Viy (1967)

Based on the short story of the same name by Nikolai Gogol, Viy was the first horror movie made in the Soviet Union. A seminarian and his friends are lost in the fields surrounding Kiev when they come across a farm. The old woman living there allows them to stay the night, but she turns out to be a witch, taking the leader of the trio, Khoma Brut, for a wild ride. He beats her up, and she turns into a beautiful young woman. Khoma makes a run for it. But a few days later, Khoma is basically tasked against his will to pray over the dead body of a rich Cossack's daughter. The daughter is none other than the witch he killed. Alone in the church with the forces of evil, Khoma must survive three nights face-to-face with the devil's servants. In terms of its loyalty to the original story, Viy is about as straight an adaptation as it gets. Almost word-for-word, everything from Gogol's work is here. It is a good thing that Gogol's prose is highly visual in nature, because it avoids the pitfalls straight adaptations usually fall into, that is, getting bogged down in the dialogue or superfluous details. No, Viy, in addition to being faithful to the source material, is a richly cinematic film. A lot of it is quite silly now, but it is not without a generous helping of charm. The last ten minutes is a visual bravura, featuring some nasty creatures, and impressive special effects. And, of course, there is the georgeous Natalya Varley who plays the witch, and may be one of the few women capable of tempting one into necrophilia. A satisfying and fun film this is.