Viy (1967) Reviews

• Holy minimalist masterpieces, Batman!

  rooprect2007-01-05

  I'm not particularly a fan of horror flicks. I watched this movie simply because I wanted to see something Russian. But as I found out, this is much more than a typical horror flick. It has a lyrical quality to it almost like a Greek play. True, it has ghosts & goblins & creepy things in it. But so do Greek plays. I consider this to be a fantasy or an allegory with some nice subtle insights about rustic life and the human condition in general. Some of the witty dialogue is absolutely priceless. I'm not familiar with the writings of Gogol who wrote the original story of "Viy", but if you're a fan of Tolstoy's short stories ("The Imp and the Crust") or Guy de Maupassant ("The Devil") or maybe the lighter side of Poe ("Never Bet the Devil Your Head"), then this'll be right up your alley. And of course it'll scare the socks off your arse. The camera illusions in this movie are absolutely 1st class. Don't be put off by the fact that it had a "low budget" by Hollywood standards. The minimalist approach really brought out the director's creativity in this case. Like an old 1940s Jean Cocteau film, the special effects are timeless in their simplicity, and they will hold up for the next 50 years, long after CGI has gone the way of the dodo (and not a moment too soon).

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• An excellent forgotten fantasy piece

  Alex Klotz2002-03-19

  Although the film starts off a bit in the fairy tale fashion, the film doesn't lack anything a great sixties horror movie, be it from Italy, England or the U.S. should have. I think it's wonderful that a Russian gem like this got re-released in the US, so that I could see it in Germany. If this movie had been distributed better, I think it would turn up in every horror movie history besides the works of Bava (yes, MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO was based on the same story...although the Russian version sticks a lot more to Gogol) and the Hammer and Roger Corman Productions. If you're a fan of atmospheric sixties horror, you definitely should see this one, if only for the unforgettable climax.

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• Excellent Russian fantasy-horror

  TheLittleSongbird2013-08-15

  Viy is perhaps too short and has a slow start but when you stick with it it is really an excellent film that is very Russian in flavour and does its fantasy and horror elements in a most effective way. The scenery is both sumptuous and foreboding, so good in fact that you wish you were there. The film is lovingly shot and the special effects are certainly above-average with Aleksandr Ptushko's(also director of some of the best Russian fantasy films seen by me) style all over them. Another outstanding element is the music, it sets the atmosphere of the film brilliantly, at times lyrical and others surreal. Some have remarked about the influence of composers like Mussorgsky, Prokoviev and Rachmaninov and it's definitely there, the scoring of the creepy and surreal moments in particular have a very Mussorgsky-like wonderful weirdness. The dialogue is witty and thought-provoking, the Tolstoy and Poe comparisons remarked in a previous review are apt as well. The story engages throughout, the fantasy gives a real sense of wonder, the sense of adventure is exciting at least and the horror elements are appropriately creepy and unsettling. The characters are ones you have seen before but they really help to carry the film, fit in the atmosphere very well, have personality and all serve a point in some way to the story. All the characters are enthusiastically performed, sometimes with a tendency to be a tad over-theatrical but this is not uncommon for Russian/Soviet fantasy and especially from the 60s and it doesn't hurt things in any shape or form. To conclude, Viy is excellent and well worth watching if not quite a personal favourite. 8/10 Bethany Cox

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• A Russian Classic Horror Movie

  claudio_carvalho2004-04-11

  Three drunken Russian seminarians are going home and ask for lodge to an old woman. Actually, she is a witch, who captures one of them and uses him like a flying broom. The young priest fights with her and kills her. After her death, she becomes a young and beautiful woman. Her rich father calls the young priest and orders him to stay with her body in an wooden church, praying for three nights, as per her daughter's wish before die. The witch summons many creatures from hell to fight against the priest. This tale is very interesting, weird and non-sense, having a wonderful photography and excellent special effects for a 1967 film. I dare to say that the story is a little crazy, maybe better understood by Russians, since it is based on their folklore. Anyway, I believe that fans of horror movies will like it. The atmosphere in the church is very dark. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): `Viy – O Espírito do Mal' (`Viy – The Evil Spirit')

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• Little known Russian horror gem

  mhesselius2010-07-28

  I bought "Viy" on DVD with some trepidation, worried by comments that it wasn't scary, that the special effects were crude, and it was slow. Don't believe it, unless you are one of those who rate movie horror by the numbers of mutilations and amounts of blood. Based on a little known and lesser story by Nikolai Gogol, the film actually improves the original with effectively creepy music (where appropriate), and with special effects that were very good for a movie made nearly forty years ago. The carefully faithful adaptation concerns a seminary student on holiday who is propositioned by a hag who turns out to be a witch. She rides him through the air like a broomstick, and when they land he beats her off with a club only to discover that, near death, she has transformed into a beautiful young woman, the daughter of a Cossack chieftain. Her father sends to the seminary for the student because his daughter requested that only he be summoned to read the prayer for the dead three consecutive nights over her corpse. What happens in the locked chapel until dawn during those nights is what the story is about. It is as scary as most of the Hammer films of the same era, only with Gogol's trademark sense-of-humor. Hammer would have made the witch more grotesque, and the young dead woman sexier. The only let-down is that Viy's appearance at the end of the movie is not very scary and even somewhat comical. But he's only on screen a few seconds. The creatures that crawl out of the walls ahead of Viy are as grotesque as anything to be found in films of that time, and make the lead-up to Viy's arrival very suspenseful

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