Three young students at a monastery get lost in the woods during their journey home. They come upon a small house, inhabited by an old woman. She lets them spend the night on the farm on the condition that they all sleep in different spots… The old woman turns out to be a witch and lures philosophy student Khoma Brutus out for a ride on her broom. He panics and beats her to death, and as life slips away from her, she transforms into a young beautiful woman. Khoma flees back to the Monastery, where he is informed that one of the Cossack families that finance the school have been thrown into tragedy, as their daughter lies on her deathbed. The daughter has requested that Khoma come and read prayers for her salvation. ON his way to the farm Khoma is so distraught with fear and anxiety that he gets drunk and misses to read the girl’s last rites before she passes away. To make amends to the family, Khoma now has to hold a three night vigil, three nights of terror…

Constructing Horror.com

Based on Ukrainian writer Nicolai Gogol’s short story The Vij (which also was loosely adapted by Mario Serandrei and Ennio De Concini in their screenplay for Mario Bava’s 1960 shocker La Maschera del demoni / Black Sunday ) the movie is a wonderful document of sixties Eastern horror/fantasy cinema. VIY is one of those classic “bootlegger” videos that you always seem to recognize the images, but never really managed to get your hands on a decent copy back in the days of VCR. Thankfully the movie has been remastered and released on fine quality DVD a few years back. So when you finally lay your hands on it and work your way through the initial viewing, you can’t help but think; What? Was that it? This well noted and documented Russian treasure, was that all it had going for it? Yes, it is kind of campy at places, and yes, it is quite inferiorly acted and dubbed, but it does have a great climax, and this is why it has such a large following of dedicated fans that see the movie as a gem of Russian horror cinema. And it’s fair to say with the directors backgrounds in mind; Kropachyov, at the time a production designer (and still to this day), Yershov a first time writer, its easy to be apologetic toward the movies flaws, because when you look at tone, setting, milieu, and those unforgettable last ten minutes, wow, VIY has it so thick that you almost can touch it. You have to remember that this is in 1967, at the time horror wasn’t the hardcore grind fest that it would become, after the groundbreaking The Night of the Living Dead a year later. But staying in the mind frame of the late sixties, the movie is packed with wonderful uses of back projection, matte paintings, low dolly shots of “hovering “ ghosts and demons, and amazing in on set special effects. That “last night in the church” scene still holds up to a lot of the movies that have come out of Hollywood in the past years.

But whatever your take on the Kropacyov/ Yershov version of VIY, Russian director Oleg Stepchenko is in mid post production of a remake and reworking of Gogol’s original tale scheduled for release in 2009 to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of Nicolai Gogol’s birth. Spending some time looking at the images floating around the internet of this reinterpretation, you first and foremost see the resemblance of cast and set to the original, then the modernized demonic figures start to turn up and it really looks like the reinterpretation for once might overcome the original. Also Robert Englund has his own interpretation set for production in 2009, but perhaps we shouldn’t think about that one until we get there.

Storytelling Highlights:

• Guilty Protagonist:
It’s an interesting approach to use a protagonist that you already have created a kind of disgust within the audience for, which is certainly what you feel about Leonid Kuravlyov’s Khoma Brutus. At the start of the film, he almost beats the old witch to death (who then turns into the young Pannochka played by the gorgeous Natalya Varley, Gothic Lolita’s of today would worship her if they know of her). Instead of going about his mission, and at least trying to redeem himself, he wastes time, ignores the call and gets drunk instead, hence not only almost killing Pannochka, but now condemning her to damnation as he didn’t conduct the last rites. When in the church, he uses snuff, and drink to get through the night, something he knows is not allowed there. Finally instead of staying on the path assigned to him, three nights of vigil for the soul of Pannochka, Khoma tries to negotiate his way out of something that should come natural to a man of the clergy. These contradictions that Khoma lives out create an interesting conflict within the audience as we want to root for Khoma, but at the same time his irresponsibility and negligence make it hard for us to sympathize with him in his ordeal.

• The Contrast Frame:
Eventually though the audience will start to feel empathetic towards Khoma, and will want him to succeed, re-find his faith, and somehow make it through the three nights. It’s known as the Contrast Frame: Which of the two evils do you want to win? The lesser or the greater? Khoma or Pannochka / the VIY? At the same time you will enhance the guilt in the audience – a perfect emotion to explore, but so frequently used in the horror genre.

• The Protective Circle:
You have to use what you’ve got. Khoma is a philosophy student; he does not know how to fight the ghost of Pannochka or the demons that plague his nights. He has no special weapons like the vampire hunters, zombie slayers or angry mob outside the castle. All he has is his wits. So he uses the simplest trick, a protective circle of chalk, and when doing this he also lays down the rules for the ring of fortification. He says loud and clear “You can NOT Enter!” and the demon Pannochka cannot break though the protective barrier, as she can’t step over the chalk. So Khoma is safe for the first night.

During the second night Pannochka rethinks her strategy and instead elevates the coffin so that her feet never have to touch the ground, therefore not either stepping over the circle. Khoma counter strikes her and raising his arms to the skies begs for help and the barrier seems to hold up even in the air. Khoma is safe for the second night, but not before Pannochka curses him, turning his hair gray with fear.

The third night sees Khoma drink heavier than ever before to cope with the demonic activities that he knows lie before him. In his drunkenness he never re draws the circle, as he does the first and second night, giving Pannochka all the advantages as she summons up, demons, vampires, werewolves and all the bests of hell. As her minions tear and break down the protective circle, Pannochka finally summons The VIY, the magic seal is broken, Khoma loses his life, the coffin finally falls to its final rest and Pannochka turns back into the old witch. In the end justice is made, but not without the bitter aftertaste, because of the two evils, the greater won. The Witch / Pannochka / The VIY.

• Loss of Faith = Damnation:
The obvious subtext to be found in VIY is religion and faith. The numerology and references of three is there all though the movie, three monks, three nights of vigil, three nights of terror and so on, all referring of course to the holy trinity. Even the simplest symbols and signs put into the images system will affect the audience and wake subconscious understanding (or raise questions) in their minds as they watch. We soon fathom out in the way Khoma acts that this is a guy who is quite ambivalent towards his religion, and even the choice of him being a philosophy student, where logic and rational thought definitely create an obvious inner conflict within the character. Khoma fails to keep his faith as his initial sins (the near murder) have already damned him to hell, which is why the screenwriters choose to keep having Khoma make the wrong choices and go against what he knows is right. We need not, and shouldn’t sympathize with this man; he has lost his faith and is damned. It’s all very nicely summarized by two later students during the epilogue, as they discuss Khoma and his mission: “If he hadn’t been afraid the Witch couldn’t have harmed him. He should have spit on her tail and made the sigh of the cross!” As you see, the climax proves the themes (religion, faith, damnation) by having the protagonist suffer, hence giving the film meaning. Just take a minute to think about it, YOU can send your audience off with a message through your themes, “Loose your faith and you’ll die!”, “Don’t step off the path.” etc. So that when you end your movie on a down note it leaves an impression and makes sense.