The Widow Movie Review

Trailer here.

The Widow is a 2020 horror film directed by Ivan Minin and starring Viktotiya Potemina and Anastasiya Gribova.

The movie begins in a wood near St. Petersburg. People have been going missing in the area and the bodies that are found are naked. Kristina(Gribova) is shooting a documentary about a search and rescue team who are training a new recruit, Vika(Potemina). The locals think that there is a witch in the woods. They call her the Limping Widow.  The rescue team have a dog with them also. They find a strange woman in the woods. She is called Zoya. They have been looking for a young boy who went missing in the woods. They take Zoya to their van and keep her warm. She seems very unusual. They pull something out her mouth. The group sees a carving on one of the trees. It is an evil spirit symbol. The group decide to drive out of the woods, but they are stopped, first by falling trees and then by getting stuck in the mud.

Zoya tells them that they won't get out of the forest alive. She tells them a story about a woman who choked her husband. She was caught by locals and they broke her legs. They threw her into a pit and she died. Her spirit is in the woods and she gets revenge by killing anyone who comes there. The dog runs off into the woods and he comes back different. He is snarling and angry. The driver, Andrey, changes. His eyes become black and he seems possessed. He drives the truck with Zoya and Vika in the back. He is going crazy. Vika jumps out before the van is driven into a lake and disappears. Vika sees Andrey coming out of the water. He wanders off into the woods. She follows him to a creepy old shack in the woods and he is turned against the wall. She  calls him but he doesn't reply. The others look for her.

They have found Andrey's body. They also find crazy Zoya. The group ask her questions, but she doesns't say anything.  They head off looking for Vika.

Vika tells all of them what happened to her. Kristina thinks that Zoya is evil. She disappears. Vika tries to find her and she does. Zoya wants to die. She makes Vika kill her. The others show up and see the lady dead. They think that Vika did it. She tells them that Zoya wanted to die and she forced Vika's hand. They wander around some more and an unseen force impales one of the team. The others find clothes hanging from trees. The witch comes and she kills more of the team until Kristina and Vika are the only two left. Vika disappears and Kristina is left alone. She walks around and tries to get out. She finds Vika in the old shack. She is naked and she has become like Zoya. She will stay in the forest to protect others from the witch. Kristina is taken away by ambulance. The movie ends.

This film had some creepy moments. There were just not enough of them. I liked some scenes and this films owes an awful lot to The Blair Witch Project. It is very similar is some ways. The problem is that it is nowhere near as good as that film. It looked promising at the beginning and it went along well, but half way through, it started to drag and the ending didn't have anything exciting to wrap it up, I didn't like the ending. This is a middle of the road Russian horror movie. It is worth a look for some creepy scenes, but don't expect too much. I will give it a 5/10.