User Reviews

First and the most important thing to know about this movie - it's served as a typical horror. And it's NOT.

It's not a ghost story or a teen-slasher-roller-coaster, it is a story of people. Some unfortunates who found their place in society, but haven't found personal harmony with life that's been given to them. Not very pleasant, but truthful slice of modern society. That people don't have any point in their life, they don't know any better than "do what society expects of them", they're cowards and hypocrites, they don't deserve to live and they prove that as film goes. THAT is the story, and it has some ghost motives in the background.

Expect to see people's drama - and you'll get it. Expect to take a ride on a teen-slasher - and you'll miss.

Ruminov had a billion interviews to Russian tabloids, TV etc, everyone expected something really spectacular, break-through for Russian cinema, he has got very positive critics in advance. Now we've got these 123 minutes of (trendy?) trembling camera, awful dialogues, weird cut and lost story. Attempt of making youth movie, voice of a generation is totally crashed. Too formal, no atmosphere, no horror spirit, no distinct story, - just video and audio sfx. The directors who came from advertising are always experiencing the same problem - but Ruminov told too much about the new level cinematography in Russia, and cannot be excused. It could be just a debut of nephew, but he pretended he was very experienced and smart, so we just can see the evidence of real arrogance, but not the movie.

Can't say I'm a hardcore horror/slasher/whatever-with-blood-boobs-and-sfx fan. Might even say I get bored by such films. But this one is as different as it gets - true horror seeps from every possible plot hole, bland facial expression and camera movement. After two hours of watching I was absolutely terrified. Mostly of the fact that P. Ruminov might make another movie. Dead daughters come bundled with almost everything that was good in the last five years of horror films, but each and every brilliant idea, plot twist or piece of sfx only serves as a reminder of the original thing. The director claimed there are only two four-minute stills in the whole movie, which is innovative. And indeed it is - for the other 115 minutes the camera keeps wobbling, jumping and circling around every object in sight, bringing nausea and carrying away the viewer's ability to see the details. And then there's the desaturation, making everyone look like a malnourished vampire. The actors' performance is surprisingly realistic - they have absolutely no idea of what's going on around them and they're not afraid to show it by staring blankly at the camera. Also there is an unhealthy amount of inside jokes, only funny to hardcore Russian anime fans. Of course, the creator could use - and used - free advertisement, but by now almost each one of those fans who cheered for the future masterpiece is trying to move as far away as possible.

I can congratulate Russian moviegoers on having an aspiring Uwe Boll-wannabe in business, of course, but I personally think one is more than enough.

*It gets a two instead of one because of a single good joke. Two with a minus, but slightly above the ground.

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" :)

Complete waste of time, don't watch. Pretentious script, shocky camera work that is supposed to give this movie an artsy edge but only makes you wish for the movie to end. I don't know know this director but I hope he found a better suited job and doesn't direct more "artworks"

Just amazing. It had all signs of at least good movie three months before started in theaters. Great previews, internet rumors, exiting director's comments with a bunch of impressive trailers and pictures. And finally- zero. Pretentious set of clichés, banality and bore. Probably, it's the worst Russian film I've seen for months. Authors of "The Blair Witch Project" successfully created faked horror documentary. I prefer Ruminov would do the next step and never show his "DD" anywhere. At least in this case with all the fusses and the buzzes around it could be the first great horror movie that nobody have ever seen. Very disappointing. 1/10

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.

firstly i was really shocked by those extremely negative comments below, so i decided to write this. so: i watched the movie on the la indie film fest with a bad subtitles, in horror program. there's a lot of dialog and it is NOT the horror movie. in-spite of this the film made strong impression to me, i lived it like a piece of lifetime, and i, the watcher, was changed by this movie. - this film DO NOT "entertain". art DO NOT suppose to "entertain" you. if it does, that's good for you, but entertainment is not the aim of real art - watch TV, go circus, make parties, if you need to have pleasure of just spending some funny relaxing moments. What i saw is no doubt a masterpiece, i don'n know the director but i prefer to be in "co-" with Ruminov then with some angry foolish guys (yes, YOU) which do not see, hear, feel art itself, blind mouses in a rat world of kitchen "likes-dislikes", those nazi. If you have bad taste that is your tragedy, what you see from your small eyes is not the reality. try to understand art, or don't talk and write about what you Don't understand.do not try to Analise the landscape if you are blind. don't try to Analise the movie by matching it with some other you luckily just saw. We need to fight for art if we want it to stay on this planet! Do not let them turn the art of cinema into the huge nazi fast-food! So again: this is a great movie, but it is frightening that there soon will be no viewers of such art anymore.

No one's ever done it in Russia before. And I still cant f...ing believe I saw it yesterday and the world wouldn't – in the nearest 6 months (according the rumors). Taking a profitable original idea, proclaiming "doing the first Russian j-horror movie", getting the best underground (but rather non-major) casting-shooting–post-production team, fighting producers and all surrounding stupidity, Pavel Ruminov made neither a first national teen-horror, as he was expected by anyone, distributors incl., nor a "our answer to the best of genre". It should have been called "an auteur mystical thriller-drama". With a potential of blockbuster". Story of five young people socially trapped by a so familiar legend-of the-dead-dark haired-pussies-killing-everyone-who-sees-their-victim-last turned out to be just a ground for director's eagerness to use 10-year-making-short-movies experience on a big-screen project. Not to forget that in Ruminov's case "making movies" was never without a great deal of keen understanding, exploring and widening cinema horizons. Did he reach one of them? – Definitely yes and not for a minute of his Dead Daughters did he forget of the audience expectations. Brilliant camera-work (by Lyass), incredible city and interior visuals, astounding editing (by PR himself), mind-blowing sounding and variety of genres (well, horror mostly – from hints on Italian gore to the more or less American pattern) exploited during 110 minutes made me think I saw an indieAmerican-European movie, as nothing ever got closer to the cinema art in recent Russian cinema as DD did. Proclaiming himself a Russian Shyamalan-Kubrick-Spielberg kind of filmmaker, Ruminov is not so far from the truth. Surprising twist-in-the-end? Yes. Intelligent style? Yep. Commercial appeal. Well, if Praktika Pictures whose mythic promo-buzz made this project attractive for Hollywood wouldn't slack the speed – everything is possible. Since DD is done, there is nothing for them to be afraid of – unless its director is alive.

full of visual poetry and stunning moments. Cinema itself, made by real artist. Eye-opening, fearless work. There's no such words to explain. 2 days gone, but i'm still inside the movie... can't analyze. DOP - master, hand-held cam makes every shot breath with tension. Actors - best hitch traditions (no theater-melodrama acting, very unusual for Russian style of play). Art department - the world of movie lives in each frame. Sound - just the best. Genre and voice mixed into the great work revolutionary and magically.

There was no such break-through in last-times Russian cinema. Ruminov& all his team - !!!! they finally done it. cinema wins.

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.

This ain't you typical horror flick, although director Pavel Ruminov makes you think the opposite for the first ten minutes or so. It soon gets obvious that this film is much more sophisticated and thought-provoking than The Ring and other Japanese horror remakes/originals. The whole "ghosts of drowned girls seeking revenge on humankind" premise serves as a backdrop to an eclectic thriller that's rich in social satire, extremely dense in visual detail and is way closer to an existential drama than any other "horror" movie out there. Basically it appeared to be sort of a shock therapy for the Russian audiences. Most of the moviegoers expected to see another quality adaptation of an old Japanese concept, but instead were bombarded with a chain of disturbing and highly involving events that made the viewing experience very personal, intimate, and, it appears, in many cases quite unpleasant. As for me, I had no problems with this film whatsoever, probably because I was already familiar with Ruminov's style of movie-making and actually expected much more than a typical ghost movie.

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*