Name: Psy
Genre: Thriller
Duration: 1 h 36 min
Rating: 6.6
Cast: Yuriy Kuznetsov, Mikhail Zhigalov, Sergey Kokovkin

I am not giving a star rating to this film since I turned it off halfway through for reasons that I will explain later on.

Psy is a post-apocalyptic film made in Russia. The plot had a lowly bureaucrat tasked with assembling a crew to eliminate wolves that have been attacking (and eating) people in a not quite deserted village some kilometers away. The village was once set on an ocean, but only sand remained, leading to the interesting image of a lighthouse in the middle of a desert. After the protagonists arrived, they found that the attacks were not being carried out by wolves but by a pack of wild, hungry dogs. Since they were contracted only for wolf hides, some of the men wanted to return to, well, not exactly civilization, but the bleak existence they were used to. However, the men became stranded after their bus is stolen and would have to fight their way out. That was basically the plot of Psy, a sort-of futuristic version of that American 80's horror film The Pack, which starred Joe Don Baker.

I gave up on Psy after the first big action scene. The dogs were attacking the crew at their camp, a couple of stories up this abandoned building. The men had to shoot the dogs. It became clear to me that the dogs were being really gunned down, not by the actors (since they do not appear in the same frames), but in insert shots. I realize that special effects can be convincing, but the way these dogs sounded and moved when they were shot (some not dying instantly) strongly suggested a canine snuff film. I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.

I am a westerner who grew up in the countryside of the Midwest. I have seen animals killed for food or to be put out of their misery. However, I also had, growing up, dogs as pets. I just could not stomach scenes of dogs being shot, regardless of whether they were pets or animals that were unwanted and homeless.

True, I did not flinch over the scenes of the buffalo shootings in Richard Brooks' The Last Hunt (a film I liked). I sat through the samurai film Shogun's Shadow where a horse was lit on fire, even though I did not care for that scene. Nonetheless, I could not go anymore of Psy. I am not giving it a star rating, nor am I going to finish the disk, but I do think potential viewers should be warned, so I am writing this review.

Russian cinema is distinguished by its epic scale, philosophical depth, and innovative visual language. It often explores history, ideology, and the human psyche, with a tradition of psychological realism and artistic experimentation. Russian cinema contributed revolutionary theories of editing and later a spiritual approach to film language. It remains known for combining formal experimentation with profound explorations of endurance and belief.

Nikolay Grinko, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, and Anatoliy Solonitsyn in Stalker (1979)

The thriller genre features suspense, tension, and excitement. These stories are known for keeping audiences on the edge of their seats and delivering intense emotional experiences by revolving around high-stakes situations, dangerous conflicts, and the constant anticipation of unexpected events.

A group of hunters enters a ghost town in Central Asia with a mission to kill packs of abandoned, and now wild cannibal dogs. But tables turn and there seems to be no way for the hunters to survive the horrific battle.

Sergey Kokovkin, Andrey Krasko, Aleksey Krychenkov, Yuriy Kuznetsov, Dmitriy Svetozarov, and Mikhail Zhigalov in Psy (1989)

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Psy

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