Sputnik is a Russian movie that came out in its home country back in April, and it was released in limited theaters and on VOD platforms here in the states this past August. It takes place in the 1980s, and it follows a Soviet psychiatrist who's recruited by the military to examine a cosmonaut who came back to earth with a dangerous alien organism living inside of him.
I went into this movie expecting an Alien-style space monster movie, but what I got was so much more. It's a very slow burn, and while you do eventually get to see the creature in all its vicious glory, it never turns into a full-blown horror movie. It's really more of a Guillermo del Toro-esque drama with horror-centric elements, and it's fantastic.
The film takes about a half hour to set up the characters and the plot, and when it finally shows you the creature, it just raises a whole bunch of questions. Then, after that initial reveal, the bulk of the movie is about the psychiatrist and her military colleagues studying the monster and trying to answer those questions. You get a few scenes of legit horror, but it's mainly people talking and trying to figure out what makes this thing tick. It's really intriguing, and the movie keeps your interest the whole way through by making you want to find out more about this creature and what happened to the cosmonaut.
Seeing this all unfold is the best thing about the movie, so I won't say anything more about the mystery of the alien creature. It's best to go in as blind as possible, and I wouldn't want to ruin the experience for you. What I can say, though, is that the film grounds this mystery with strong characters that you grow to like, and it even gives you a bit of the cosmonaut's backstory. By the end of the movie, that backstory becomes an important part of his arc, and it also gives the entire story a bit of an emotional underpinning.
On top of that, I can also tell you that the monster is really cool. The design isn't the most original thing in the world, but it's good enough. It'll look pretty familiar to seasoned genre vets, but it's not such a blatant ripoff of other creatures that it becomes distracting. What's more, when it goes all out and attacks people, the thing is just as brutal as you would expect. It pulls no punches and takes no prisoners, so fans of monster action will definitely enjoy those moments.
But this thing isn't just a mindless killer. Again, I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm going to have to be vague. Suffice it to say, there's more to this creature than just a thirst for blood. The filmmakers find a way to flesh it out a bit as an actual character rather than simply a force of nature. It doesn't talk or communicate like an actual person, but it's more than just your typical animalistic monster.
All that being said, I do have to give one caveat about the creature. It's CGI, and I only saw the movie in standard definition (in case you're wondering, no, I didn't download it illegally; I got a standard def screener), not high definition. The monster looked fine to me, but I can't guarantee that it'll look great if you watch it in high def.
All in all, I really enjoyed Sputnik. It wasn't on my radar when it first came out, but I'm super happy that I eventually found out about it and got a chance to watch it. It has a cool monster, characters you root for, and an intriguing plot, and in my opinion, it's one of the best horror movies of the year. In fact, unless a slew of great new genre films pops up in the next few weeks, it's going to land a spot on my top ten of 2020, so I highly recommend that you check this one out.
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