Dead Mountain
Language : Russian
Year of release : 2020
Run time : 43m - 57m / 8 episodes
Genre : Mystery / Thriller / Horror / Mini Series
Cast : Pyotr Fyodorov
The mini series are based on the Dyatlov Pass incident, in which 9 Soviet ski hikers died of unknown causes (although allegedly 6 of them died of hypothermia and 3 of physical trauma) in the Ural Mountains on the 1st or 2nd of February, 1959.
Episode 1
Run time : 57m
1959. KGB major Oleg Kostin is sent to investigate the death of 9 people. On paper he doesn't exist, so to people he is known as the assistant of someone else. The people he interviews talk about how the Mansi (an Ob-Ugric indigenous civilisation living in Khanti-Mansia, in Russia) call the mountain , "the mountain of the dead", and even a survivor of the group (they were 10 in the beginning, but he had visions of everyone being dead, and was scared to go) said he felt a presence following them.
The major was a soldier in the 2nd World War, and is haunted by the unexplainable things he saw back then.
The episode had beautiful,haunting music. Great visual effects.
I also liked how it was filmed,the angles, and how they made the transition from scene to scene.
Episode 2
Run time : 53m
is dedicated to the students who decided to go on a hike on Dead Mountain. They are allowed to go by their dean, only if they are joined by one of his men.
One of them has nightmares about the others being dead, while he's being sent away by them. He is afraid to go any further.
A ranger refuses to give them the map to the mountain out of concern for the bad weather (they do this in the middle of winter in Russia!), and his wife tells them about the spirit on Dead Mountain who is hungry for souls on winter, warning them not to go.
The episode was shot in black and white, while the scene in which the supervisor remembers what happened to him at war are in a sort over saturated green.
The soundtrack reminded me of the music of old movies, in the beginning, while showing us the students' life, it had a happy, almost Christmassy note.
It has the same good visual effects, I loved the nightmare scenes, the way it made the transition from scene to scene, and the war scene in which the students' supervisor walks out alive of a bombing after seeing someone in the middle of the water calling him ( the water scene was so beautifully shot,looking as if the world was upside down! )
Episode 3
Run time : 45m
Major Kostin is called to Moscow where he is told by his superior one of the members of the group, the ski instructor, was a secret agent, a member of the KGB.
Going back, the local KGB members think they figured out who k1lled their own, and go after them.
The episode was shot beautifully, with amazing camera angles, and transition from scene to scene.
The score was beautiful.
Episode 4
Run time : 43m
Back to the students hiking the mountain, in black and white.
An old man of the Mansi people and his grand son are near the hiking group,but leave them be. The kid is asking his grandfather why isn't he warning them of the danger of Sorni Nai, the evil spirit haunting the premises. The old man tells him they are 'dead men' and warning them would anger the spirit and k1ll them also.
The supervisor or the ski instructor, sees dead people and has a sort of seizure, and when he wakes up decides to take off the ring which kept him alive since the war (a ring he took from the Germans who were worshiping death. Best idea ever,'cause nothing bad can happen while hiking in the middle of the winter in the mountains!)
Again, beautiful camera angles, score reminiscing of the old tv shows or movies.
Episode 5
Run time : 47m
Major Kostin is told the lights in the sky the locals see at certain dates have nothing to do with what happened to the hikers.
Due to the harsh weather conditions on the mountain, the searching party wants to call off the search,but the major asks them to keep going, as 4 people are still missing.
The episode bored me with 'filler scenes' about the lead inviting the lady morgue doctor to Moscow at his place to see the sights, although nothing happened.
Episode 6
Run time : 47m
The group finds a wounded man near their camping site and help him. Their supervisor realizes he's an escaped convict. The next day they run into 3 police officers trying to find him.
The group hides him as he told them he was doing time for stealing 30 rubles.
The weather is getting worse on the mountain, as they trek through a blizzard. Lyuda is tired and almost got lost from the group, as the snow hides whatever lies ahead .
Episode 7
Run time : 52m
Research leads the major and his team to the Flying Squads, and they think they might have hurt the students.
Turns out the man the students helped was a criminal, who k1lled a lot of people. Good thing the supervisor gave whim his ring which protected him from dying!
At first I though the reminiscing war scenes were somehow gonna tie in with what happened to the kids, but no, they have nothing to do with each other! So what was the point of that ?! More filler scenes!
The conclusion they reach about the students disappointed me.
The series started out so well, setting up something of a supernatural nature, just to deflate and let us down slowly.
Episode 8
Run time : 55m
The weather got worse, and the students are still adamant about going up the mountain, although they are behind with the schedule, and they still have days to reach the top.
The whole time I kept on wondering, this trip must have been a month long!
They make a tent to take shelter from the blizzard, and at night, frozen snow falls on top of them, crushing a few of them, who die after a little while from the internal bleeding, I'm guessing. The others are trying to get their belongings from the cache, but due to the harsh weather conditions, they go in the wrong direction.
Personally the whole time I was watching, I couldn't feel bad for them, this is what they wanted, this is what they got! Who in their right mind decides to trek the Ural Mountains,in Russia, in the middle of the winter ( the temperatures in January are -21 C / -6 F degrees )?! In Romania we have a saying "unde nu-i cap,vai de picioare!" which would be translated as "if your mind is not right, your body (yourself) is going to suffer" or " a useless mind is suitable for the grave". Basically, if you don't think about your safety, about the consequences, you're gonna get hurt badly.
People kept on telling them to go back, bad things kept on happening to them, the weather kept on getting worse, but they were still, 'No, we've got this, we're young, we're gonna live forever'!
The series started out so well, but from the 5th episode it started to slowly decline, and go from 4-5 stars rating to lower, as the quality of the story started going down.
The episodes with the student group are in black and white, the war scenes are on an over saturated green or turquoise,the rest in beautiful color.
The movie looks and sounds like a good Hollywood movie.
The visual effects were good throughout the whole movie. So was the score.
The acting was good.
I liked that they aged the characters and didn't let the actors look the same age the whole series. In the reminiscing scenes the actors look 20, and 14 years later, they look 40, so thumbs up for that!
I didn't appreciate them trying to force a love story (one minute you see them crying over the exes they lost 14 years prior,saying it doesn't get easier,the next you see them together), and adding scenes just to make the episodes longer.
I also don't get why they inserted war scenes, probably also to make the series longer, as they add no value to the story, it has nothing to do with what happens to the students!
Everything that happens in the first 4 episodes is equal to zero, all the supernatural scenes, the supernatural talk, the zombies / ghosts... it's all a big bowl of nothing!!!
I found Lyuda (one of the students) annoying, obsessed with who might like her from the group, and getting fixated on some guy or another.
Dyatlov Pass is named after the student who organized the trek.
I don't like it when the creators subvert my expectations, and I was so angry when I saw where this is going, I was gonna give it 2 stars,but anyway!
Rating : Worth a watch !