Viy

1967

Released 15 MARCH

Blu-ray

“Acossack doesn’t fear anything in this world”, says Khoma, the hapless protagonist has been under-seen outside of Russia despite being regarded as widely influential. In this folkloric Nikolai Gogol adaptation, Khoma, a student philosopher at a monastery in Kiev, discovers a witch while travelling on seminary business. After he beats her and she dies, she calls on him to read her last rites, ensuring he must spend three fateful nights in the company of her corpse. As may be expected, things do not go well for him. Yet, despite the seeming severity of the material, ’s tone is largely comical. The build-up, which sends up the piety of the church through a series of satirical escapades, is played broadly, and when things turn nasty, the conclusion is fanciful and fun.