*In Yakov Smirnoff voice* In America, people go hunting for ghosts… in Russia, ghost finds you! Ilya S. Maksimov’s 2018 film, Проводник (or Provodnik, or The Soul Conductor in English) is a film that deals with sanity, family, unfinished business, and the afterlife. This Russian-language thriller had some obvious conclusions and plotholes but was oddly exciting to watch due to its brisk pace and fitting cast.

The Soul Conductor follows Katya (Aleksandra Bortich), a very reluctant ghost medium who keeps a flask of vodka in her pocket in order to keep the spectral voices at bay. After being remanded to a looney bin when she was younger — by her twin sister, of all people — Katya chooses to live alone, occasionally performing odd jobs for her ghost guests to help them with their unfinished business. One night, her twin sister, Larisa (also Aleksandra Bortich), unexpectedly stops by Katya’s apartment to mend fences, only to leave in anger. Afterward, Katya begins to experience violent visions about Larisa and becomes convinced that she is missing. Determined to find her, Katya enlists the help of local law enforcement, however, she is well known to their department as a nutcase and Katya realizes she must go alone. In order to save her sister, she must face a terrifying force, one that she first met as a child.

Some pretty freaky visions happen throughout The Soul Conductor, which has cool-looking flying stunts tossing Aleksandra Bortich around during her visions, and also, the movie does not skimp on the blood in these scenes. I might even say the amount of blood is gratuitous, in fact, as this effect that I would expect in a slasher or demonic film seems out of place in this murder-mystery thriller. Otherwise, the camera work and the cinematography done by Yuri Bekhterev are horrific but also like a fairytale, beautifully nightmarish and prime reason behind the film’s gloomy and foreboding atmosphere.

The Soul Conductor moves at an exhilarating pace, so much so that I could hardly keep up with the dialogue, which was the customarily sharp-tongued and to-the-point Russian dialogue. Every now and then the most endearing character Vasya, popped up with a sad monologue. As one of Katya’s regular specters, Vasya was played by Aleksandr Robak, though sadly, his heartfelt speeches about his life were passed over rather quickly without taking a beat to dwell on them despite them ending up being what director Ilya S. Maksimov chose to end the movie with. Aleksandra Bortich as troubled anti-heroine Katya was a force to be reckoned with, driving every scene and imbuing them with a lonely but heroic determination that was captivating to watch — her character definitely had many opportunities to display the full range of emotions and Aleksandra Bortich met that task brilliantly. And such lovely screams during those gratuitously gory visions.

As a ghost story that portrays the psychological effects of being a medium, The Soul Conductor is not quite trite but likewise does not quite breathe new life into the genre. If The Sixth Sense is the benchmark, this was far more horrific but seemingly less meaningful. The movie attempts to blur the lines between reality and imagination but falls short in a script that jumps haphazardly from one new plot development to another, and even worse, ends as abruptly as the rest of the movie unfolded and reminded me of the tearfully romantic ending fo Ghost, which is a completely different kind of ghost movie!