Popular reviews

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  Review by Dustin ★★★½ 2

  There's an idea among some leftists that Russia's October Revolution went wrong after Stalin took control following Lenin's death. But from the very beginning, the Bolsheviks used immense violence and terror to create what Rosa Luxumberg called the "night-watchman state" which ensured freedom for the party but not for the proletariat. The original nightwatchmen, before the KGB, were the Cheka, who were given near unlimited power to kill as many people as they wanted for whatever reason they wanted.

  So Chekist finds our hero, Srubov, in charge of a local Cheka outfit. Which, in effect, means he runs a killing factory. As one might be expected to do, Srubov slowly starts losing his mind. Rather than dig into his psychology,…

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  Review by Bob McCully ★★★★ 10

  Easily one of the darkest films I've ever seen. The type of thoroughly grim cinema that cloaks you in an upsetting cloud of smoke.
  The film follows Srubov, the titular "Chekist", who along with his comrades round up the supposed 'parasites' of their town to be cleansed in a basement. Rows after rows of men and women, lined up naked against blood-stained doors with their backs turned to a firing squad. Release. The same lifeless bodies then hoisted up and thrown onto trucks. Rinse & Repeat.

  It's so unbelievably harrowing. Never have I been more thankful for a film to not exceed 90 minutes. Covering such an ugly period of Russian history though requires an unflinching depiction that singes your soul.…

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  Review by deathtripping 7

  this is the kind of movie a24 criterion people who "appreciate cinema" would really pretend to like for coffee shop clout would unfortunately be right because for once their taste wouldn’t be overrated, in fact underrated. kinda ironic a movie so painfully depressing, alienating and detached from reality remains almost unknown to the same people who jerk off saló and come and see which totally ranks up there with. so unrightfully underrated but this is okay with me. let’s leave the intersection between bpd art hoes and incel gore freaks at possession? so next time your hosting a girl with botched bangs and birkinstocks, pop this baby in 

  tldr: russian salò - redscare bitches get in my dm

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  Review by Bob McQueen ★★★★ 1

  Well, as soon as I saw the review by Bob McCully, I had to search this one out.

  It's an absolutely bleak movie of a mechanized execution campaign, purging everyone for any sort of made up crime committed, to be brought to the basement, stripped nude, shot against the doors, over and over and over. It really ramps up once the main guy Srubov starts to lose his mind, with dullness to the protestations and madness the executioners find themselves in. They go from starting the movie of shooting rats to making pets out of the rats as the bodies pile up and disappeared away somewhere. The music gives it almost an industrial feeling, just kinda hammering away as the murder machine moves onwards.

  Note: letterboxd was being as asshole as I tried to include Bob's review
  A ★★★★ review of Chekist by Bob McCully on Letterboxd boxd.it/3Q17dv

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  Review by AlexProstyakoff ★★★★★

  Majestic portrait of my beautiful homeland. One the most disturbing russian films ever.

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  Review by Gavin Rye ★★½

  For years I had been hearing that The Chekist is an under-seen classic and that it's one of the most depressing films ever made and yet for some reason I kept putting it off. Having finally seen it I can say that yes it is depressing, but it's probably not a classic. It's actually a bit boring.

  The film is known for it's basement shooting scenes and they are certainly relentless. I just think that they could have had more of an impact if they were a little more bloody. There is no effects work done at all. The guns go off and the people drop to the floor. With at least a spray of blood, these scenes would have…

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  Review by Emma Fogarty✝️☮️ 3

  Red stained were the ribbons of the revolution
  chronicles of an ultraleftist cut from a crooked man cloth

  A pale horse the prince of the proletariat rode in upon
  the inernationale and other tunes , ticktock rooms
  hourglasses and bellflower Bolsheviks
  distorted into torture sound toy box music
  a woman plays a piano, presumably with keys the colour
  of human bones...

  L'Hommes du hell and their cellars of Hades
  Bring out your dead, Soviet style
  pop gun massacre mavericks

  A stiff wooden body
  of Jesus Christ our lord and saviour
  is out into a haunting focus
  utterly frozen and stiff

  actions committed
  by men for whom inside God does not dwell
  wishing to deconstruct his domain

  white cattle for the…

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  Review by Bibar Amyrovich ★★★★★

  [1] фильм хорош как визуальная зарисовка на заданную тему: плохое качество камеры задаёт хороший тон, совсем к месту подходящая перестроечная чернуха и обнажёнка (сними они сейчас, было бы хуже) и по-настоящему выдыхаешь на единственной не клаустрофобной сцене в чистом и свежем от дождя открытом поле с помилованием бунтнувших солдат

  но это форма, а психологизм выражается только в том, что Срубов всё время ходит с насупленным лицом, злится и в конце теряет рассудок. поэтому стоит фильм сразу, залпом и не отходя дополнить оригиналом:

  "Срубов махнул рукой и по кабинету. Кости хрустят в коленях. Громко шуршали кожаные штаны. На Каца не смотрит. Стоит ли обращать внимание на это ничтожество? Перед ним встала Она — любовница великая и жадная. Ей отдал лучшие годы жизни. Больше — жизнь…

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  Review by Sarcastic Conqueror веля

  миллиарды должны умереть

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  Review by Милена ★★★½

  Hardcore porn theater scene but instead of a porn theater it’s a political prison ran by Bolsheviks

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  Review by The Love Detective ★★★½

  You could easily picture this in the current top ten

  if lopushansky is science-fiction as historical refraction, this is his diagonal companion as historical drama shot in an entirely science-fictional mode. like if zulawski werent some manner of psychopathy-auteur; like if the fav films of ppl who use the term "slavjank" cared about People rather than vague patinas of (de)industrialisation's national gore. ultimately somewhat vapid--as almost anything w this subject matter is--and vry occasionally falls into the trap of solipsism wrt its own transgression. but director was clearly a somewhat ideological man, enough to often glance away from the tail of abjection he's inevitably chasing, skirting nihilism just enough to make the images haunt rather than pacify dread w indulgence…

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  Review by Muld ★★★½

  Ставьте лайки если захотелось назад в ссср🤤🤤