'Hukkunud Alpinisti' hotell
Tags: cult, neo noir, murder

Plot synopsis:
Inspector Glebsky arrives at the hotel "Dead Mountaineer's" because of an anonymous call. This hotel is located in a remote area in a valley, hidden among the mountains in some European country. The very name of the hotel - "Dead Mountaineer's" can be explained quite simply: one climber died here who fell off a cliff. He left only his faithful dog behind - a St. Bernard Lel. In the hotel there is a rather bleak portrait of the climber near which faithful Lel likes to sleep.
Almost all of the lodgers are rather strange, especially Mr. and Mrs. Moses and Olaf Andvarafors. Later another strange individual materializes; Luarvik, who can not even utter a couple of words. Mr. Moses and Luarvik turn out to be aliens and Mrs. Moses and Olaf are their robots, although they look like ordinary people. And in the mountains they suffer a calamity.
After a heavy snowfall, when the hotel is cut off from the outside world, a body appears at one point. Inspector Glebsky initiates an investigation, using all of his standard skills. However the investigation of the pseudo-murder of Olaf comes to a standstill. And when seemingly all intricacies of the plot unravel and the aliens can safely leave the Earth a military helicopter appears.
The inspector has a chance to do great service to the aliens, but Glebsky behaves like a typical cop, subordinate only to common sense and official instructions which leads to the tragic outcome.
At the end of the film the inspector is plagued by doubts whether he did everything he could ...

Review: The movie ahead of its time.
I have to say "Hotel of Dead Mountaineer" is ahead of its time.
OK, script was pretty anachronistic in 1978, because the basic book was written 1970, after social turmoils and "revolutions" in USA and Europe and some moments weren't so obvious in late 70s anymore.
But after 9/11 is pretty sure that questions like "terrorist or freedom-fighter?" isn't so stupid at all.
So the idea of naive alien helping terrorists doesn't look weird anymore.Movie's special ultramodern design, cold style and dark atmosphere looked maybe a bit over the top in late 70s but became mainstream in 80s, especially in sci-fi and A- category horror movies.
"The Hunger" for example has very similar visual style but was filmed 5 years later.
The Grünberg's music isn't typical 70s movie soundtrack, the cold and synthesized soundscape became popular also in 80s and later.
Theatralic, unnatural, openly strange acting became popular also years later.
I like "HUH" ("HODM") because it works, it looks cool and timeless and the movie is overall unforgettable.
Like its one its influence, "Zabriskie Point", "HUH" is panned by critics from premiere but has remained cult classic anyway..
Stylish hybrid of science-fiction/crime and neo-noir..
"Dead Mountaineer's Hotel" is an effectively oneiric adaptation of a 1970 science fiction detective novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.Inspector Peter Glebsky goes to a small resort located in a secluded valley in the Alps to investigate murder case.He meets some bizarre hotel guests in Dead's Mountaineer's Hotel.Soon an avalanche blocks the entrance to the valley and one of the guests named Olaf mysteriously dies.Glebsky realizes that the guests are not who they appear to be.Very interesting and stylish hybrid of crime drama,science-fiction and neo-noir.The mood is very phantasmagorical and there is some impressive use of colors in the vein of "Suspiria".I enjoyed electro soundtrack of "Dead Mountaineer's Hotel" too.Often written comparisons to "Blade Runner" are quite thruthful.8 dead mountaineers out of 10..
One of the best Estonian movies.
Film is based on the novel by Strugatsky brothers.
Police inspector is called to a mountain hotel, but there's no crime.
When snow avalanche blocks hotel from the rest of the world, strange things start to happen..
Brilliant soundtrack from Sven Grünberg..
This is the portrait of the Dead Mountaineer.
'Dead Mountaineer's Hotel' still remains basically only Estonian science fiction film in the truest sense.
Police inspector arrives into remote mountain hotel to investigate anonymous tip where he discovers that it was false alarm.
After the avalanche cuts the hotel, and all it's inhabitants from the outer world, the strange things start to occur.
Doppelgangers, terrorists, aliens, androids, and flirtatious sultry women.Wonderful cinematography of snowy mountains under bright sun against dark interior of the hotel that leaves feeling that it's as cold inside the hotel as it is outside, and intensifies the claustrophobic atmosphere of the hotel.
Inspector Glebsky grows more and more desperate and paranoid when he tries to solve the crimes only relying on his common sense, logic and skepticism that lead to unfortunate tragic events leaving audience falter who was the real villain.
The name of the hotel 'Dead Mountaineer' is explained briefly (and quite satisfactory), but it also leaves nice eerie mystery floating around - who was that enigmatic 'dead mountaineer' whose dog still sleeps under his bleak portrait hanging on the wall.
Sven Grünberg's fantastic synthesizer score adds another layer of mystery and anticipation.
The song 'Ball' has a lyrics, but they don't make sense because it's only gibberish - and when we see aliens dance to this song hypnotically it's almost like they understand it (although real reason why the song didn't had any proper words was the Soviet regulation of the time demanding the lyrics of the song to be translated into Russian when released in Russia - Grünberg didn't like the idea of translating his lyrics so he invented the gibberish for the song.)..
Book is much better....
I like quite a lot the book which movie is based on, one of Strugatski's best (it's a bit too short tho).
Strugatski's wrote also movie script, but it's much weaker.
Some details are changed, some left out, and the changes just don't make much sense.
Any way, even if I don't like movie much, most of the cast is good, and helps visualizing characters when reading the book.
Maybe except Mrs. Moses...
and du Barnstocre who simply isn't in movie.
Glebsky also looks a bit fake at times, partly maybe because of dubbed voice.
Also, was it that hard to make something that looks like alien robot power source, so they could actually show it?
That and some other scenes look quite cheap....
it is no less than awesome.
All the commenters whining about this...
what the hell is wrong with you people?
Do you think Star Wars is proper sci-fi?
I mean all the things described by peter-kuus as poor I find utterly brilliant - they add to the movie, instead taking from it.
The surreal dark scenes of the interior of the hotel, those long bright direct sun shots and icy mountains are totally ethereal.
PLUS the music - one should watch it because of the music alone.
Droning, theremin-like synths with visuals of icy scapes, what more could you want?Shouldn't be compared to your run of the mill sci-fi or action-plot movies....
why this piece of crap is still kept for the golden fund of Estonian films ?.
25 years ago "Hukkunud alpinisti hotell" was considered to be among one of the three best Estonian films (together with "Viimne reliikvia" and "Navigaator Pirx").
No crime nor fantasy films were often produced in Estonia.
So making a real sci-fi movie and shooting it in a far land (Caucasian mountains ?) had to be quite an event here.
The thing i don't understand is why this piece of crap is still kept for the golden fund of Estonian films.
Well, the beginning that is very much "Shining" alike is yet promising.
But the more the film goes on, the worse it gets.
Anticipation that is cognizable in the beginning doesn't form into tension as it should.
Lack of technical cull disturbs enjoying the movie instead.
First of all, the cinematographer Jüri Sillart should have been drunk or disabled, filming constantly close-ups.
The picture is jumping from one close-up to another, so there's practically no overview what's going on in general.
I don't even talk about conveying the characters through the picture.
Shooting straight into the sun and its reflections in the film for no reason is the cinematographer's style too.
Light in the hotel is extremely poor, so the action is time to time only cognizable, not visible.
Secondly, the director couldn't reform the mediocre script into fluent running film.
The action is nervous, jumping from here to there, so watching it i had a feeling that i had fallen asleep and missed some parts.
Thirdly, the much-hyped Sven Grünberg's music doesn't fit in the movie at all as it is too monotonic and doesn't support the action.
I can say that the movie interferes the music a bit but the music doesn't help the film at all.
For the fourth, special effects are feeble and even embarrassing to watch.
For example the scene in the end when the ET-s were escaping from the hotel gliding on the snow, was miserable !
It should have remade and not to put in the movie !
For the fifth, it's incredible how its possible to present good actors so poorly.
The most important actor Uldis Pucitis is OK in the beginning where he didn't have to do much yet.
The man's charisma helps him out there.
Later when his role turns to much more demanding one, he doesn't control it anymore.
He just exists on the screen.
Estonian far-famed Mikk Mikiver shows that he should have stayed producing as his performance is very very non-realistic.
The same critics goes almost to all the other actors as they don't manage with their rather a difficult roles.
The actors are rather tin soldiers than individual characters, so even at the end of the movie it is not clear how many people were involved.
The only exception is grand old Jüri Järvet who is good as always.
And Aarne Üksküla reading text for Pucitis is superb.
So watch it and i hope that the myth of the great Estonian sci-fi film is going to be broken at last..
Robby Skis.
When I was a kid, we had a TeeVee show called "The Outer Limits." It featured science fiction mysteries, done with mostly bad acting, competent writing and extremely cheap effects.
It was an hour long, which really means 45 minutes.
The speed at which the story was told was great, because these mystery scifi things draw from two constricting formulas, and unless you are particularly inventive, the shape of them is pretty set.
Cram that into 45 minutes and it moves briskly and tickles.
Stretch it out with ponderous inner thinking and even 8 minutes seems way too long.
I came to this because it was represented as clever and also as the best Estonia has.
But everything about it excepting the makeup of the women is amateurish to the extreme.
If it were on that 60's TeeVee show for kids, it would be considered a bad show.I understand the book is much better in the way it fools you into thinking this is a normal mystery formula with a random collection of people cut off (avalanche) and with a detective as our designated on-screen viewer.
The red herring here is not to confuse among suspects but among genres.
Its supposedly successful in the book, But not here.
No.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.