Search - Visions of Suffering on DVD

WHAT THE **** DID I JUST SEE????

Darth J | Somewhere In Time | 01/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm writing this review on a whim to let my Amazon horror friends know about this. I've watched this movie twice now, and I have no idea what the he11 is going on? A few words that come to mind to help describe this movie:
Dark, Disturbing, Symbolic, Metaphoric, Sureal, Uncomfortable, Haunting, Abstract, Ambient, Schizophrenic, Disorienting, Scary.

This is a Russian film and the basic story is about a man who is experiencing nightmares whenever it rains. In his dreams, there are these black jellyfish type of creatures that are later refered to as vampires(loosely). Then, the 'creature' on the cover appears and proceeds to stalk our protagonist(I still don't know his name). After consuming a substance at a club, the nightmares bleed over into the real world, from that point on it is almost impossible for the protagonist(and the viewer) to tell what's real and what's a hallucination.

The story is almost as if David Lynch directed a combination of 'Jacob's Ladder' and 'They'(nightmares becoming real). The basic story is easy to pick up on, but outside of that the movie is chalked full symbolism and metaphor.
The cinematography is WILD! think of the video tape in 'The Ring'(Ringu) streched out to 2 hours with a touch of the boat ride in 'Willy Wonka'. There's alot of experimental arthouse shots going on, think of what Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' would look like if it was a horror movie(and I use that term loosely). During a good bulk of the movie, and during 'real time' the edges of the screen are heavily shaded in. At first, I thought this was a major problem with the transfer. However, upon the second viewing, I realized this was done on purpose to create a closed in feeling to confuse the viewer.

There is very little dialoge and the sub-titles are easy to read(it seems that English sub-titles were NOT included with the original release).

The soundtrack is just as wild. The score and sound effects are used to assualt the viewer just the same as the visuals. It moves from a haunting gothic score, to New Age, to ambient sound effects, to techno all for the purpose of keeping you on edge.

The Editing is wild also, The film seems to move from VERY disturbing imagery with quick jump cuts, to dark metaphoric arthouse scenes, then back to more sickness. There's alot of jump-cuts for the purpose of creating and uncomfortable feeling, The movie never lets you settle in. If there is one relatively negative thing that can be said, it's that the club scene goes on much to long.

Some will not like this. This is not the usual horror movie with traditional 'mechanics', and will appeal more to the arthouse and surealism crowd. Fans of 'Begotten', 'El Topo', 'Holy Mountain', 'Eraserhead', David Lynch movies, and dark disturbing arthouse/surealism get ready for a 120 min. epileptic sezuire.

****WARNING*****
If you watch this movie under the influence, permanent damage may result!!!"

A very dangerous film.

Z. E. Paulissen | Pittsburgh, PA USA | 12/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Use CAUTION when watching this movie! Dont watch it if you have epilepsy, and in all cases i would suggest using the buddy system for every viewing. Also...i personally feel that it is irresponsible to watch "Visions of Suffering" more than once a week. Your brain may need to recover.

I bought this movie at a horror convention, based only on the cover art and the sellers statement that it was "really weird". Well...he didnt lie. I have NEVER seen ANYTHING like this movie. The best way i can think to describe it is...okay remember the cursed videotape in "The Ring"? That little minute-and-a-half long sequence of just one stressful, frightening image after another? Think something like that....for two hours.

The story is about a guy having an unimaginably bad drug trip and director Andrey Iskanov (who also plays "the priest" in the film) conveys this concept extremely well through the use of wiggling textures, bizarre camera angles, and sounds. If you WERE to watch "Visions of Suffering" in an altered state of mind, theres probably a very serious chance that you could ruin your life forever. EVERYTHING in this movie is frightening, and not often through the use of gore. There is a cocker-spaniel puppy that is absolutely terrifying. And the fish sandwich....oh man. The "shape" of the letterboxing is also changing constantly. Im not even actually sure that the movie is presented in widescreen, but instead some kind of blurry, ever changing black borders that seem to constrict the size of the picture on your tv screen, creating a consistantly claustrophobic sensation.

I love this movie and I show it to everyone. I actually own two copies so I can lend one out to people. It changed the way I think about film making. If you are confident in your ability to maintain a grip on reality in the face of pure, unadulterated terror...then give yourself some dvd-induced Visions of Suffering as soon as possible."

AWESOME

A. Vazquez | 11/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off I have to say Andrey Iskanov is truly an artist. The opening scene (just to give a little away) starts with a priest who loses his faith smack in the middle of an intense nightmare thats depicted very well.
The movie is completely in Russian but thats ok because there really isn't that much dialogue and it relies on the mood and visual effects that are pulled off quite impressively. The way vampires/demons are depicted in this film are not in the conventional sense that has been used and reused over and over again.This is basically a very strange and bizarre horror movie that I would highly recommend for anyone looking for something thats like a breath of fresh air from the same repetitious ideas we are all used to seeing."

Don't waste time or money

M. Navarroh | Mexico | 10/02/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Don't be fooled: there is nothing "Lynchesque" about Visions of Suffering, nor is it anywhere near Jacob's Ladder, nor is it surreal or "dangerous" or even the least scary. It's just plain, ugly and pretentious amateur. I'll try to enlist some of the things you may want to know about this film before purchasing:

1. To begin with, there is no plot, no storytelling, no consistency of any kind. Now, permit me to insist: this is not nonlinear, surreal or conceptual narrative. It's just the kind of "horror story" a kid would compose for an assignment, given an "unorthodox" approach that results in complete failure.
2.- The cinematography is hideous (from the very moment you see a 3D grinning skull in the opening credits, you know there's something wrong with this film). Expect 120 minutes of 3D graphics that are not even rendered, with not a single coherent idea of color, camera work, editing or special effects. This film was post-produced 30 minutes before the DVD was released.
3.- The acting is lame, unconvincing, unrehearsed and far from being professional.
4.- The music score must be one of the worst I ever heard. It's but a continuous sampling of industrial/electronic clichés, something a Coil fan boy would come up with.
5.- The film has an overall lack of understanding of what is being done. I wager there is not a single person in the Visions of Suffering team that has had even mild success in the film industry. This is a pretentious movie made by pretentious amateurs for a pretentiously dumb audience. Anyone with a minimum of taste is likely to be offended by this russian baloney, finding it hard to understand how anyone could insult the watcher's intelligence so.

Let me conclude by saying Visions of Suffering is little more than a homemade film, which wouldn't be strictly wrong if it wasn't also incredibly pretentious, boring, claustrophobic, lame, clichéd, ridiculous and absolutely devoid of talent. If it was possible, I would give Visions of Suffering minus far stars, for it is not worth even the plastic it's encased in.

I'm sorry Andrey Iskanov, but this is, by far, one of the worst excuses for a film I've ever watched.

Hope this review can be useful for prospective buyers."