Alice Oscura, Featured Writer
Plot: A team of Russian scientists escorted by military personnel go into the Kola Superdeep Borehole to collect samples of a mysterious disease manifesting itself deep within.
Review: Superdeep, also called The Superdeep, is a Russian horror film that is now available on Shudder. The plot centres around a real location near the Russian border—the Kola Superdeep Borehole. It was a scientific project by the Soviet Union that started in 1970 to drill as deep as they could into the Earth’s crust. In 1979 it became the largest man-made hole in the world, a record that they held for almost 20 years until 2008 when it was beaten by an Al Shaheen oil field in Qatar. Drilling ceased in 1992 and the bore hole was closed in 1995.
The timeline for the film is set during the early 80s when Russia’s economy began its eventual collapse. The story honestly doesn’t produce any feelings of sympathy for the country itself but instead objectifies them as a nation grasping at straws in the hopes of using samples of a mysterious disease to create a biological weapon in order to collapse other countries and revert the power to Mother Russia.
But thankfully hidden among the expedition team is a female scientist with a conscience. However, actress Milena Radulovic’s uneven acting as the main protagonist and failure to emote the correct feelings weakened what should have been an epic battle to prevent what would have become an apocalyptic event, as well as the inner personal struggle to remain either a patriot or betray your country in order to save humanity.
The film starts off with a slow build which would have been acceptable if the pacing did actually pick up when it was supposed to. I should mention though that the special effects were quite impressive, and the location design was particularly intricate and would put most larger budget horrors to shame. Unfortunately, this is definitely a style over substance matter.
Humankind has yet to explore much of the world and many life forms have remained hidden due to our inability to explore certain areas. The story here was a failed attempt at using an actual location and melding it with the belief that some particularly interesting and dangerous things exist below the Earth’s surface. It should be abundantly clear to horror fans that the concept was inspired by classic body horror, but without a clear objective to the plot it just sank and ended so abruptly that it feels like an incomplete film.
Dark Alice’s Score: 5 out of 10
You can watch Superdeep for yourself along with other great horror content on Shudder by clicking the logo:
So what’s your favourite body horror film? You can check out more great horror content below:
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Dark Alice has an old soul and a curious mind. I believe that anyone can be a hero and that the good guys should always win! I dislike cruelty to animals and think that they have far superior qualities to humans. My motto is there is no future without the past. I also have a weird penchant for Paranormal TV shows even though the slightest sound makes me jump. I enjoy writing reviews and throwing in fun facts to pique the readers’ curiosity. My ultimate goal in life would be to become a published writer one day. Read More