Review: Row 19

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

Row 19 (aka Ryad 19)
Directed by Alexander Babaev
Central Partnership; KIT Film Studios; Monumental Film; Red Media; Lka Film; Well Go USA Entertainment
78 minutes, 2021 / 2022
www.wellgousa.com/films/row-19

Hmmm. Sometimes one must separate art from what is going on in the world. Normally, I would boycott things Russian at the moment, in solidarity with Ukraine, but this is an independent film, so I will give it a shot. Plus, it is being publicized by an American company, Well Go USA Entertainment, so here we go – er – well.

I recently saw a German film called Blood Red Sky (2021), which starts with a very similar premise: a troubled woman on a plane with a preteen, when weird things begin to happen. Except, in this case, of course, they are speaking Russian (subtitles alert). In the prologue, a woman and her preteen daughter are sitting in a near empty airliner, which crashes in South Central Russia. The daughter is the only survivor and becomes, of course, a media sensation.

Marta Kessler, Svetlana Ivanova

For the main crux of the story, it is 20 years later, and the girl is now a woman, Katerina (Svetlana Ivanova), who has her own preteen daughter that is about the same age she was when she crashed, Diana (Marta Timofeeva, aka Marta Kessler).

Of course, for our story, a similar situation occurs: Katerina and Diana are on a nearly empty plane that needs to be deiced traveling to the center of the country (to visit grandpa and his big dog), sitting in the same seats (the titular Row 19) in the same order (mom on aisle, daughter in center). We also start to get to meet others on the flight, as I am sure we will get to know their motivations for being on that very voyage.

Wolfgang Cerny

But there are also strange things happening on the new flight, like the cryptic acting and blank stares of the stewar… I mean flight attendants, to there being someone named Evgeni, as there was on the one that crashed. Some of the others on the flight are an ex-reporter, Alexey (Wolfgang Cerny), who sits across from and befriends Katerina and Diana, and an uptight, whiskey-drinkin’ right-wing business man, Nikolay (Anatoly Kot), the seemingly psychic bearded “hipster” Pavel (Denis Yasik) who is constantly drawing frantically in a notebook, along with an elderly couple, which includes Evgeni (Ivan Verkhovykh, whose wife, Galina (Iringa Egorova) is afraid to fly. I can’t speak for any other Russian plane or airline, but there are no televisions on the backs of the seats, considering it’s an hours-long flight.

With horrifying dreams and flashbacks, things seem to be repeating for the now adult Katerina that echo 20 years ago, or is it all in her head as the plane flies through a lightning storm and bad turbulence? I once flew through turbulence so bad I hit my head on the overhead even while buckled in, so I could empathize the fear.

One by one, the people on the plane start to perish in sometimes gruesome ways, all reflecting on a “witch” (Yola Sanko) who was on the first plane. Is this some kind of Final Destination deal, or are they all really dead or in Purgatory already like in Carnival of Souls (1962) or Jacob’s Ladder (1990)? Whatever it ends up being, it is effectively creepy as hell, and plays well with memory, imagination, and/or destiny. How much of it is real and how much is in Katerina’s mind? And what is the darken shadow person(s) that keeps popping up, and the little prescient girl (Katerina’s past self?) that Diana keeps talking to that only they can see, individually? Katerina says it clearly that her visions are “becoming more and more real. I’m starting to confuse reality with my nightmares.”

The tube of the plane is claustrophobic, and yet due to the lack of people, it also feels quite roomy at times. But no matter what, there are feelings of déjà vu and that there is nowhere to escape whatever fate has in store for the survivors, which decrease as time goes on. There are a lot of really nice effects and even some blood, and it all works well in the story, which is taut right to the end.

The acting is solid all the way around, including the two young girls who hold their own with the adults. Ivanova is especially a stand-out. The cinematography by Nikolay Smirnov flows well, and the effects by Eugene Antsiferov and Nikita Ovchinnikov, which are quite complex considering all that is going on, are outstanding.

This may not be for people who are afraid to fly, or are politically triggered by what is going on in the world, but as a piece of art on its own, it is quite thrilling. I understand there is also an English version floating around somewhere in the sky.

IMBD Listing HERE