In far, far away Siberia, a lone hunter pursues a bear, but he himself becomes a target – attacked by a pack of wolves infected with rabies. After a while, two people come to the same remote village: a failed businessman Igor (Alexey Serebryakov) and his son Vovka (his debut Vsevolod Volodin). Years ago, Igor made a false claim, he went bankrupt not only in his business, but also in his relations with his son. While my father won, the man became a drug addict. Remorseful, Igor takes his son deep into Siberia to isolate him from the world and away from drugs.
But when a pack of rabid wolves attacks the village, the heroes’ plans change – neither a bullet can take them nor an ax cut them. Father and son must save themselves, accompanied by a local ranger (Alexander Ustyugov) and a policeman (Evgeny Tkachuk). Heroes descend into the depths of the forest, reducing the distance between each other and outside danger. Even though the bloody ending seems inevitable, who will emerge victorious from the struggle between man and nature is an intrigue until the last credits.
“Rabies” can be safely compared to “The Thing” by John Carpenter, a reference representative of the genre. Dyachenko’s painting captures the mood of the story about a remote polar explorer station forced to battle extraterrestrial demons. Instead of just rabid dogs, their relatives are wolves, and instead of the expanses of Antarctica, there is boundless Siberia. In “rabies”, the polar night also always reigns, but conditionally – the events almost fit into one day, when the heroes do not have to become food for wild animals.
There is also a reference to The Revenant here: If Evgeny Tkachuk meets Leonardo DiCaprio one day, they will definitely find something to discuss about the bear attack. It turned out not to be that gripping, but no less scary and exciting.
In a series of recognizable references, Rabies tries to find her own voice and path. Dyachenko’s film explores human nature not only in terms of survival in the face of external danger, but also in terms of the fight against internal demons. Vovka, beautifully portrayed by Volodin, is a drug addict in the most unpleasant stage of decay, the acute stage of withdrawal, in which any frenzy continues, and, apparently, more dangerous than any monster. Local police officer Abyzov takes a bribe, and veteran businessman Igor, who is preparing to go to jail for his intrigues, habitually reciprocates.
Mutual responsibility ends when trouble literally enters the house – rabid wolves are ready to tear up anything that gets in their way, and you can not defeat them with cunning as well as with the ability to join forces. This component of “rabies” seems to be presented in an inconspicuous and therefore vague way. Somewhere in the middle, the harsh and cold tension begins to turn: night falls, the sun rises, and fear turns into a human drama. Then the film collapsed: form seems to prevail over the essence, and the idea is sorely lacking in more interesting and original artistic solutions. It’s as if the authors gave all their courage to their heroes (although they were not without heroism – the picture was taken at minus 40).
But there is great acting in the movie. What is the next reunion of Serebryakov and Tkachuk, who at first changed roles within the same family (in Vitka-Chesnok the first played the father of the second, and in Van Goghs – the opposite) and now find themselves? Side by side in the face of a common misfortune.
However, it seems that in the attempt to run as far as possible, the power of the film ran out too soon and lost its way. And while the initiative itself is laudable, we have to admit: something has emerged—but not Carpenter’s by any means.