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The Superdeep (Russian: Кольская сверхглубокая, romanized: Kol’skaya sverkhglubokaya, lit. ‘Kola Superdeep‘) is a 2020 Russian horror film directed by Arseny Syuhin,^[1][2][3] based on the real-life Kola Superdeep Borehole.

The film focuses on a group of researchers and soldiers who investigate the mystery surrounding reports of a disease outbreak at a secret underground research facility in 1984 Russia.

In 1984, Anna Fedorova, a Soviet epidemiologist, authorized skipping pre-human tests for a vaccine to meet government deadlines; her research associate, Dr. Zotoff, voluntarily tested it on himself but died as a result. Anna attempts to resign in shame, but her superior, GRU Col. Morozov, persuades her to continue.

On New Year’s Eve, Anna, successful in her research, is celebrating with loved ones when Morozov calls about an imminent, clandestine mission to the Kola borehole in Murmansk, which is not only a dig site as the public believes but also hosts a subterranean laboratory in a kilometers-deep layer of permafrost. Sounds of an unknown origin were recorded deep beneath the surface; shortly after, twenty people went missing. Their task is to retrieve samples from a suspected disease outbreak, one concealed by the site’s head, Dr. Grigoriev.

Anna and Morozov, with soldiers led by Maj. Mikheev, fly to the ice-covered facility. Upon landing, a man in a lab coat approaches, pursued by on-site soldiers who shoot him several times with no effect before he kills himself with a grenade. Anna takes samples from the body, but they decay quickly in the cold. While Anna examines the evacuating staff, a man warns her that they are being lied to and that the lower levels are Hell. Mikheev takes an interest in Anna, regularly trying to guess her accent.

The team meets Deputy Head of Research Peter Kuznetsov, who has denounced Grigoriev. The latter demands guarantees that any remaining employees sealed in the lower levels be rescued; having sealed all other access and changed the elevator codes, they are forced to go with him. During the descent, Grigoriev depressurizes the elevator cabin to incapacitate the team while he escapes into the “Resort” residential module with the elevator key; without it, they cannot reach the bottom-most “Sahara” research module.

Searching Resort, the team finds the site’s engineer and doctor, Nikolay and Kira, both left behind during the evacuation. Anna tests them in Kira’s lab and finds no infection. Encountering Grigoriev, he begs them to leave via the shaft, but refuses to give up the key. The soldiers shoot and wound Dr. Grigoriev, who flees to Sahara using the elevator. Because of the shaft’s fatal heat, some soldiers led by Egorov put on heat suits to pursue Grigoriev. Suddenly, Olga, a Sahara lab assistant without protective gear, emerges from the shaft and is taken to the lab while Egorov’s men descend.

Olga shows signs of fever but feels cold; mold-like growths not observed when she emerged now cover her back. Grigoriev announces over the intercom that he has no choice but to seal the facility and detonates the pressure pump, leaving Resort to collapse within an hour. Returning to the lab, Anna and Mikheev find the walls covered in a black mold, with Olga half-melted to the floor yet somehow alive; she releases a cloud of spores that infects Mikheev. Anna dons a gas mask and narrowly fends off a mutated Kira. Realizing the mold dies at low temperatures, Anna uses a fire extinguisher to decontaminate herself.

Anna tells Morozov that the permafrost keeps the mold colony from spreading, so it needs a warm host. Morozov reveals that he cannot call for rescue; determined to procure a biological weapon for the state, he elects to bring the worsening Mikheev to the surface. Egorov frantically radios that he is under attack, so the three remaining soldiers attempt a rescue against his warnings, but only two return, encountering something “big” and unaffected by gunfire. The third appears, missing an arm and pursued by an unseen entity, before slitting his own throat. Mikheev and the last two men stay behind to delay the attacker while Nikolay rigs the elevator to descend.

The four survivors find Sahara frozen, discovering an entire wall covered in the missing infected scientists melted together, but killed by the cold. Grigoriev has taken the key out into the boiling-hot exterior and sabotaged the heat suits, so Morozov volunteers to retrieve it, but does not return. Anna ventures out to recover the key from his body, witnessing a colossal, glowing fungal super-colony at the heart of the outbreak. Peter takes it at gunpoint and wounds Nikolay, wanting the fame of officially discovering the mold. Reaching Resort, they are attacked by a large organism made up of fused bodies that absorbs Peter. Anna hides in a freezer, cooling herself to stealthily obtain the key and escape with Nikolay, only to discover a mutated Mikheev melted into the elevator floor. He begs Anna not to let the infection out, but Nikolay, intent on escaping, fights her for the controls. Mikheev partially frees himself and fatally stabs Nikolay to save Anna: she tells him she is Yugoslavian and kisses him. Now infected, she drops the elevator, but is dragged away by a hazmat team before it plummets. Once outside in the cold, Anna steals a grenade and attempts to kill herself and the last of the parasite. As a soldier sneaks behind her with a sedative, the screen cuts to black as she primes the grenade.

Other members of Mikheev’s unit include Ilya Ilinykh as an unnamed Sergeant, Vladimir Kolida as a radio operator, and Evgeniy Tscherkashin as a sniper.

The Superdeep has an approval rating of 29% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 14 reviews, and an average rating of 4.1/10.^[4]

• The Superdeep at IMDb