- Directors: Konstantin Ershov, Georgiy Kropachyov
- Writers: Konstantin Ershov, Nikolay Gogol
- Stars: Leonid Kuravlyov, Natalya Varley, Aleksey Glazyrin
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 16 Minutes
Synopsis
Once upon a time in Russia, Cyrillic credits roll as a voice over briefly tells us that Viy is a popular legend.
A crowd of young monks settle down as a senior priest blesses them and sends them on their way for break. And they are hellions, stealing from the market and grabbed girls on their way out of town. We follow a trio as they all head off in their own directions home, who get lost. They don’t stay on the road or out of the moors. Khalyava, Khoma, and Gorobets.
Just when they think they are going to have to sleep under the stars, they spot a fenced in farm. An old lady reluctantly lets them in, says there’s no food, and splits them up to sleep in different places. Two in the barn and one in the house. The old woman mounts one of the guys shoulders and rides him around the farm and up into the air for flight. She’s a witch! He exclaims. Upon landing, he beats her until she says she’s dying, she reverts to her true beautiful form of a young woman.
Khoma runs away in a panic and ends up back at the school and town he left. The head priest says that the daughter of one of the rich landowners whose estate is outside town is dying, and with her last strength begged for her last rites to be given by Khoma. So Khoma is put on a wagon heading out with a wagon of misfits to the estate.
They stop at an inn for a bite to eat and a whole lot to drink. They hit the road again, drunk and singing. Sadly, the young woman dies before they get there. There’s a touch of comedy throughout as Khoma keeps trying to get away and his companions keep stopping him.
In the somber light of morning, Khoma enters the chapel where the woman is laying in state with her father. He’s shocked to see that it’s the girl who was the old woman that he beat. Khoma denies he knows anything, but the father says her last words were to send for Khoma to pray over her for three nights. Khoma says he’s not worthy, he even slept with a butcher’s wife during lent, but the father insists he do it. Or else…
There is a funeral service with wailing and singing villagers as they move her coffin out of the house and into the chapel. Then his traveling companions bid him good luck as he’s locked in the chapel with her for the first night to pray over her. He lights all the candles, says some prayers, snorts a little snuff and sneezes loud enough to wake the dead.
She rises blindly, stumbling around homing in on his voice but kept out by a magic circle he drew around himself. Khoma prays like he means it now. Nice bit of mime work from the actress who is kept out by the invisible barrier of his circle. With the crowing of the rooster signaling daybreak, she collapses back into her coffin. One night done!
Over breakfast his six companions ask how it went. Noises, nothing, Khoma replies. Day passes with folk singing and drinking, and he sets off night two very drunk, starting right off with the protective circle this time. “A Cossack is afraid of nothing because there’s nothing to be afraid of,” he says. This time the whole coffin and girl levitates, trying to batter her way through the magic barrier – a pretty cool effect. Another night ends and she rests again.
With day, Khoma wants to dance somewhere between delirium and joy at being alive. He takes off his hat to reveal his hair has turned white overnight. He tries telling the father that she’s bewitched and he can’t go on, but dad’s not having it. Pray over her he commands, or get a lashing. If he does, he’ll get 1,000 gold pieces. Khoma mulls around a bit then runs away but doesn’t get far before his companions bring him back.
On to the third night. Khoma prays fervently as she rises again. She curses him as he prays. Hands come out of the walls and reach for him. Skeletons and creatures close in. Then she summons Viy, the biggest and baddest monster. The circle fails and the creatures mob him. They are driven back by morning, but it’s too late. The young woman reverts back to the old witch as she collapses back into the coffin this time, and Khoma lays prone.
His two young friends from the beginning talk about poor Khoma, God rest his soul. If he only hadn’t been afraid the witch couldn’t have got him. Or maybe, one speculates, he isn’t really dead at all.
Commentary
Brian: I liked it more than I thought I would. It’s a super-slow-burn film, with the first ten minutes being really good and the last ten minutes being really good, with the slow burn center. This was the very first horror film produced in Soviet Russia, and it’s all about doing your duty and not being afraid of anything. Yes, it’s based on a folk tale, but it’s no “Snow White.” It’s a sort of vampire story, but it’s really more about witchcraft and the real witches of legend, not the usual film witch.
It’s entertaining primary due to its Russian-ness. We don’t get many many Russian horror films, and the ones we do get are great, because well, Russians know horror. The costumes and effects at the end are really good considering this is from the 60s, and they are clearly superior to most of the Hammer or Corman films of the era. Yes, it’s all very low-budget, but it really works and holds up fairly well even considering the low budget. The hero dies at the end, which is of course, about as Russian of an ending as you could expect.
Kevin: It was a very different culture in another country, in another time. As Brian put it well, the foreign-ness of it was entertaining and interesting, but it was a really slow moving piece. It seems like more of a folk tale than horror, with the scares being pretty low key. There are some pretty good special effects and the finale of her menagerie of creatures is creepy.