The Soviet Union’s first horror film!
1967-11-27
N/A
76 min
A seminary student on monastery holiday kills an old witch in a remote village. The hag then transforms into a beautiful young woman whose dying wish is for him to watch over her wake for three nights. With terrors occurring and his faith waning, he reads prayers on the overnight watch and tries to survive the supernatural encounters.
I gather this is one of the few "horror" films ever made during the Soviet era and it plays rather well on the superstitions of a rural population who are pretty much scared of their own shadows! "Khoma" (Leonid Kuravlyov) is a young priest who is charged with sitting with the corpse of a young woman. Locked, overnight, inside a small wooden church, he must protect her body from the evil spirits that might emanate from the depths of Hell to corrupt not just her, but him too! The eponymous "Viy" is the mightiest of those demons who is determined to seduce the young man - but can the faith and strength of this man of God prevail? I really quite liked this - it is maybe a bit over-scripted, but the visual effects are fun and there is (deliberate) humour amongst the scenes of mayhem as coffins - and their occupants - whizz around the church scaring the cassock off the innocent and frequently terrified "Khoma". The denouement - well that has to be seen to be enjoyed. Don't let the opening few minutes - a bit fable-esque - put you off, this is easily as entertaining as anything Hammer were chucking out in the late 1960s and there are some quirky supporting characters to keep it lively for a quickly paced eighty minutes.
