Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Onderhond Russian cinema ... never been my cup of tea. Which goes for most Eastern-European cinema actually. Bored and disgruntled farmers in bleak, depressing landscapes, being pretty unhappy about life and showering themselves in pity and poverty. It is not what I prefer to see when watching a film. But things change, and clichés are there to be shattered. Enter Pavel Ruminov.To be fair, Ruminov is not the first Russian director to break out of the mold. The latest rebirth of genre cinema in Russia was most likely initiated by Bekmambetov's Nochnoy Dozor (Night Watch). If was the first effects-laden Russian genre film that received fair media coverage, since then others have followed in its footsteps.Anyway, that's where the comparison with films like Nochnoy Dozor ends. Ruminov's Myortvye Docheri might be a genre film, but he's aiming a lot higher, and he boosts some serious artistic pretensions (which is probably the reason why his film got burned down by many in Russia).Myortvye Docheri is marketed as a horror flick, which is only half of the truth. The basics are there of course, but the layout of the film is different. It takes us 10 to 15 minutes to grasp most there is to know about a legend of murdering sister ghosts, from there on Rumoniv progresses slowly and takes his time to delve into the lives of his characters.Ruminov surely delivers on an aesthetical level. Every scene is filtered to bring out the bleakness and decay of a big Russian city. Dark blue tones dominate the film, often in sharp contrast with white elements. Visually very pleasing, but not all that special. The camera work is something else. There's lots of shaky action and shots, but it feels a lot closer to the work of Boe than it does to a film like REC. There is not a second where you get the impression that Ruminov isn't in control over what is shown and what isn't.There's also a fair share of Sogo Ishii to be recognized, especially when the camera is racing behind the characters. It creates a lovely mood and it's rare to see camera work like this that well done. Ruminov also remains in control over the audio at all times, never reverting to loud scares but carefully building up an atmosphere. Add to that some snappy and precise editing, and even people with dulled-down senses will be pleased with Myortvye Docheri.The film might be a bit long for some, but my attention never faded. The middle part of the film keeps up the atmosphere but has very little scares or horrific sequences. It mainly brings us a look into the bleak future of several young Russians. The ending delivers though, in a marvelous scene that makes sure to remind us why this was classified as a horror film in the first place. Not all that gory or scary, but impressive nonetheless.Don't expect a typical horror film going into Myortvye Docheri. But expect to be impressed by the atmospheric skills of Ruminov. It's nice to see films like these coming out of Russia. At least it shows they're capable of keeping up with modern standards. Let's hope they make a similar move to genre cinema as other countries have been doing these last years. 4.5*/5.0*

Gramotey Here we have an extremely poor (and quite literally, horrible!) example on how people think that they can do movies just watching whole bunch of Japanese movie trailers (not even the complete movies I suspect!) and reading the outline paragraphs.It would have been OK if Mr.Ruminov had not proclaimed himself as an ingenious artist in Russian and international press... I mean, first movie gone bad - no problem, moving on! :) OK, to the point - movie is just very bad, and that's why it is worth watching. However if you do, have a paper bag handy. Mr. Ruminov and Co. are telling us this is "the story of people" - I say it's BS, as the characters are all very unsympathetic and poorly drawn. All female roles are just a failure - same absent expressions and just plain dumb dialogs.The DJ is ripped-off from another Japanese movie, "the booth"... oh, the list of failures is endless. Camera "work" is pointless replication of Japanese styles.Just watch this masterpiece of fluff, and then see "Three Extremes" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420251/) to justify art from you know what, and story of people from faceless characters you won't even recognize in the next scene. Sorry Mr. Ruminov, it ain't gonna fly - just quit wasting sponsors money, you don't have what it takes... "A Russian cinematic Genius" :)

mipt641 Well done camera work - sometimes a bit shaky but for those who watched Lars von Triers movies this is nothing :). Beautiful film. The plot is typical for horror genre, but with a Russian (Dostoevsky type) twist - the monsters don't kill "just because" but for not being "good" - giving you a chance to think about what is good and bad. Sometimes it's not so obvious. Acting could be better but generally it is a well done entertaining movie with good suspense. For reasons not clear, some Russian reviewers got so disgusted with the movie (see the 'valektburg' comment) that I honestly thought it must be personal. The film didn't deserve this kind of reviews.

paulmoskow First full screen movie from Ruminov is much more attractive than his previous short experiences. In Dead Daughters you see an experiment with j-horror form: not mysterious, not very scary, but full of daily life, terrific music, sympathetic heroes and beautiful views. It's more intellectual, than scarier. And this movie is the best experiment I've ever seen in modern Russia. I've seen it after new work of Dmitry Meschiev called «Seven cabins»: pretensions trash inspirited by Tarantino. No idea, no live characters, really nothing to say about. And this is why do I love Dead Daughters. It's like fresh air for me to know, that someone in Russia wants to bring his own soul and heart into the multiplexes. Not only special effects and pop-actors playing. This movie takes you to the simple life of young people in big city. The atmosphere is very cold, because it's late fall and the death is out there. And heroes have to be good if they want to stay alive. But what does it mean, to be good? Drive careful, say truth to you customers or not to blame new relies of rock-group? Who knows what's to be good in the world without rules.