Olga Korotko’s Crickets, It’s Your Turn presents a promising take on a certain branch of revenge movies, the type typically only depicted within the horror genre. Whereas those films tend to be bloody and violent affairs, Korotko’s approach is more muted and sombre, allowing its true potency to marinate.
The story finds a young daydream-prone photographer, Merey (Inzhu Abeu), invited to the birthday festivities of someone close to her new friend, Nurlan (Ayan Batyrbek). Riddled with social anxiety, agreeing to the trip is a big deal for Merey, and also sadly forms her undoing. What should be a pleasant weekend of celebrations, immediately becomes uncomfortable when upon arrival, Merey realises she is the only woman in attendance whose company has not been paid for. As the evening wears on, Merey finds herself trapped, surrounded by male competitiveness and derogatory conversation with toxic masculinity waiting behind every turn.
Where Crickets, It’s Your Turn works best, is in its build up to the event that drives the second half of the story. Korotko is careful to not immediately present the men around Merey as dangerous. Granted, one of the group is never portrayed as particularly nice, but unkind is a far way from the deplorable actions that are undertaken later. In taking her time, Korotko lets the ill feelings fester, making the viewer just as uncomfortable as Merey. By placing the audience into Merey’s skin, it makes what happens all the more reprehensible, and yet the aftermath follows a different trajectory.
Having been the focus of the story for the first half, Merey takes somewhat of a backseat for the second act. Instead, the narrative joins Nurlan and his friends as they try to work their way out of the mess that they have made. Importantly, they remain the antagonists to the piece, but rather than following any of Merey’s plotting, time is spent highlighting just how toxic this group is, not only to Merey, but with each other. It presents a fascinating study of a certain type of modern man, and Crickets, It’s You Turn should generate plenty of conversations.
That Merey fades away slightly, dilutes some of the emotional heft that has previously been constructed. She is still present, but with the focus on the men, her plight is felt less, which in turn causes the climax to not hit quite as hard as it could. Overall though, Karotko has done great work at transplanting a story typically confined to the horror genre, opting instead to tell it in a more uncomfortably realistic way.
Crickets, It’s Your Turn
Summary
Toxic masculinity and deplorable actions take centre stage in Karotko’s spin on a well-worn revenge trope story.
Crickets, It’s Your Turn was reviewed at Glasgow Film Festival 2025.
