Plot in one sentence: a female scientist's husband mysteriously disappears while a spate of
murders of beautiful young women rocks the Russian capital.
Giallo films aren't exactly renowned for being particularly deep or meaningful.
STEREOBLOOD, a modern Russian throwback to that 70's genre feels shallow and anaemic
despite the non-stop barrage of dazzling imagery.
Former director of music videos Roman Prygunov has no concern for strong narrative and is busy
practising his flashy editing tricks.
On the plus side STEREOBLOOD has great cinematography and a haunting central performance
by Ingeborga Dapkunaite, but these aspects do not redeem the film's many weaknesses.
Murders are nothing special.
The killer may be decked out in classic giallo fashion, but his nasty deeds are captured without
much panache, as if in a TV movie.
STEREOBLOOD is pretty but not for one second thrilling.
There's simply not much happening in the film.
We see our supposed protagonist do her household chores, have her nails done, or kill time
photographing oranges in close-up. Murders stay somewhere on the sidelines.
We see them reported on TV but not once is there any shade of threat to the hero's safety.
Lack of any tension or even basic cause-effect connection really hurts the script.
There are several exciting, inspired sequences in STEREOBLOOD but none of them are crucial to the plot.
What transpires from all this is that director Prygunov probably watched a few gialli but hadn't quite
figured out the recipe of making one himself.
He's much more at home showing isolation and boredom
of Metropolitan existence.
If you don't mind a movie being an empty (but pretty) package, give STEREOBLOOD a spin.
