Customer Reviews

Trackman

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Remember the first generation of Russian rock `n' roll bands and how dreadfully awful they all were? I have the same sort of reaction to Trackman. The Russians are trying, by gum, but they seemingly have no idea what they're doing. The result, at least in this case, is a horror film that disappoints on just about every level. Ghost House Underground has released some pretty good independent horror films, but Trackman isn't one of them. This stinker from Russian director Igor Shavlak just flops around like a fish out of water throughout its entire eighty minute run-time. No suspense, no frights, and no entertainment value.

There isn't a great deal of story to be found here. A team of bank robbers disappear into a maze of underground tunnels to meet up with a co-conspirator and make their escape. Their plans for the "perfect crime" went awry during the actual robbery, so they have a trio of hostages in tow with them as they begin to make their way through the tunnels. Things start to break down when the other guy never shows up, introducing suspicions of a double-cross into an already turbulent group dynamic. To make matters worse, no one in the group knows the way out. That becomes an even bigger problem when a mysterious stranger who wears a gas mask and goggles, loves flourishing his trusty pickaxe (but also has an affinity with flamethrowers), and sports a pretty impressive collection of human eyeballs.

The only real difference between Trackman and a long list of underachieving American horror films is that this one is badly dubbed in English. As others have said, there's no originality in play here, the characters aren't very interesting or likeable, and there's almost no tension or suspense as to everything that takes place. In other words, Trackman is a boring slasher film, and that's really all there is to it.

I honestly couldn't get through this movie. I had a chance to sneek peek it - and quite honestly - it just sucked. Wasting 45 minutes was enough to just skip the ending and move on. Now understand that if there is only 2 or 3 great scenes in a movie - I will keep it for the sake of my collection. But this s**t was just boring. I even opted for the original language version - russian, I believe - but it still failed. The acting wasn't so bad I guess, but the story was pretty much non existent. I would say that any of these movies, be it ghost house underground, afterdark horrorfest, masters of horror - are all $5 movies and spending anything more is foolish even if you enjoy em. My advice it to rent - although I haven't rented in about 10 years!

One thing that the recent Ghost House Underground label isn't afraid to dabble in are foreign horror films, including the ghastly Italian flick The Last House in the Woods, as well as this Russian slasher import, Trackman. Trackman begins with a bank robbery gone awry, and the crooks with a few hostages in tow escaping into the underground. With some inner-tension within the group of criminals, things get even worse when they realize that they are being stalked by a lumbering, gas-mask wearing killer who wields such weapons as a pick-axe and flamethrower, and enjoys collecting the eyes of his victims. What Trackman lacks in originality and story it makes up for with some nicely shot moments and gloomy atmosphere. Other than that though, Trackman doesn't offer anything you haven't seen before, or anything remotely original for that matter. Not to mention that for an 80 minute film, it somehow manages to plod along for most of the running time. Still though, Trackman isn't horrible, and is worth a look for slasher fans, just make sure you don't watch it with the atrocious dubbing.

Part of Ghost House Underground collection, Trackman (2007) is a slasher film shot in Russia (CCCP), and dubbed in English. While the language barrier contributes to the film having poor dialog and kind of a rough edge, the major problem is the uneven pacing, and underdeveloped storyline. Way too much time is spent establishing a creepy "atmosphere", before the level of action finally ramps up in the third act.

Trackman starts out with some promise, as a man named Splint recruits three criminal types to carry out his plan to rob a bank. Unfortunately things do not go as planned, and some soldiers in the bank are killed. After grabbing some cash, the three bank robbers each grab a hostage, and escape down into a system of underground tunnels. The plan is for the three robbers, Grom (Dmitri Orlov), Kirk (Oleg Kamenshchikov), and Kostya (Tomas Motkus), to rendezvous with Splint underground, and then make their escape. Two of the hostages, Olga (Yuliya Mukhailova) and Katya (Svetlana Metkina) are bank employees, and the third is a police sergeant (Aleksandr Vysokovskiy).

For about 40 minutes, the film follows the group as they wander noisily through the tunnel system, which lucky for them is fairly well lighted. Along their journey, there are brief shadowy glimpses of the Trackman, a masked figure with goggles, carrying a pickaxe, reminiscent of the killer in My Bloody Valentine. When Splint is found dying, with his eyes gouged out, the group realizes that they are not alone. When a strange mist conveniently appears in the tunnel, it is finally time for the Trackman (Aleksey Dmitriev) to swing his pickaxe.

After this, the pace begins to pickup, and the herd is thinned down a bit. Things get more interesting, when the Trackman sets his sights on Katya, and tries to strangle her long distance using a cord. Grom manages to save her, and they barely manage to crawl to safety. Somehow the Trackman remains close behind, and even engages in a little gunplay, before whipping out of all things, his trusty flamethrower! Grom and Katya battle the Trackman at his hideout, which soon becomes an inferno, bringing this unlikely adventure to a fiery conclusion.

Trackman gets off to a decent start, but quickly looses momentum, dragging on for far too long before it finally gets going. Even after the action ramps up, most of what occurs is pretty ridiculous, such as when Katya shows no damage after hitting her head with a pipe. Other strange events are not explained, like how does a motorcycle get stuck on the ceiling of the tunnel, and then somehow get back down again? Still, the action scenes in the final act are decent enough to keep the film from being a complete waste of time. Trackman is a fairly robotic killer, who doesn't speak. He usually moves at a snail's pace, but occasionally is capable of bursts of speed. Character development in general is very shallow, with the dialog mostly consisting of senseless chatter, or people giving commands or making threats. The tunnel settings are very inconsistent, and the structure varies widely. About the only constant are the narrow tracks for mining carts, that run through the tunnels. Walking through the mud, the cast manages to remain remarkably clean.

There aren't any spectacular kills, and the characters and killer aren't particularly interesting, so Trackman might be best suited to slasher enthusiasts. The movie is disjointed, inconsistent, unpolished, and loses something in the translation, but it does have pretty decent production values, and a few scary moments and well shot scenes.

Trackman (Igor Shavlak, 2007)

First: the usual warnings about watching movies dubbed into English apply. If you can see it with subtitles, by all means do so. The voice acting in the English dub is horrendous, and I have no doubt it contributed in a negative way to my feelings about the movie. Caveat spectator.

As Americans, and especially as Americans who like horror movies, we've gotten used to the idea that everyone and their mothers does it better than we do these days. Yes, America is releasing great horror films, but (a) rarely to the big screen and (b) they're small gems in a torrent of useless crap, a great deal of which you'll probably have to wade through to find them (unless you read reviews from Goat Central, natch, since I've turned you on to such delicacies as Lockout and Baby Blues over the past couple of years). So we're almost Pavlov-conditioned to see a horror flick made in a different country and think "oh, man, that's going to be awesome." Ware this feeling mightily, brethren and sistren, lest you get roped into watching moronic crap like The Ghost of Mae Nak, Frontiere(s), or the woefully underdone Trackman, an entirely unoriginal take on the killer-in-the-subway genre. As a side note: if you want a 2007 killer-in-the-subway movie that really, really works, look much closer to home: the Canadian flick End of the Line was miles better than this.

Plot: bank robbers plot to knock over a bank. Because that's what bank robbers do. Things go belly-up, and instead of getting away with fat stacks, they end up fleeing with three hostages into an abandoned subway station under a close-by junkyard. At which point one of the group asks the others if they've heard about the urban legend about the guys who had genetic experiments done on them who were supposedly shut away down here to die... and from that point on you know exactly where this movie is going. It's another mindless slasher flick with a couple of attractive ladies, a cadre of stupid guys, and a killer who lurks around in the shadows killing everyone in boring ways. Why on earth would you watch this instead of a hundred other, better slasher flicks? * ½

OK, let's get real. TRACKMAN isn't going to win any awards. TRACKMAN isn't going to win a weekend race at the box office. But TRACKMAN isn't as bad as some of the reviewers have made it out to be. It's really pretty good, especially considering TRACKMAN is a Russian attempt at horror.

The plot is fairly simple. A small group of band robbers take hostages and decide to escape through a series of underground tunnels. Great plan!! Right? Wrong. Very bad idea. A psychopath with a fixation on eyeballs lives in the tunnels and he's eager to add to his collection.

Let me state that I am not a fan of the "torture porn" variety horror that seems to be flooding the market in the last few years. I prefer a more subtle approach to horror. But TRACKMAN had it's gory moments and the suspense level was fairly intense.

All in all, I'd say give TRACKMAN a chance. Judging from TRACKMAN, I'd say the future of Russian horror looks very bright!

Just stay out of the dark.

Dvd was on time in excellent condition even though it was low budget I still enjoyed it

An eye-plucking deranged psycho stalks, taunts and mutilates bank robbers and their hostages in the bowels of the city. Just terrible. It may be billed as a Ghost House Underground flick, which is exactly where it belongs...UNDERGROUND. Save your time and money.

The only thing I learned from "Trackman" is-the Russians can make crappy movies too. Dubbed in English-it's like the old Japanese Godzilla movies from the 50s' and 60s' the lip movements don't match the spoken dialogue. The cinematography is ugly, the actors are ugly-even the girls-but Trackman turns out to be the best-looking of the bunch and his face is completely covered.

A group of Russkies rob some rubles from the Vladimer Putin Savings & Loan and after taking some comrades hostage hide out underground in an abandoned subway tunnel. They walk and walk and walk and talk and talk and walk until they....gasp!!..run into the Trackman who goes after them one by one with a hammer and sickle(okay I made that up) actually he uses a pick-axe and after killing he plucks the eyeballs from the victim. Nowadays in a horror movie everyone seems to lose an eyeball or two. By this time in the movie I was hoping someone would pluck my eyeballs out.

Two people escape but who cares? Something else I learned from this movie-when two Russians argue one tells the other to "chill out" and they call policemen "pigs".

Ahhhhhh!! Mother Russia where life is so merry. This movie may cause another cold war. So I vote Nyet for this one.