2) Come And See
More often than not, there’s solace and reassurance to be found in reminding yourself that the disturbing movie you just saw was nothing more than a fictitious and carefully constructed piece of art. With Come and See, that logic doesn’t necessarily apply, and what we’re left with is a rare case of a “pure” horror film that reenacts some very real atrocities that occurred in Nazi-occupied constituent republics of the Soviet Union during World War II.
The movie follows a young man named Flyora, a boy who resides in a village that falls victim to Nazi invasion during 1943. Flyora sees German soldiers revelling in his suffering; drinking, laughing and finding pleasure in another group’s pain. People burn, people scream, people beg and there is never any indication that there’s a chance for mercy.
We share Flyora’s view, and the sights are sickening enough to make you wonder about humanity. Impactful, despairing and utterly relentless, Come and See is so great that it’s almost impossible to recommend. You may need to read that twice, but you were right the first time. It’s a film that’s so successful in its depiction of war crimes that subjecting it to anyone seems almost unfair.
Elem Klimov never made another movie after Come and See, and in a way he never needed to. The material for a truly petrifying horror film was already there in a dark chapter of real human history, and Klimov broke convention by framing it not as exploitation cinema, an action movie, or an inquisitive documentary, but as an unflinching look through the innocent eyes of a terrified teenage boy. It’s a nightmarish window into a terrifying part of history. Once you “come and see,” you’ll never be able to forget.