Viy

Viy (1967) was the first horror film officially released in the Soviet Union. Horror was long an unwelcome genre in Soviet cinema; this one got through because it is an adaptation of Gogol. The story: Khoma, a seminary student, stays overnight in a village during a holiday. An old woman climbs onto his back in the dark and the two of them rise into the air. Realising she is a witch, he beats her to the ground. As she dies she turns into a beautiful young woman in front of him. Her last request is then relayed to him: he alone must pray over her body for three nights. Khoma is locked into the church and has to get through them. What makes the film still work is that none of the effects are digital. The flying coffin, the rising corpse and the creatures of the third night are entirely mechanical, built by Aleksandr Ptushko. Their strangeness is convincing precisely because of that. Khoma drawing a chalk circle around himself for protection comes from Slavic folklore, and that circle carries all the tension in the film. It runs 76 minutes. Good for: folk horror, classic horror, and Soviet cinema. Less good for: anyone expecting modern horror pacing will not find it, the print is old, and the first half hour is nearly a comedy.