T

he dark thriller The Russian Bride, starring Corbin Bernsen, Oksana Orlan and Kristina Pimenova, will screen on closing night 2 March 2019 at the Fantasporto film festival in Porto, Portugal. This will be the film’s international public debut. Fantasporto is a prestigious genre film festival, subsidized by the Portuguese government, with an attendence of around 100,000 people. The film will be released to the world later that month.

World premiere
The Russian Bride is an unusual horror movie worth viewing, is the general view among critics after its world premiere 26 June 2018 at the Cinepocalypse film festival in Chicago. The motion picture, written and directed by Michael S. Ojeda, captivated its audience for the full 100 minutes.

A significant group of cast and crew members accompanied Ojeda to the classic Music Box Theatre, including actresses Oksana Orlan (Nina) and Yuliya Zelenskaya (Lucia), producers Stephen Curtis and Jeff Miller, cinematographer Jim Orr, and executive producers Guido den Broeder and Kimberley Zulkowski.

Review quotes

• As far as horror and thrillers go this one ranks among the best. This is a kick-ass film that will leave you wanting more. (Video Views)
• The Russian Bride is refreshingly unique. (Bloody Disgusting)
• Oksana Orlan has a wonderfully expressive and melancholy face, and her performance immediately pulls you into Nina’s life and struggle. (Nightmare on Filmstreet)
• She is terrific throughout, wonderfully portraying a loving, protective mother and a woman trying to adjust to a new life in a different set of circumstances, but her furious, frantic turn in the final third of the film is absolutely top notch. (Ghastly Grinning)
• Each scene drives the viewer deeper and deeper into the mindset of Karl as the film reaches its intense conclusion. (Horror Movies Uncut)
• The last twenty minutes of the film feel like a cinematic roller coaster as characters attempt to escape from a castle while fighting back against their captors. It’s exciting in a way that few films are, and something that elevates The Russian Bride to another level. (Cinema Slasher)
• The finale is gloriously manic. (Film Pulse)
• With Bernsen in full on nutso mode, The Russian Bride is a pulpy thriller that is saved and rides high on the back of one of the craziest last twenty minutes you will see in any film. (Haddonfield Horror)
• The Russian Bride” treads enough water to bob above an average DTV thriller, and Bernsen’s presence provides the lion’s share of that boost. (Culture Crypt)
• Everything about The Russian Bride sold me. From the desperately beautifully horror story to the character development, and most of all, the most epic ending to end all endings ever. Seriously, that finale was mind blowing. (Pop Horror)
• Ojeda did a fantastic job of weaving a narrative that is both grounded in reality but also maintains horror elements that viewers will appreciate. (Nightmarish Conjurings)
• Jim Orr’s cinematography deserves a mention. He makes great use of the sprawling estate this was filmed on. (Voices from the Balcony)
• In an age when few films emerge as the product of uncompromised vision, The Russian Bride really makes its mark. (Eye For Film)