Row 19, directed by Alexander Babaev and written by James Rabb, is a mystery thriller that employs psychological horror and action-packed editing to create an exciting experience. Primarily set on a commercial airliner, this movie had all of the elements to create a blockbuster-level film, but the end product came together in a straight-to-video manner. However, it is rather good if considered by straight-to-video quality standards, especially further considering its relatively short runtime.

Row 19 is a Russian-language film starring Svetlana Ivanova as Katerina, the sole survivor of a horrific plane crash. The miracle garnered her national fame as a child, and she later grew up to be a psychologist, in order to help herself heal from the trauma. On the anniversary of her plane crash, Katerina decides to take a plane ride to visit her father, bringing along her young daughter, Diana (Marta Kessler). The plane is only occupied by a few flight attendants and passengers, however, this small group experiences a number of big events that lead to a groundbreaking mystery about the connection between the flight that Katerina is sitting on today and the fateful flight she took as a child.

Row 19 started out as a promising, albeit predictable, venture. The film had a loving mother-daughter relationship at its center which had a complex dynamic that was interesting to watch unfold; it displayed their mutual codependence, and  Svetlana Ivanova and Marta Kessler had believable chemistry in playing these roles together. Also, the side characters were put to excellent use in the film, propping up the protagonist throughout the film despite their surface-level and caricature-like development. The side characters also provided a number of interesting storylines (and deaths) that added to the mystery of the main plot, taking turns being either the high-strung character or the calm character, intermittently raising and lowering the emotional vibration of the film.

The best aspect of Row 19 was its editing, which kept the pace with many shots to ensure a lot of details were given, taking care not to miss a single expression from the characters. However, at some point, it began to feel as though too much detail was given, with the film inserting many flashbacks and expositional data-dump characters. Though the runtime was short, the film felt longwinded in getting to the action as well as revealing the danger in the film. I did not feel the tension being built until the movie was nearly halfway through, and by then I was begging for anything, good or bad, to happen to the characters. Once Row 19 got into its plot, the film began to collapse under the weight of perhaps too many horrors, creating an evil entity that seemed separate from the terror of the protagonist’s unstable mind. The psychological horror competed with the supernatural horror, and in the end, it seemed that neither survived, as the ending was abrupt and, in my opinion, rather unsatisfying as it made it seem as though the preceding events were all for nothing.

If I were to summarize Row 19 I might say it is, at times, reminiscent in narrative and aesthetic to Drag Me To Hell, only it is all set on a plane, and since the screenplay spends so much time on making the protagonist flawed and unstable, its plot is much more confusing and unnecessarily convoluted. As many horrors as Row 19 presented, none of them seemed fully explored and they fell by the wayside when, if fleshed out, the movie might have had a chance at feeling complete and emotionally scary. As it stands, Row 19 looks pretty, with flames and CGI creepy eyes that are momentarily impressive but do not quite make up for the seemingly missing pieces of plot that would explain the film’s choices for supernatural plot elements. Were they flying into the pits of hell; were they flying into Katerina’s personal nightmare; who’s flying the plane – I am, unfortunately, still not sure. What I can say for sure is that Row 19 is the kind of movie where characters make silly choices, and so if you like yelling at the screen, then this film may just be an enjoyable watch.

MOVIE RATING — 6 out of 10