PLOT SUMMARY: Four friends summon the Queen of Spades and end up being the target of evil forces.
There is something about young adult horror movies that I don't get. Just where are the parents?
A lot could be going into a teenager's life and the parents are blissfully unaware. It doesn't matter if the kid is being bullied at school, or is contemplating suicide, or taking drugs or doing bad in studies.
Nope, the parents don't usually care and if it is a TV series, we'll probably see a glimpse of them somewhere around the season finale.
In horror movies, they'll make an appearance in the beginning and then maybe or maybe not towards the end.
Life is tough, the economy is unstable, they have work to do and they need some free time for themselves too. Who cares if their kid is a target of a serial killer? Or has been practising dark arts?
The parents don't for sure.
Queen of Spades does things a tad differently.
QUEEN OF SPADES Movie Plot
We see a mother trying to get involved in her daughter's life but she has a lot on her plate and looks permanently exhausted. She had to study, work as a janitor somewhere and then try to take care of the house.
In this case, it is the teenager who is a complete brat and doesn't appreciate what her mother is doing for her. Plus she brings along a friend who shows even more attitude on behalf of her friend.
The mother stays quiet throughout it all rather than reminding them that it is her house that she's paying for and that her friend must have privileges not everyone has.
But she's a decent person and stays quiet all the way and in some ways, her story becomes more interesting than the Queen of Spades story.
When the movie begins, we see a foggy forest screen which denotes the days of the week for some reason although there is no specification in the legend that the Queen of Spades will attack on so and so day. Something like this works in movies like The Ring where people only have seven days to live.
Seeing the days of the week throughout this movie didn't make much sense.
We meet four teenagers: Anna, Katy, Sebastian and Matthew. Among them all, Anna is the youngest and this is very important to the story.
The four of them are discussing something about YouTube when Anna points at something more interesting than cat videos. They all see a guy standing on the edge of the roof. In the next instant, he falls down although in a way it looks like he is pushed by something invisible. Or maybe the special effects are really bad.
Either way, the teens run to see the guy sprawled on the ground and calling out for the Queen of Spades. The teens find it complicated to use their phones for something apart from watching videos on it but eventually call the police.
When they regroup in the evening none of them is traumatized by the apparent suicide. Rather, they are mystified by the Queen of Spades legend.
And best of all, they decide they want to play it and end up like the dead guy. For some reason, this appeals to everybody and they decide to play the game and have Anna summon her because she's the youngest and that is how the game works.
Anna jumps in to impress her friends who are elder to her. She stands before a mirror and using lipstick, draws a door and some stairs leading to it.
She calls the Queen of Spades and then Matthew and Sebastian say boo!
It was all a prank.
Anna is pissed off and shows some attitude.
The next day, Anna sulks and almost rolls her eyes at her mother, Mary, who keeps apologizing for not being able to spend time with her daughter because they are in dire straits regarding their finances.
Anna goes in a huff to take a swim only to have Matthew come over to apologize and look all worried because something has happened to his arm and he believes he's been marked by the Queen of Spades.
Anna scoffs and rolls her eyes as she walks to the pool, imagining Matthew to be playing a mean prank on her.
Matthew keeps at it but Anna is busy diving into the pool. Matthew looks into the mirror, sees the Queen of Spades and stretches out an arm. The next instant, he has a heart attack and collapses. Anna finally believes he's telling the truth and calls for help only to have some trouble understanding that phones are also used to calling for help.
Matthew, unfortunately, doesn't make it.
Mary receives a call at work and immediately returns home only to have Katy glare at her and tell her she's not much of a mother because she prefers working for a living and putting food on the table rather than staying at home with her daughter the whole day. It doesn't matter that Mary dropped everything to come to see her daughter. Nope. Why wasn't she already there at home?
The next person on the list is Sebastian who makes contact with Smirnov, an author who not only wrote a thick book on the Queen of Spades but left an ambiguous statement in it that states there is a way to get rid of the Queen of Spades when she is beckoned. That's all it says in the book and then apparently, below it is how to get in touch with him. If one cannot get him on chat, then there is a home address available.
For an author who prefers to be reclusive, Smirnov has given away pretty much all his contact information so that anyone can contact him anytime.
Sebastian easily chats with him and then even video chats with him asking the author how to get rid of Smirnov. He doesn't reveal anything because he's reserved all the answers for the final girl.
Sebastian finds a mark on his arm and before he can do anything else, finds something floating in his bathtub, goes to check it out and then drowns in it.
Mary gets a call at work again, drops everything to be with her daughter only to have Katy give her a hard time again.
At this point, Mary could have answered with where Katy's parents are or that if she was so concerned about Anna maybe she could pay for her food and education while Mary stays home with her daughter the whole day. But Mary still doesn't speak up and lets Katy give her an attitude.
Mary decides to get to the bottom of what is going on rather than scream at Anna and Katy for playing a dumb and dangerous game.
She finds Smirnov online who admits he wrote in his book that there was a way to beat the Queen of Spades but he doesn't want to say what.
Mary gets annoyed and decides to go to his house to badger him. It is Smirnov's fault for making his address public.
She and Anna make it all the way over there and Smirnov opens the door, rolls his eyes but lets them in and immediately starts to help them. He takes pictures of Anna and develops them in his red Room. Mary is shocked to find the Queen of Spades screaming at Anna in one photo. She begs Smirnov to help them. He thinks Anna is at risk of being possessed because she's wearing a ring that is cursed and they decide to throw it at the Queen of Spades when she makes a special appearance. The ring is taken and everyone thinks the threat is over.
QUEEN OF SPADES Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Katy has weird dreams and wakes up to find a mark on her arm. Anna becomes possessed and attacks her with a knife, killing her.
The noise alerts Mary and Smirnov who arrive too late to save Katy.
Smirnov moves on with plan B which is to exorcise the witch from Anna. They tie up Anna whose eyes has turned white and is grunting and thrashing about.
The exorcism takes a lot of time and Mary grows impatient and tells the witch to jump into her instead of the cat Smirnov had prepared. Because she jumped the gun, Smirnov has to make the ultimate sacrifice and tell the witch to jump into him because he's better than a teenager. The witch thinks Smirnov is in better shape than Anna and makes the jump.
Mary runs out with Anna and revives her using the kit from the pool area.
They head outside just as Smirnov jumps out the window to his death.
Six months later, Anna is celebrating her birthday and keeps checking out the mirror. She has made tons of friends and is enjoying herself.
They've adopted the cat who takes six months to show that it is possessed by the witch.
The End. Or is it?
Scare scale: 3/5
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