When I cover film fests, it’s for films like Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s previous film Steppenwolf – which was one of my highlights of Fantasia last year and seemingly came out of nowhere. The film took a gritty dystopian road movie and imbued it with intimacy and empathy, while still delivering the action and violence you’d expect given the fest’s genre trappings, without skipping a beat. Little did I know, Adilkhan would be back the following year for a new project that, while quite a departure from his previous film, still shows a deft hand at the wheel as he changes gears. Going from a more grounded – humanity is the real monster, to a more supernatural, actual monster is the monster story and once again dealing out one of my favorites of the fest.
Kazakh Scary Tales is a television show that, from the description on Fantasia’s site, was abandoned by its original distributor due to its extreme content. The first three episodes of a 10 episode run were screened at the fest, which contain the first big arc of the show — if you told me this was the Kazakhstan take on True Detective, I would’ve believed you. The show follows Birzhan Rimzhanov (Kuantai Abdimadi, MOUNTAIN ONION) an eccentric big city detective, who due to his moral compass and trying to do the right thing, has been banished/transferred back to his rural hometown of Karatas, which the director also featured in his 2016 film (The Plague at the Karatas Village). Rimzhanov is definitely a smart cop, but he’s less the tough guy and more the intellectual – which thanks to his bookish nature earns him the nickname ‘meerkat’ by the four other cops in his outpost, who spend their days lazily dodging cases and torturing suspects.
Birzhan’s first case is a grisly incident at a maternity hospital, where right off the bat he is suspiciously offered a transfer and a new title to simply close the case and walk away. Instead, he forms an unlikely bond with the hoodie-clad goth fortuneteller – Sara (Anna Starchenko, Steppenwolf) who just might be the real deal, to hopefully get to the bottom of just what is terrorizing the small rural village.This locks in our Mulder and Scully of it all, and their sometimes third wheel – a scene stealing chronically online flamboyant medical examiner who I couldn’t get enough of. This first mystery essentially sets the tone for the show, which is a folk horror by the way with J-horror with some absurdist comedic flourishes that help ease the tension. It’s not an easy mix to pull off given the series goes to some very transgressive places, but it does so flawlessly and totally hooked me in.
Kazakh Scary Tales could easily be any brave streamer’s next big breakout, there’s a lot of potential here for an X-Files meets True Detective type monster of the week scenario, with the change of location allowing an all new host of creatures and conundrums. The first three episodes deliver a surreal shot of folk horror noir coupled with some intriguing human drama, which isn’t easy. The most intriguing part of Scary Tales oddly enough are our empathetic leads who by the end of the third episode we see in a much different light, they’re endeared to us an audience thanks to their unexpected heroics and unflinching moral compasses. Both Birzhan and Sara are forged by their experiences solving this mystery in a way that locks us as an audience as they go on to their next case. I personally hope someone is smart enough to pick this series up, because it easily could be your latest dose of can’t miss streaming fare.
