Macabre…ish Horror Review: The Ice Demon

 

 

The Ice Demon, 2021/ 1 hr 32 min

aka Ledyanoy Demon,  Ледяной демо

 

 

 

While camping, a blizzard blows in on three people, one freezes to death and the other is possessed by some kind of entity. Later when they are rescued, two are dead and one has unbelievably severe frostbite.

 

While an autopsy is being done on what should have been a formerly frozen solid corpse, it bleeds during the first cut.

 

His next of kin is notified and his now ex-wife, Tanya (Olga Lomonosova), and daughter, Ksyusha (Alina Babak), arrive to a quarantined room. He’s been missing for 10 years and other than the brand new cut, there isn’t a scratch on him. Upon calling his name, Matvei (Andrey Marusin) opened his eyes but the neurologist won’t listen and so Tanya announces that she’s taking him home.

 

The frostbite victim, Alya is in another room, her skin is completely black, they had to amputate and her brainwaves are odd.

 

Her current husband, Misha (Aleksey Rozin), is not happy about this decision. And he has reason to be worried because upon returning home, Tanya tells him to leave and never come back. After he tells her to go outside and take a break.

 

Meanwhile, Ksyusha looks up ‘how does it feel to be in a coma?’ and watches a video about spirits leaving the body to travel astrally.  She tries to channel her dad, Matvei, with cards and alphabet blocks, asking him questions. She seems to get responses and then Misha comes in and Ksyusha, hides under her dad’s bed. After Misha leaves, he violently convulses.

 

There’s some talk around town that Misha was a tough guy, he sometimes fought her Matvei when he was younger.

 

Tanya is now acting strange, the entire house is on edge and Misha is having nightmares about Tanya and Matvei. He goes into the room and turns off the breathing machine and just stands there while he convulses. Later, Misha suffers a stroke and is found on the kitchen floor by Ksyusha. Tanya does nothing to help him, she’s obsessed with Matvei and his care.

 

On top of this, a local boy, Semyon (Gleb Kalyuzhnyy), is smitten with Ksyusha and he’s acting strange too. He becomes violent and it triggers a memory of a violent encounter between Ksyusha’s parents. And then her dad attacking her and her mother defending them both with a meat tenderizer.

 

Just when you think it’s over, it starts again and again. Because in this nightmare hides a family secret, yet to be uncovered and until it is, it’s not over.

 

This is a Russian supernatural horror directed by Ivan Kapitonav. Though the cover insinuates this is a monster movie, it’s really a possession movie very like Red Mist (aka Freakdog) with Andrew Potts. It’s a good thriller but I was hoping to see a demon, instead it was a lot of audio and visual hallucinations, flashbacks and possessions. There is some violence but it’s not really bloody or gory, it’s primarily a jump scare movie. This is a Russian film but English dubbed.

 

TW: suicide, domestic abuse

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