Danila. Danila begins to perform weird rituals from having people dance around to let their aggression out. However, when Lyuba begins to have strange visions, she fears something isn’t right. She soon finds herself charmed by Danila, who buries her up to her head as part of the retreat. Lyuba decides to try to escape, but she might face something worse should she leave.

Director Den Hook, a pseudonym for Russian filmmaker Denis Kryuchkov, teams up again with his Russian Raid screenwriter Olga Loyanich for this horror film that has a Midsommar vibe but adds a more supernatural element to things as well as depicting the volatile relationship of our protagonist Lyuba, excellently played by Alena Mitroshina, and her questioning whether she made the right decision to have joined her friends for this retreat.

Wolfgang Cerny is excellent as the shaman Danila, who may seem charming and may have some ulterior motives. However, he comes off as genuine and, in some ways, caring about Lyuba. His methods are used to help those face their fears. However, when Lyuba has visions of her troubling marriage with Sergey, played by Vyachaslev Chepurchenko. Sergey is the ultimate chauvinist and abusive husband. We see him constantly make Lyuba feel like garbage, even making excuses as if she is not a wife, but rather, serves as a “sugar daddy” who just because he works and makes the money, can do as he pleases.

The horror aspect of the film is nicely done as apart from the flashbacks, we see strange things happen. From a mysterious ghostly figure arriving to Lyuba blurring the lines of fantasy and reality in a very pivotal scene, the scares work pretty well and leads to a surprising finale that works well.

The Whirlpool is a fantastic entry into the cult/supernatural horror film. The flashbacks and visions are heart of a protagonist who questions herself on the constant complete with great performances from the cast. A definite must-see film.

WFG RATING: A

A Radragon production. Director: Denis Kryuchkov (as Den Hook). Producers: Olga Loyanich and Alexander Kalushkin. Writer: Olga Loyanich. Cinematography: Hayk Kirakosyan. Editing: Serik Beyseu.

Cast: Wolfgang Cerny, Alena Mitroshina, Vyachaslev Chepurchenko, Viktoria Skitskaya, Ekaterina Solomatina, Vera Pleshanova, Maksim Khanzhov, Alexander Shein.