Still, when Tatiana witnesses the carnivorous creature unleashed, and the bloody prospects of the Soviet military harnessing its power, her shock resonates because the creature preys on fear. “Sputnik” makes it clear early on that, once again, evil comes from within. When “Sputnik” hovers in the layers of bureaucratic secrecy surrounding the nature of her mission, and her general distrust of the military forces run by cheesy villain Semiradov (Fedor Bondarchuk), it roots the sci-fi in deeper questions of institutional control. Tatiana, whose career has already been tarnished by an earlier professional crisis and doesn’t trust the agendas of the authorities who brought her into this assignment, brings substance to an otherwise familiar cycle. Where to Watch This Week’s New Movies, from ‘Past Lives’ to ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’Ī blockbuster hit in its native country, “Sputnik” doesn’t deliver the most innovative onscreen monster, but it effectively embodies the spookiness surrounding its existence (made for around $2.5 million, it does a solid job of creating a big-budget vibe while mostly sticking to one location). ![]() ![]() Once there, she gets the full creepy picture: During the day, Konstantin sits in quarantine, confused about his off-planet experiences and why he’s been detained by night, the truth comes out - literally - as a slimy, spindly creature climbs out of his body, gnashing its sharp teeth in search of a late-night snack. That’s Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov), who’s locked up in a lab where troubled young doctor Tatiana Yurievna (Oksana Akinshina) finds herself carted off to the secretive military compound for murky reasons. It’s 1983, and after a trio of cosmonauts slam back to earth under dubious circumstances in the dark of night, one winds up dead, another in a coma, and a third can’t remember what happened. But before “Sputnik” settles into a run-and-gun routine that feels like business as usual, it’s a gripping and gross B-movie made all the more intriguing by the period backdrop that carries connotations of its own. Sadly, the analogy doesn’t go much further than that. Russian machinations? Medical phenomena that confound modern science? You don’t say! Launching with a slick and eerie first act, “Sputnik” initially feels like the kind of slow-burn laboratory thriller that rarely gets made these days, yet feels timelier than ever. Fortunately, Abramenko sneaks in a fresh angle before the chest-bursting extraterrestrial mayhem takes charge. “Alien” casts a big shadow on “ Sputnik,” a slick Cold War alien invasion thriller from first-time director Egor Abramenko, so much that it threatens to swallow the movie whole.
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