“Get out of here, stalker.”

"Stalker is for people who like Stalker." -- TheAlmightyLoli, 2024

You know, after hearing about the state of the Soviet Union from sources like Oleg Penkovsky and things like Krushchev’s visit really made me realise that the depiction of soviet Russia maaaaay have been a bit too close to home for some of those Soviet censors

It is also worth noting that several famous art films in the soviet union got pushed by soviet censors to add in explicit communist themes, infamously Solaris had entire mono-logs slapped on to appease censors. As well, soviet art is itself one hell of a rabbit hole of artists vs censors, down to the creation of an entire network of self published artists printing their own books. A lot of art that was allowed to exist and foster was done not to promote art, but to promote the Soviet Union, which did lead to some interesting things like the creation of "Waterloo", though most examples are a bit more pop art that tries to follow what the west was doing, which lead to some interesting cartoons and action films. Really, if the art world was intellectually honest there would be a plethora of documentaries about how the soviets treated art, rather than tankies just blindly pretending that because an art film exists the soviet union was pro artistic expression.

Let us drink to him again, he was a good Stalker!

Good Hunting, Stalkers.

The sections of the movie showing life in the USSR reminded me of that French commie (couldn't find the name of the guy) that moved to Russia after WW2 and upon seeing the state of the country declared "You'd think they lost the war." His disappointment was so big that he tried to kill himself while living there.

The Darkwood shoutout is appreciated. Darkwood is the twisted fairy tale counterpart of Stalker.

Regarding the Annihilation tangent, the book trilogy is a lot deeper than the movie, because they chopped a lot out. I would highly recommend the books because of just how strange it gets by the end. Because Book 1, Annihilation is about the ladies in the zone, but books 2 and 3, Authority and Acceptance, pull the view back and dive into the bigger picture. Great video man

I don't know why the music montage you have at the start of each of your reviews is so good. This one particularly was magical.

Not gonna lie, the way you talked about how STALKER is basically a critique on cynicism and how the zone is an analogy for God is beautiful and makes a lot of sense. I feel like a lot of people are like the writer. Cynical, and mad and afraid of well, the zone. Honestly I found him to be one of the more interesting characters because he resonated with me a lot. I found myself being so cynical and losing faith, not really happy with where I was, just kind of depressed and jaded. But as time passed and I started to see the world for its beauty, I started to resonate more with the STALKER. With me finding God again and finding beauty in the small things, the STALKER ended up being my favorite character. Anyways, annihilation was pretty fun imo I liked it a lot but I get your problems with it. That bear scene though holy shit.

On a surface level, I wonder how much of an influence Stalker/Roadside Picnic had on Made in Abyss. The premises are similar at least: groups of people enter an area where the laws of physics break down, valuable artifacts are brought back for profit, horror and suffering are abound, etc. But even on a deeper level there are similarities namely how the stalkers/delvers have a respect for the Zone/Abyss that borders on worship and how there's some undefined something at the center/bottom that draws people to it.

With enough unmarked energy drinks and stale bread. A man can conquer any problem, mutant or human.

It's interesting how despite being done by some of the most iconic films in history, the use of B&W vs color film segments to contrast normality with fantastic elements is a surprisingly rare effect.

I have the book roadside picnic, seen the film and played the game, I love them to death

Also your mention of Darkwood being inspired by STALKER and roadside picnic is neat but I'd say its also similar to another Strugatsky story, snail on the slope. Just something to mention.

All this movie did "stalker" is really reignite my faith and belief in God because honestly it's a really good freaking film that has the nuances and the willingness to talk about Faith which is the Zone in this case and how different people see it.

I watched the Stalker movie a few months ago and it was truely a experience to be reconed with. I find it especially striking how much water there is in the zone. To the point that they often have to sleep soaked in water. I have heard that the filming was especially grueling because of the cold and wet environment. Apparently parts of the equipment got wet, so they could not even use some scenes they shot. A lot is lost to the zone...

"Annihilation" is just one part of a trilogy of books called the Southern Reach Trilogy, goes way more in depth to the phenomenon seen in the film, as books tend to do. They originally meant to do 3 films but the first film was such a cluster that the rest of the project got dropped

i remember this one being hard to find & when i watched it it became one of my favorites, it sucks hat this movie killed Tarkovsky, as i wish we could've seen what else he could make. i also had a schizo episode once where i thought the movie also had the initialization of the video game and went into a slap fight on discord over it.

I first saw this film in the mid-90s. Came home after yet another long night of laborious physical work, cracked a beer, and checked what was on cable TV to wind down with. I had never heard of this film at the time, being in my early 20s, and it appeared to be the only interesting thing on. Once the film got into the Zone, I became glued. The movie's locations, shots, and the whole vibe in general sucked me in. It certainly left an impression. Obviously not for everyone, but I always enjoyed unusual and "artsy" films so my channel surfing paid off.

I watched this for the first time four days ago, so this video couldn't have come at a better time. Great analysis here as per usual mate.

Annihilation would have greatly benefit to be more vague about its premisce and the military setting. I'm sure there's a far better movie if someone would cut some of the expository scenes in the first half hour. Still a pretty good movie, very trippy in some parts.

One of the my most beloved things about the Stalker, it's how diffrent people from around the globe react about soivet reality in it. People don't really wish to know what kind of stuff really happened around some things.

You just keep delivering reviews of movies I love! Keep it up! What's even spookier than the Chernobyl connection to this franchise is the Kyshtym disaster, which occured in 1957 and was covered up by the Soviet government. It's so eerie that between two nuclear disasters, one not being revealed until 1976, 4 years after the novel, and one happening many years after the film and the novel would all follow similar themes.

The Zone knows. 🎩 🐍 no step on Snek!🇺🇸🇭🇰

Side note: Metro 2033 is an amazing read, its sequels are amazing aswell i recommend them all

I watched STALKER about a year ago but only recently have I been obsessed with the movie. Something about it just tickles a part of my brain, something strange and dream like about it.

I need to read Roadside Picnic again.

I like how you have the Bar music playing in the background. Such a calming track

Thank you for giving this movie some much needed attention. Great work, as always.

One of my favorite films of all time and I've been thinking about it recently for the last two days. Excited for this! Thank you!

Welcome to the Zone, Stalker.

i unfortunately have to disagree as someone who loves the games the novel and the movie of stalker aswell as the Annihilation novels each their own way. i abhorred the Annihilation movie Adaptation specificly. they didnt just get "inspired" by the stalker movie they also blatantly snipped arround the story of the book Annihilation in terrible ways which has a lot of other themes from the stalker franchise as a whole inspired or not . over all i dont think its terrible to try to do both tacticool larping explore a character study and even mire but whoever wrote the script together clearly had only interest in a select few things while still packing everything else in there aswell . it could have been easier to just turn it into a tv show anyways . my rant about that movie aside . great review . made some points i didnt even consider. so i dont feel like being in an Echo chamber . good work

Really a bad idea to film the last scene of the movie in a abandoned Chemical Plant.

Say what you will about Annihilation, but that final sequence is the best depiction of something utterly alien on film. And that alien bear was pretty hype too

Cheeki Breeki!

Perfect timing i've been addicted to stalker anomaly for 2 weeks and this pops up

one of my favourite films, easily

Always love your deep dives

Hey man, long time viewer here, absolutely love your videos, I'd really like for you to create a series on vagabond, I've read it and it's really good, I'd love to hear your narration of it, you just provide a lot of depth to the story. Great work man, bless you

Literally just watched this movie, crazy this video popped up on one of my favorite channels

i can finally say кино unironically

Wasn't expecting this one, saw notification and opened it immediately

The Zone was the boomer's backrooms.

So that's why the local Art Museum plays this on Christmas day.

damn I regret not stopping to go watch it, sounds amazing. still might watch it and just vault watching this so I can go in fresh, so for when I dont remember watching this for a few weeks know the me that did is grateful for the incredible rec, thx man.

6:59 To be fair, in 1970s all religious persecutions were just a formality. Under Brezhnev's rule a relationship between The state and The Orthodox church had become warmer, so to speak. Yeah, some people tried to preach everyone "Religion is bad, you should be ashamed" but that's about it. Actually, Tarkovsky was allowed to make a movie about a famous russian icon painter, Andrey Rublev but it was censored and cut as unpatriotic... (And because of animal cruelty. Yeah, there were some stories about a cow burned alive and horses that was sliced. It wasn't proved or denied so rumors still go). The reason for cutting wasn't religious, more a political one. Just to be clear, I'm not trying to defend the Soviet State, I want to clarify the situation: a religious overtone is there, for sure, but it's more like an analysis of Soviet past (and my assumption: It's about Khrushchev's religious politics) than a satire about current state of Soviet union.

Good review of awesome movie. Today i remembered this picture. Stalker - game - is not perfect but still it's a very interesting world. Thank you

love this film, glad you covered it!

Well this is one hell of a coincidence. I just watched this film for the first time last week.

Great video.

Eduard Armityev’s soundtrack is legendary, probably my favorite composer next to Vangelis.

To me personally, "Annihilation" is a cosmic horror story very similar to Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space"

Factions in Stalker games actually took references of those 3 characters in the movie The Stalker = Loner, Freedom, Bandit The Writer = Ecologist, Mercenary, Clear Sky The Professor = Duty, Military

I love stories that are depressing as hell yet also beautiful and hopeful at the same time.

I thought annihilation was more color out of space than roadside picnic

Ah, yes. True Arthouse kino is here.

Also Into the Radius VR is heavily inspired by both the book and the stalker series, and I highly recommend anyone that’s a fan of this, to try it out too, it’s very immersive

a stalker movie review?? ohhh man, gonna need some whisky for this one!

Literally cheered the moment I saw this in my recommended.

Amazing video

Thanks for Nese Galya vodu!

While this is very far off from roadside picnic it's still a weirdly great film that spawned from a place that it was a miracle that the original even survived.

Ah, one of my favorite movies. Despite it's length Stalker flys by for me.

It honestly sounds like a great film with some amazing camera angles, definitely worth watching.😺

Another production tidbit was they had to reshoot entire sections of the movie because the footage they shot when it was developed was developed improperly and the colors were completely fucked.

Finally some ART

tarkovsky always had something serious to say, doesn't matter what the plot is, or the source material, he is aimed at bringing you to that place and those ideas such as faith , morality , suffering etc. Solaris similarly has a difference between the novel and film. the Lem novel is a creative foray into the possiblilties of life and intelligence on other planets and how that would break our current notions of science and philosophy. The film was about faith morality suffering persistence of memory consciousness love dreams time yearning loss etc lol, classic tarkovsky biz

I think u might want to give scavengers reign a try. I think it kinda touches on the same themes you’ve mentioned in the vid. Thanks for putting me on!

Let's go on a roadside picnic Frens.

Unironically, one of my favorite pieces of media depicting oppression of belief and humanity. Fun!

25:02 Does anybody know the name of this song?

I think the view that Roadside Picnic was only about the alien refuse and its capacity for destruction is a bit reductive. Felt it was more so a subversion of the traditional SF first contact narrative. It's a cynical answer to something like Close Encounters. In the book, man's encounter with what comes from beyond doesn't lead him to some new state of understanding, but instead just reveals how little he knows. It's an exercise in recognizing ignorance as opposed to discovering knowledge, yet still finding a way to keep going. Though not as direct as the film, thematically it still focuses on ideas of faith and humility in the face of the ineffable.

Thank you .

Loli you have the best taste in music on KZfaq

russian market had like a thousand stalker books. And it's the game-like universe books. It's more of a shovelware every book was almost the same. Consider it like the popcorn - a cool stalker guy does thing, get f-ed over and goes on rampage. At some point it fizzled out, but i've seen stalker books in rows by tens of different authors. Right now it got replaced by the... hahaha... isekai genre of all things.

anytime you upload a video on your channel, i know today a good day

Having seen Stalker twice, I never once got the impression that there was any kind of sentience that demanded respect. To me it always felt like the stalker was exaggerating how dangerous the place was so that people would think that they needed him to guide them because leading people to their wish gave him a sense of purpose and hope in a miserable world. I saw the ending as him losing or struggling to hold on to hope after being called out and forced to see his own selfish desires.

Can you do one on the Holy Mountain?

Best KZfaq recommendation since Horses

Cheeki Breeki can be heard on the wind...

Hi hiii I enjoy your videos a lot ^^

I can't believe I watched it during a Vtuber watchalong. I will never forget it.

Watched the movie in preparation for this review. Also love the games

I always considered Andrei Tarkovsky to be a more spiritual version of Stanley Kubrick. A lot of Tarkovsky's camera work has a lot spiritual elements compared to the more technical shots like Kubrick.

5:50 a yes, characters referred to as titles like in all classic folklore storytelling- the Professor, the Skipper, the Movie Star, true art

Well I wasn't expecting a review of one of my favorite movies today. Thanks Loli.

Still fascinated towards this picture

Perfect ending mate

Don't forget Ferry's vocaloid series, Parties Are For Losers, which adds SLAVIC TEEN ANGST to the mix.

Wow, it’s like a Soviet Silent Hill… up my alley.

We need a video on Blame!

Blessings upon this movie and Roadside Picnic for inspiring quite possibly my all time favorite game: Metro 2033.

Loli, I got hooked on your videos when I ran across your Berserk masterpiece. I know you don't really cover games, outside of reference to them on a related topic. I'd love to see you cover one though, called Chained Echoes. HEAVILY influenced by Berserk, some phenomenal writing and storytelling (like make you tear up sometimes), and I also believe made by one dude. Which makes it all the more impressive! Let me know what you think.

I do wonder what kinda Shadow Self I would see in The Zone? What would be my Wish?

I got fired over this upload but I’m here for it

A roadside picnic. Such an interesting book and it inspired the movie that inspired the games.

For a Memorial Day special, you should do Taps (1981)

AI Saul Goodman caught me off guard 😂