Queen of Spades: Throught the Looking Glass

“Queen of Spades” is Georgette’s nickname, the terror of the BIFFF bridge club, but that story’s for another time. No, this horror flick by Aleksandr Domogrov (the maniac from WHY DON’T YOU JUST DIE!, also on the menu this year) is about a different beast altogether from the darkest pits of Russian folklore. Olya and Artyom lost their mommy in a car crash and are sent to a local boarding school, a creepy gothic mansion that in Soviet times must’ve been Lord Dracula’s favorite hide-out. Hiding out, that’s exactly what the siblings and a bunch of friends do in the school’s coziest space, the cellar. Between cob webs and torture gear, they discover an awfully mysterious-looking mirror… and they immediately start evoking the title character, a sort of Bloody Mary who had one too many shots of vodka. They each make a wish that to their surprise is always granted but unfortunately for them, as a true Russian spirit, the Queen’s sense of humor is rather dark… Afterwards we all headed to the basement of the Center for Fine Arts to check if by any chance some evil-reeking mirror was lying about, but all we found were some old whips and chains. A relief! But we don’t recommend wondering about during the BIFFF… Judging by these last few years, Russia’s genre film production is in top shape!