Russian filmmaker Svyatoslave Podgaevskiy is returning this year with a brand-new horror film to give you the chills. Having worked on films like ‘The Blackout’ (2019), ‘Baba Yaga: Terror of the Dark Forest’ (2020), and ‘Queen of Spades: The Dark Rite,’ Podgaevskiy has made a significant mark on the genre. The upcoming film, produced by him, is titled ‘The Widow’, or ‘Vdova,’ and after being delayed from its 2020 date due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is now set to release on Video on Demand, and Digital platforms, Blu-Ray and DVD on March 30th. The latter two will have the film in its original Russian language and choose the dubbed English version.
Trailer breakdown
In the trailer, we see a group of people who have entered the forests of St. Petersburg to recover dead bodies of people who often go missing there. The film is sort of like a found footage, added to documentary-style interviewing of the people. We hear one of the characters say that their job is not easy, and it is quite stressful to go looking for something you may never find while risking your own lives. After rescuing an old woman, they find out that a vengeful ghost of a girl who was murdered and thrown into those very forests roams there perpetually and takes whoever comes as her next victim. The group tries to make futile attempts to escape, but as we know from the synopsis, no one does, and it is only one girl’s body the authorities later find.
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Urban legend or non-fiction?
This film is based on mysterious real-life events that take place in the forests of St. Petersburg. More than a couple hundred people go missing in these woods every year, and if their corpses are eventually found, they are naked but without any sign of physical trauma. To make matters even spookier, the film began its shooting on Holy Virgin’s Day, 2018, when the place is the most dangerous. ‘The Widow’ is directed by Ivan Minin and written by Natalia Dubovaia, Ivan Kapitonov, and Podgaevskiy. It stars Anastasiya Gribova, Viktotiya Potemina, Margarita Bychkova, as well as Ilya Agapov.