Mara (2020) User Reviews (4)

So much sexism, sexual assault etc

[percivallou · 2/10 · 11 December 2021]

I'm only being generous and giving it 2 stars because it had some cool transformation scenes, wasnt afraid of using colour and had some cool scene transitions.

But the sexual assault and other hateful stuff really made this movie bad. Ew.

Confusing mess that tries for psychedelic psychological thriller

[jmbovan-47-160173 · 2/10 · 17 March 2023]

Side Effects (or Mara as it is listed on FreeVee) is a confusing mess of a movie. The opening has a rape (or attempted rape as I fast forwarded through it) that is off putting; it occurs in a home robbery/invasion situation so unnecessary as physical violence would have worked as well in the plot. After this, the husband tries to "erase" this from his and his wife's mind, falling upon a "herbal hypnotist (?)" that seems to unleash alternate versions of the husband's life where his wife knows him or doesn't. There are supernatural elements that pull in surreal qualities leading to a psychedelic quality becoming a confusion part of the plot. There are pieces of this that I liked, but it doesn't come together well as a whole. And it ends with a recapture of the rape. This main plot device is just ugly. Not enough of a movie value to suffer through these 2 scenes or appreciate any of the cinematic element devices employed.

How much can you take?

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 29 December 2021]

And how heroic are you? Or rather afraid? And is it being afraid or is it being reasonable and actually doing the thing with the most succesful outcome (probably)? Sometimes we are put in situations where there is nothing that is 100% correct. How do you help someone else who is being assaulted when you yourself are being held at bay/distance? Having said that, there are some interesting themes here, some of which get dismantled by inner logic or rather are suspended for ... suspense. And characters then seem to try to outdo each other by doing the worst things possible.

Then again, this would not be a horror movie if it were otherwise. Some very fine images and cinematography and some really interesting ideas story-wise. Not great but decently done - if you can overcome certain scenes, that while not explicit, really do cut to the bone - no pun intended.

Mara's mushrooms.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 10/10 · 17 April 2021]

Taking a peak at the details for the films in the line-up after buying a pass for the online Grimmfest film festival, the description of this being a Russian Horror inspired by the supernatural movies of 1970's Italian cinema made the title sound very enticing,leading to me excitingly running to meet Mara.

View on the film:

Greeting Mara with a crash-zoom, writer/ debut director Aleksey Kazakov & cinematographer Evgeny Kozlov conjure up a dazzling, ultra-stylised surreal Horror atmosphere of rapid-fire zoom-ins and arcs, elegant tracking shots,and blossoming dissolves over Olga coming under Mara's spell.

Wiping away the traumatic memory from Olga, Kazakov paints the blanc canvas with mesmerising, glittering colours,as the candle-wax red, greens and yellow bursts to a over-saturated pulp, reflected the scrambled nature of Olga and Andrey's minds.

Twisting the fairy tale set-up with Andrey (played with a great anxious grit by Semyon Serzin) going to meet witch Mara in order to cure Olga, the screenplay by Kazakov makes the cure worse than the disease, with a tasty dream-logic meltdown of Andrey questioning everything he sees from the corner of his eyes,as the grief he and Olga suffered,casts a spell on the original grief that has haunted Mara.