Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (1979)

Director: Grigori Kromanov
Writers: Arkadiy Strugatskiy (novel "Otel 'U Pogibshego Alpinista'"), Boris Strugatskiy (novel "Otel 'U Pogibshego Alpinista'")
Stars: Uldis Pucitis, Jüri Järvet, Lembit Peterson

Police Inspector Glebsky is called to the remote "Dead Mountaineer's Hotel" – a false alarm as it soon turns out. He decides to spend the night at the hotel anyway since there is no way going back after an avalanche has cut off the hotel from the outside world, and Olaf, one of the other peculiar hotel guests, is found dead. His investigation leads Glebsky into a world of the inexplicable and the supernatural…

DEAD MOUNTAINEER'S HOTEL is based on the novel by the brothers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, who have their place among the most important sci-fi/fantasy writers due to visionary cult novels like "Roadside Picnic" (adapted for the screen by Andrei Tarkovsky as STALKER) and "Hard to be a God". The film, which starts out as a mystical neo-noir thriller with a whodunnit twist and is soon intertwined with sci-fi elements, captivates the viewers not only with a remarkable blend of genres, but also with an impressive mountain setting and an atmospheric synth score by Sven Grünberg. A cult film in Estonia and a huge box-office success in the Soviet Union, it is now, over 40 years after its German theatrical release in the GDR, finally available again.

"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.

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