I had a ton of fun watching this. The three leads had great chemistry and although the humor may be juvenile at times, I still laughed at this movie multiple times.

After descending into the hypnotic beauty of Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes (2021-also reviewed) I looked for a final movie to view on the opening day of the online FrightFest. Never having seen a film from Kazakhstan, I decided to go for a sweetie.

View on the film:

Going on a fishing trip to get away from his about to give birth partner complaining to him, the screenplay by the actors Alisher Utev, Anuar Turizhigitov, Il'yas Toleu, Daniyar Soltanbayev/ Zhandos Aibassov & co-writer/director Yernar Nurgaliyev take this basic lads on a holiday set-up,and reels in a vicious, mean-spirited Horror Comedy,which rather uniquely, makes none of the lead pals likeable, each of whom are shown in sharp gross-out punchlines to be obnoxious , and whose reckless actions ignites a local backlash that puts them under threat.

Rubbing everyone up the wrong way, the writers, (who give a fittingly slimy ensemble performance) chop the antics of the buddies down by gleefully driving them into backwoods, with a one-eyed shaven-headed maniac who lives in a shack slicing some welcomed Slasher gore from the mates,as one gets abducted by a psychotic father-and-daughter who share a hard bitter comedic bite.

Appearing to at least be partly improvised, director Yernar Nurgaliyev and cinematographer Azamat Dulatov stitch the gags together with hilarious Snorricam shots getting up close to the sharp shock of fear the pals come face to face with,in stylish dolly shots sprayed with red, as the backwoods nutter gives the lads a special sweet.

Tired of dealing with his pregnant wife, a man decides to leave on a sudden fishing trip with his friends but a series of misunderstandings and missteps cause them to go on the run from a group of small-time criminals for something they didn't do and must find a way to stay alive and get home safely.

There was quite a lot to like with this one. One of the more engaging and enjoyable features of this one is the likable and enjoyable setup that gets this one going. Getting to see how wound-up and frustrated he is at the constant nagging and pressure put upon him by his wife over everything dealing with the upcoming pregnancy and the various intrusions on his life that the need to get out and go on the trip with his friends seems entirely logical and worthwhile. This is added onto the hilarious comedy featured here with the friends being out of their element and just being absolutely ill-equipped to be in the environment with their antics and quips that carry on throughout the rest of the film for a lot to like overall. When the trip brings them into contact with the criminal gang taking their hostage into the wilderness, the craziness here begins to ramp up considerably. The sheer insanity of how they come together, with the car accident involving discarding urine that hits their car accidentally and bringing the criminals to follow them to seek revenge, having the group bear witness to the criminals accidentally kill their hostage and forcing them to chase each other throughout the area creates a series of hilarious misunderstandings about how dangerous the friends are with the second psychopath hunting down the criminals for killing his pet. The supernatural-like ability the killer has appearing in the nick of time and doling out justice to those he comes across are incredibly fun and enjoyable with the graphic gore during these kills. As well as the fun finale that goes way more over-the-top with its action and gore and some crazy ideas, there's a lot to like here for the films' positive points. There are not too many flaws at all, but one aspect to this one does stand out quite heavily. The main factor here that doesn't make sense is the relationship between the friends who are absolutely not portrayed to be people who know each other at all. The idea is supposed to be that they rag on each other and poke fun but there's more of a mean-spirited jab at each other that doesn't feel friendly at all. As well, the whole conversation about ignoring the wife in labor in order to keep going on their trip is entirely unrealistic for friends to do on a trip like this which just continues the feeling that they're not really a group that's hung out together, which is thankfully repealed mightily at the end with how they work to save each other. Still, there's enough here to hold this back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.