Be Prepared!

Rating: 10/10 (27 July 2012)

Traumatizing. Blow after blow, this movie comes at you, if I may say, relentlessly. Everything by Klimov in this movie is done with an amazing amount of style; which makes the difference from a film being grotesque and being genius.
Every scene of the movie has an intention: most being the insight to characters' psyche or exploiting the audience's. Klimov loves playing with his spectators with astonishing techniques. We are reminded ourself that what we're watching is merely a movie, and make a conscious effort to detach ourselves from it. *SPOILER ALERT* The director acknowledges that in the instance of the burning barn yard full of people. After a long frame, fixated on the side of the burning building, the camera pans to the entrance, where we see the doors booming under the pounding of the desperate townsfolk. He keeps some of his graphic content short and sweet, to give us a startling effect that lasts longer (for instance when Glasha turns her head while running and lays her eyes on the mound of bodies behind Flor's house).
I truly enjoyed this movie and recommend it to everyone!