Spirit of Evil (Viy) (1967)
Runtime: 78 minutes (but the version online I saw was only about 72 minutes)
Directed by: Georgi Kropachyoy, Konstanin Yershov
Starring: Leonid Kuravlyov, Natayla Varley, Aleksei Glazyrin, Nikolai Kutuzov
From: Mosfilm
Well, here's something you don't get every day from me... a review of a movie from the Soviet Union! In fact, this is the first one from those former Commies that I've ever seen; I haven't even watched the famous ones like the original Solaris. How I even found out about this movie was that I heard about it from the first time from the podcast hosted at Dreadcentral.com known as Dinner for Fiends. One of the guys on there (a hipster type, but I'll excuse that fact) mentioned on their last podcast this film, and described it as not only having crazy setpieces and camera work, but it was also like a cross between Sam Raimi and old painter Hieronymous Bosch (see what I mean when I mentioned the hipster thing?) and that sounded so weird I was delighted to discover that someone put English subtitles on it and uploaded it to YouTube. This was the first horror film from the Soviets but what a first film it proved to be.
The story is set in the 19th century (at least that's what I'll presume given that the movie was adapted from a story by Nikolai Gogol, a Ukranian writer from the early 1800's) and revolves around a seminary student who has the task of guarding the place where a deceased witch is being held until she is to be buried. He experiences some spooky things which test his faith, and oh what a battle he has at the finale when the fit hits the shan. The twist is, he met the witch, first in the form of a rather scary-looking old woman, and then in her usual form of a pretty attractive brunette, and he was the one who killed her after he saw her do some witchery.
What that guy said about the movie proved to be true. I understand the Raimi comparisons as there's quite a bit of dark humor and the tone can be pretty light at times yet there's also many effective creepy moments. Also, there were indeed some crazy camera shots that you'd expect to see in something more modern than 1967. At 72 minutes things move rather briskly so you should never become bored with it. I heard some complaints about that fact and while the second half is certainly more action-packed I was never bored with the first half.
While I think some things were lost in translation (literally or just figuratively due to the differences in culture) it still seems like a fresh and entertaining movie to watch 45 years after ther fact, even if you just heard of it now and I just found out about it a few days ago. It's rather unique overall. As it feels newer than its age, it's likely you'll enjoy it if you enjoy such things as witches and hauntings and creepy stuff.
Thus, I am glad I got to watch this one of a kind movie and enjoy its setting, the sets, the humor, and the cool musical score.
I'll be back Friday night with a new review. Will it be more foreign horror?
No comments:
Post a Comment