Sputnik (2020)

I don't think I have seen anything else from director Egor Abramenko, but I'll be looking forward to anything he does next. Which I guess already clues you in on my opinion of Sputnik, his feature debut. Co-written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev (who both also co-wrote the very enjoyable Attraction, although Zolotarev seems to have confused IMDb by being credited there as Andrey Zolotarev - has to be the same person though, surely), this is quite possibly one of the best sci-fi horrors that I've seen in quite some time.

It's the early 1980s and two Russian cosmonauts find themselves in a bit of trouble. Upon landing, one has the misfortune of being a bit dead. The other, Konstantin (played by Pyotr Fyodorov), is clearly not quite himself. A young psychiatrist, Dr. Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina), is recruited to help Konstantin process all that has happened to him, despite the moments he can no longer remember. But there's something much more wrong with her patient than she could have imagined and when Dr. Klimova finds out just what is going on, well, she may struggle to find a solution that keeps Konstantin safe and keeps herself from being an insubordinate in the eyes of the man who brought her in to do her job (Colonel Semiradov, played by Fedor Bondarchuk).

As it is on the main movie advertising imagery, I don't think it's a major spoiler to say that Konstantin has come back from his space mission a changed man. That part of the movie is pretty much a given, and the opening minutes show this. Sputnik is not about any hidden secret, at least not in the usual way. It's about something very strange happening that people in power look to use in a way that is beneficial to them, and to hell with the consequences.

Akinshina is an excellent lead, her character established in her first scene (defending herself in front of a panel because she saved a patient by temporarily drowning them). She gives off just the right air of wanting to play the political game, within reason, but also not letting anything get in the way of her saving lives. Fyodorov may have a much lesser role (the film is less about him, and more about what has happened to him), but does well, and Bondarchuk is the kind of stern superior officer you expect to find in any '80s-set movie featuring Russian military.

Malovichko and Zolotarev do great work with their script, giving you plenty of standard genre beats while also adding a layer of palpable tension as our lead character realises just how much trouble she may get herself in if she tries to do the right thing. The details of the main "problem" are well-detailed, and everything is set up in the opening act to lead viewers through some twists and turns on the way to a cracking finale.

Abramenko does plenty to distract you from the fact that the film maintains a tight focus, and budget-friendly selection of limited sets. The space-set opening is short and sweet, and other locations are shown occasionally, allowing you not to feel too confined in the main area that has everyone working and observing Konstantin, and a decent amount of money has been spent wisely on getting some top-notch CGI onscreen. It feels necessary, but not overdone.

Something rarer and rarer nowadays, this was a film that I only started to notice when I saw others had marked it off their watchlist. I'm glad that it piqued my interest, and hope many other horror fans check it out. Superior genre entertainment.

8/10

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