This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This movie is a collection of bad clichés: eerie dark shadows, the flickering lights, macabre singing, voices and laugh from unknown or invisible sources, creepy houses, etc. The movie is questionable regarding the cast choice. During all movie, there were no emotions, sometimes even the tone of the voices wouldn't change at all. The actors were the same while having fun together or while discussing the dead of their close friend. Basically, there was no acting. It's indispensable to mention also how bad the operator work was. All the time, especially during the scene in the restaurant (20-28 minutes) the camera was so shaky as if the operator was filming on a flip phone and his arms got tired. There is also an incredible amount of advertising. The email service, beer bottles, computers, chips, mobile operators, cereals, juices, etc. Every frame has at least 2-3 ads. The plot wouldn't be so bad, as it's a typical horror movie storyline: a curse, dead children, horrific deaths of innocent people,ketchupy blood, etc. But all the above made it unbearable to watch.

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*

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" :)

At the beginning the movie was very promising, but the director did awful work.The camera is just shaking randomly without any specific direction.At the scenes where most of the characters get killed, you simply cant see anything except random fast moving frames.As others before me already said, the movie is not the typical horror flick, but its still bad.The motive of the girls is pretty simple as in other Japanse horror movies, but they are way way ahead.This movie can be done with $500 budget by group of students and they will probably can make it even better especially if they use normal camera angles.//spoiler There was scene where the last alive sister says that she can feel them when they are around and then the director shows underwater camera just 2m away pointed at her that probably should make you think that the sisters are watching her.So why she didn't felt them when they was 2m away?!?! //spoilerAll in all i expected something better than most of the latest horror movies from Hollywood, but all i got was poor scripted and amateur filmed movie.The director tried to cover his disability with random "effects" like shaky camera and very close-up scenes with the dead bodies of the victims, but he failed and even forgot to follow the script at some moments.I have no problems watching very long movies with almost no action like Rose Red or Stalker (which my friends found extremely boring) but i was unable to watch this movie from the beginning to the end.It was simply too boring and annoying.At the middle i just stopped it and the only thing that made me to watch it to the end was the desire to write comment here how bad it really is.Don't waste your time!To the people who rate this movie 10/10: try to think before you rate there is simply no way that this movie can get 10/10