The Blue Whale (#Blue_Whale – YA idu igrat) challenge that cropped up a few years ago, was proven to be a hoax. Initially reported by various journalists as a social network challenge where participants were given a task list comprising 50 demands. Supposedly responsible for suicides all around the world, the last task was formulated to end it all. Other collective hysteria hoaxes like Momo and Fire Fairy as well as death games and Kdrama have cropped up from time to time on social media and radio.
Death Games KDrama
None of these very public hoaxes have proven to be the direct cause of any deaths. Why they start or how they are such convincing anecdotes is probably why people give them so much credit. But as far as being fodder for ghost stories where everything is now online, it’s no wonder filmmakers are diving in headfirst. Subsequently, “#Blue_Whale” (“YA idu igrat”) is one of a handful of horror movies about this dark web internet danger.
“YA idu igrat”
Despite being a documentary of sorts, the #Blue_Whale plays out like the movie starring John Cho called, “Searching“. What the film does well is extend on how and why a game like this could be orchestrated. If it were a real death club, what might that look like from the inside? This suspense-driven horror movie gets to the crux of what teenagers deal with and how big everything seems at the moment it’s happening. The characters are likable. Most of what happens is shown as a nightmare in its own right. It occurs when peer pressure and identity are brought down.
Table of Contents
Blue_Whale 2021 Challenge (Death Games)
When Dana’s sister steps in front of a train, she wants to know how and why she did it. Beginning with a deep dive into the teenager’s internet history, she finds things that shock and disturb her. The film creates the character of Dana as an intelligent girl who is not easily convinced by social trends. Dana played by an extremely convincing Anna Potebnya is only ever undermined by the dialogue and plot holes she is forced to enter into.
#Blue_Whale is often overly reliant on a few well-known film tropes which only serve to make the movie predictable and at times zap its articulate tension. The script allows for Dana at one point to be institutionalized only to retain her trusty mobile phone. Her skill set also seems far more well-rounded for someone her age. MacGyver-level is good. If of course, MacGyver was a computer hacker.
Blue Whale isn’t a documentary though and as a horror and thriller movie, it is entertaining. There are plenty of twists and turns that will keep the most enthusiastic fans at bay. The online world was created by writers Evgenia Bogomyakova, Olga Klemesheva, and Anna Zaytseva and it works. The addition of masked curators and Dana’s sleuthing for the admins of the Blue Whale group gave the whole story an extra level of interest.
Final Thoughts and What to Watch Next
What surprises me most about films like this with cinematography etched out as if in front of a mobile device, is that it adds rather than takes away from the overall result. I can only imagine the technical side of creating films like this would be hard to pull off. Many found footage films fail in this way. They don’t affect some audiences with motion sickness. This film could fail similarly. But it doesn’t. #Blue_Whale establishes plenty of underlying social commentary while documenting a cool horror movie.
The film was played at 2021’s Fantasia Film Festival. Koch Media has acquired German and Italian VOD rights. This Russian-language film released to the internet in June 2024. Check below for where to watch.
For what to watch next Mother of Movies recommends Truth or Dare, a classic death game horror film released in 2018. Choose or Die is streaming on Netflix and This Game’s Called Murder is a quirky horror action film that flew under the radar in 2021.
Social Media monsters are also prevalent in society, watch a documentary about one of them in Social Media Monster 2024.
I give Blue Whale
3.5 trusting teens out of 5
YA idu igrat or Blue Whale 2022 is Streaming
YA idu igrat or Blue Whale 2022 is streaming on:
Blue Whale Trailer 2021
- DIRECTOR Anna Zaytseva
- WRITER Evgenia Bogomyakova, Olga Klemesheva, Anna Zaytseva
- CAST Anna Potebnya, Yekaterina Stulova, Polina Vataga, Timofey Yeletsky
