Shopping Tour (2013)

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It seems like a childish joke or a failed attemt to create a low budget horror movie but it is a pure satire aiming at so-called "civilized europeans". It's questioning what is behind a smiling face of a human who cares only about his physical comfort. The resulting picture is not pleasant. The audience wouldn't accept it if it was told directly. They might even call it "intolerate" which is like a death penalty these days. That's why the idea is burried under shaking camera and stupid plot.

A group of Russians are on a shopping spree to neighboring Finland for quality products. The bus ride lasted all night, and don't worry you aren't spared a moment. Stas is an irritating teen boy who knows and films everything with a shaky cell phone camera. All the pictures are shaky. He does not get along well with his mom and the two have been at odds the whole trip. Dad passed away a month ago.The shoppers detour to a new store, designed just for the. Once in, the store is locked and the Finns start to kill and eat them. Mom and son must now team together.Normally cannibalism in a story such as this symbolizes economics. Clearly the Finns are feasting off of tourist, bloating themselves off of Russians wanting quality products. The shortness of the film, the lousy camera work, and the irritating characters made for a bad film.Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

What to expect from a Russian horror film? Most often - an ill- conceived plot, dull and annoying characters who acts so stupid it's even offensive, and, optionally, bad CGI. Even thought Russian horror flicks are laughable and unnecessary, this genre still seems very attractive to a Russian viewer because the horror genre itself is more 'American' than any else, so any try to make a scary movie within Russia or CIS is deserve to be noticed.«Shopping Tour» isn't set exactly in the CIS, as the action takes place in Finland, near the border with Russia. Mother and her son with obvious yet not unfounded relationship problems decided to go on this tour. But what supposed to be an average shopping turns out to be a cannibal holocaust in Suomi style for every alien. And, of course, schoolboy thinks that it would be cool to capture everything with his brand new phone. Rubbish? Yes, sir. Cheap? Too obvious. Is this interesting? On this moment let's take deeper in details.Recalling the problems that haunt Russian horror movies, I would like to note that «Shopping Tour» also includes all of the above. How Finns are capable to eat foreigners unnoticed is the prime question that won't leave the viewer's mind till the end credits. Another elephant in the china shop is a son that just can't and don't want to leave behind his own selfish claims to his heart-weak mother. Well, let the stone be thrown at me by ones who hasn't yet bored to death with a shaking camera tightly held by amateur kid operator.Nevertheless, the film can be forgiven because it doesn't allow us to wish to finish the view as soon as possible. «Shopping Tour» is not a spooky drama or a cheap thriller that are often hidden by the word «horror», but a really good horror with blood, guts and, Jesus Christ, a suspense, that is absences in a lot of Western flicks. The relations between the two main characters are vivid and exciting, what is the merit of brilliant performance of Tatyana Kolganova, but the young debutante Timofey Yeletskiy's acting looks a way better that the most of child actors in horror movies. The things happening on the screen are peculiar and thrilling, even though all the plot is a nonsense. And the last minutes are completely breath-taking (thanks to mother-son tandem once again), when you watch the culmination of chemistry between the characters with undisguised pleasure.No deep analysis is required here, because the film is basic. The deepest thought there is the mother's belief in European people's civility just when these high-moral Finns are about to attack tourists. We're just offered to be pleased with what we see, and for this honesty creators deserve a good rating. You can either interrupt the movie watching on its half, cursing Russians for being far from the Western models once again, or just afford an hour to observe such a strange thing as the Russian cannibal movie.

Shopping Tour is a unique case in the Russian cinematography. Regarding the lack of "genre film" notion as such in the Russian film industry, Mikhail Brashinskiy's product is one of a kind. This is a low budget movie written, sponsored and shot by Mikhail in association with his Finnish friends. We deal with the genre of horror done in the style of found footage on a camera phone. The movie didn't get high ratings among Russian viewers. It was simply underrated. This horror is not something outstanding but definitely fresh.In the center of the story there are single mother and her teenage son who is given a mobile phone as a present on which he records events taking place during the development of the action. Relationships between mum and her offspring are not so good, so she decides to take a trip to Finland by touristic bus in order to reach a compromise with her kid. At the outset of the movie all things go smoothly and nothing horrible is in the view. Mother and son have often arguments revealing their family problems on the way to Finland. Soon the pace changes, when after having crossed the board they call at the department store which is according to the guide open for tourists only one night a year. This store has special offers and reductions on all imports. The Russians love squandering money, so they happily scatter along the vast store in search of bargains. Hardly anyone of them guess this building is a trap and they all are prey for a horrible feast. The point is that only one night every year prior to the old national tradition the Finnish of all genders and ages hunt for foreigners in order to eat them. So the feast breaks out right in the store, and mum with son must run to save their lives. No one knows how strong can be a woman and brave a 15 old boy and what both can do against the cannibals. Escape from the feast will not be easy but worth to be seen.One of the peculiarities of the movie is that there no rivers of blood shown. Mikhail doesn't focus on visual effects. The thing which makes you blood freeze is suspense. You never know whether man speaking Finnish gibberish is an ordinary human or a cannibal going to fall on the main characters with roar. Take as an instance the scene where a bent cop (this pun is relevant) drives the duo in an unknown direction to the Finnish punk rock. It has to be said that you can not but empathizing mother as if she were your own in the grisly conditions. Emotional effect is achieved by the changing in relationships between mum and son. The extraordinary conditions have them stick together and they especially change the boy who begins feeling compassion on his mother. Shopping Tour is a mixture of horror and drama with an open ending. Some scenes of violence really thrill. Besides there is something to laugh at. You should be ready for everything. And if you are ready to watch this movie and have an opportunity for it, take it right away!