A horror-themed relic from what has been called “the most dark and surreal time of Russian history.” That THE TOUCH (Prikosnoveniye; 1992) doesn’t entirely work is no surprise given the state of the Russian film industry during its production. Yet the film has acquired an enthusiastic following among those who remember it, with the line “Life is beautiful and amazing” (see the movie) repeated quite often on Russian language internet sites.
The first half recalls, favorably, the horror films of Italy’s Pupi Avati (such as THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS, 1976, and ZEDER, 1983) in its mixture of mystery and supernatural apprehension. It begins with the young mother Olga (Yelena Metyolkina) and her son Kolya (Andrey Annenskiy) found dead in her apartment with odd facial expressions. The police rule the incident a murder-suicide, a verdict that would appear to be confirmed by a handwritten note reading “We depart for the better world.” Andrei (Aleksandr Zuev), a detective, believes there’s more to the story, and decides to investigate.
He first tracks down the woman’s boyfriend Yuri (Stanislav Zhitaryev). The latter refuses to divulge any information, and warns Andrei that he’s put himself in danger from Olga’s father Nikolai Maltsev (Andrey Dudarenko). The latter, according to Yuri, persuaded Kolya to kill her child and commit suicide, despite the fact that he’s been dead for twelve years. Shortly thereafter Yuri is found dead.
Next Andrei gets in touch with Nikolai’s other daughter Marina (Maryana Polteva) at her sister’s funeral. Marina concurs with Yuri’s belief that Nikolai’s ghost was behind the three deaths, and is apparently planning on inducing Marina and her young daughter Nastya (Anna Konstantinovskaya) to self-deletion. Furthermore, she claims the ghost has informed her that she’ll meet her future husband at dinner following her sister’s funeral…which she informs Andrei as they’re having dinner the night after her sister’s funeral.
At this point the story takes a different, less potent turn, jettisoning the mystery element in favor of a paranormal tinged romance. This entails some inexcusably poor special effects, a clumsily choreographed brawl, a meandering third act and a suffocatingly bleak ending that probably wouldn’t fly with modern-day audiences.
Technically, TOUCH is quite raggedy, as was the case with most post-Soviet filmmaking. It has a cheap and unprofessional look, and even the aspects that do impress, such as the ghost POV scenes, depicted by distorted fisheye lenses, aren’t as strong as they should be, with those POV shots marred by evident camera shadows.
There is one thing this film accomplishes: it gets more mileage than nearly any other movie out of a close up of a man’s portrait. The Andrey Dudarenko played Nikolai Maltsev, whose ghost causes all the trouble, is only ever seen glowering in said portrait (extra footage of Dudarenko was apparently shot but never used), and it proves to be more than enough screen time.
Vital Statistics
THE TOUCH (Prikosnoveniye)
Trans F Film Studio
Director: Albert S. Mkrtchyan
Producer: Grigori Kozyr
Screenplay: Andrei Goryunov
Cinematography: Boris Kocherov
Editing: Galina Dyakonova
Cast: Aleksandr Zuev, Maryana Polteva, Stanislav Zhitaryev, Nikolay Averyushkin, Anna Konstantinovskaya, Andrey Dudarenko, Aleksandra Kharitonova, Andrey Poroshin, Yelena Metyolkina, Andrey Annenskiy, Vasili Kravtsov, Andrey Ladynin, Igor Pushkaryov, Larisa Vikkel, Vsevolod Abdulov, Rano Khamrayeva, Sergey Galkin, Andrei Syomin