IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS

Viy

USSR 1967, 77 mins
Directors: K. Yershov, G. Kropachyov


SPOILER WARNING The following notes give away some of the plot.

Circumventing the restrictions of Soviet film production, Viy is a loose adaptation of a Nikolai Gogol story in which a seminary student is asked to say prayers for the soul of a young, recently deceased woman who turns out to be a witch. Over three nights, the witch torments him relentlessly. With special effects by Aleksandr Ptushko, Viy possesses nightmarish imagery that has lost none of its punch with the passage of time.
Anna Bogutskaya, bfi.org.uk

Soviet cinema was no stranger to horrific imagery, as anyone who has seen Battleship Potemkin (1925) or Come and See (1985) can attest. But the Bolsheviks perceived the horror genre itself as inherently reactionary, and in the first 58 years of the USSR’s existence it produced only one title that could unambiguously be described as a horror film, at least until 1980’s Savage Hunt of King Stakh. Viy, however, was not just any old folk-horror yarn, but adapted from a short story by one of the most revered figures in Russian literature – the novelist, short-story writer and playwright Nikolai Gogol (1809-52), whom Vladimir Nabokov called ‘the strangest prose-poet Russia ever produced’.

Two factors may have helped Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov, both novice directors, convince Mosfilm to back their project. First, it was conceived as a patriotic ‘correction’ to Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (La maschera del demonio, 1960), based only very loosely on the same Gogol story and seen in the USSR as a Hollywood travesty of the source material, probably because the version distributed there was the American dub. Secondly, art direction and special effects were by Aleksandr Ptushko, who also received a co-writing credit. Ptushko, a visionary on the level of the Polish-Russian pioneer Wladyslaw Starewicz and Ray Harryhausen, had directed the first Soviet animated feature and a number of acclaimed live-action fantasies such as The Stone Flower (1946) and Sadko (1953), and his influence permeates the film.

Viy begins with scenes of boisterous student high jinks before following three seminarians through an increasingly desolate landscape in search of food and shelter. They spend the night at a farm where one of them, Khoma, is assaulted by an old witch and beats her to death in disgust, only to see the dying hag transformed into a beautiful young maiden. He flees in panic but, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, finds himself locked in a church, forced to hold vigil over the young woman’s corpse for three terrifying nights. Suffice to say, things don’t go well for him, and thanks to effects (stop motion, back projection, puppets and so on) that transcend the limitations of their time, the uncanny occurrences in the church can still generate a frisson. The witch’s frenzied attempts to break into the student’s hastily scrawled magic circle begin with her trying to breach the invisible wall like a manic Marcel Marceau, and escalate to her using her coffin as a battering ram-cum-surfboard. When all hell finally breaks loose (‘I summon the vampires! I summon the werewolves!’), it’s almost a relief, especially when the dreaded ‘Viy’ turns out to be a chonky gnome, though this might trigger unpleasant flashbacks in anyone traumatised as a child by the Nome King in Return to Oz (1985).

Gogol, born and brought up in Ukraine, first tasted literary success with Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (1831), a collection of stories praised for their authentic depiction of Ukrainian peasant life; most are of a macabre, ironic bent, and feature witches or devils. ‘Viy’, dismissed by Nabokov as ‘a gooseflesh story, not particularly effective’, appears in Mirgorod, his second collection (1835). Both story and film begin with Gogol’s claim that ‘Viy is a colossal creation of the imagination of simple folk. The tale itself is a purely popular legend. And I tell it without change, in all its simplicity, exactly as I heard it told to me.’ In fact, it seems to be entirely a product of the author’s own imagination, making this a literary precursor to the ‘based on a true story’ horror trope – cf The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and The Blair Witch Project (1999). But the film makes it feel as though the story has sprung directly from Ukrainian soil.
Anne Billson, Sight & Sound, April 2021

VIY
Directors: K. Yershov, G. Kropachyov
Production Company: Mosfilm
Screenplay: A. Ptushko, K. Yershov, G. Kropachov
Based on Viy by: Nikolai Gogol
Directors of Photography: V. Pishchalnikov, F. Provorov
Editors: R. Pesetskaya, T. Zubova
Art Director: A. Ptushko
Special Effects: A. Ptushko
Music: K. Khachaturyan

Cast
Leonid Kuravlyov (Khoma)
Natalya Varley (mistress of house)
Aleksei Glazyrin (Cossack officer)
Nicolai Kutuzov (witch)
P. Veskliarov (rector)

USSR 1967
77 mins

IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS
Nosferatu (Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens)
Mon 17 Oct 20:50; Sun 13 Nov 15:50 (+ intro by Silent Film Curator Bryony Dixon); Sat 19 Nov 14:10
Frankenstein
Tue 18 Oct 20:50; Fri 28 Oct 18:20; Tue 8 Nov 18:20; Sun 27 Nov 13:00
The Skeleton Key
Wed 19 Oct 18:00; Mon 14 Nov 20:45
Meet the Monsters: A Season Introduction
Thu 20 Oct 19:30 BFI YouTube
I Walked With a Zombie
Thu 20 Oct 20:40; Tue 1 Nov 18:10
Creature from the Black Lagoon (3D)
Sat 22 Oct 18:15 (+ pre-recorded intro by Mallory O’Meara, award winning and bestselling author of ‘The Lady from the Black Lagoon’); Sat 29 Oct 11:40; Tue 1 Nov 20:50
In Dreams Are Monsters Quiz
Sun 23 Oct 19:00-22:00 Blue Room
Kuroneko (Yabu no naka no kuroneko)
Tue 25 Oct 20:45; Mon 31 Oct 21:00; Fri 18 Nov 18:15
The Fly
Wed 26 Oct 21:00
La Llorona
Thu 27 Oct 20:30; Mon 7 Nov 21:00
Celluloid Screams and Live Cinema UK presents: Ghostwatch + Q&A
Fri 28 Oct 20:20
Viy
Fri 28 Oct 20:45; Tue 8 Nov 20:50
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Sat 29 Oct 18:30; Wed 30 Nov 20:50
Candyman
Sat 29 Oct 20:45; Thu 17 Nov 20:50 (+ intro)
Nightbreed – Director’s Cut
Sun 30 Oct 15:10 (+ intro); Sat 12 Nov 20:35
28 Days Later
Mon 31 Oct 18:00 (+ Q&A with director Danny Boyle); Sat 26 Nov 20:45
Us
Tue 1 Nov 20:40; Sat 19 Nov 15:10; Tue 29 Nov 20:40
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Wed 2 Nov 18:10; Sat 26 Nov 20:40
Let’s Scare Jessica to Death
Wed 2 Nov 20:45; Sat 19 Nov 20:45
Blacula
Thu 3 Nov 20:55; Sat 26 Nov 13:00
Cronos
Fri 4 Nov 18:30; Sat 19 Nov 12:10; Sun 20 Nov 18:30
Fright Night
Fri 4 Nov 20:50; Tue 22 Nov 20:40 (+ intro)
Possession
Sat 5 Nov 20:20 (+ intro by author Kier-La Janisse); Sun 27 Nov 15:30
Ganja & Hess
Mon 7 Nov 18:00; Sat 26 Nov 15:20
Inferno
Wed 9 Nov 20:40; Sat 26 Nov 18:20
The Entity
Fri 11 Nov 17:55; Tue 15 Nov 20:30
Def by Temptation
Wed 16 Nov 18:10 (+ intro); Sat 26 Nov 18:10
Jennifer’s Body
Sun 20 Nov 15:15; Mon 21 Nov 18:00; Fri 25 Nov 20:45
Pontypool
Mon 21 Nov 20:30; Sun 27 Nov 12:20
Under the Shadow
Wed 23 Nov 20:40; Tue 29 Nov 18:10
Ouija: Origin of Evil
Thu 24 Nov 20:40; Mon 28 Nov 18:10
Pet Sematary
Fri 25 Nov 18:15; Mon 28 Nov 20:40
Good Manners (As Boas Maneiras)
Sun 27 Nov 18:10; Wed 30 Nov 20:25

IN DREAMS ARE MONSTERS EVENTS
City Lit at BFI: Screen Horrors – Screen Monsters
Thu 20 Oct – Thu 15 Dec 18:30-20:30
Beyond Nollywood World Premiere: Inside Life + Q&A with director Clarence A Peters
Sat 29 Oct 14:00
Matchbox Cine presents House of Psychotic Women
Sat 5 Nov 17:50
Son of Ingagi + Panel Discussion
Wed 9 Nov 18:10
Live Commentary with Evolution of Horror, Brain Rot and The Final Girls
Sat 19 Nov 18:00
Big Monster Energy
Tue 22 Nov 18:30

BFI SOUTHBANK
Welcome to the home of great film and TV, with three cinemas and a studio, a world-class library, regular exhibitions and a pioneering Mediatheque with 1000s of free titles for you to explore. Browse special-edition merchandise in the BFI Shop.We're also pleased to offer you a unique new space, the BFI Riverfront – with unrivalled riverside views of Waterloo Bridge and beyond, a delicious seasonal menu, plus a stylish balcony bar for cocktails or special events. Come and enjoy a pre-cinema dinner or a drink on the balcony as the sun goes down.

BECOME A BFI MEMBER
Enjoy a great package of film benefits including priority booking at BFI Southbank and BFI Festivals. Join today at bfi.org.uk/join

BFI PLAYER
We are always open online on BFI Player where you can watch the best new, cult & classic cinema on demand. Showcasing hand-picked landmark British and independent titles, films are available to watch in three distinct ways: Subscription, Rentals & Free to view.

See something different today on player.bfi.org.uk

Join the BFI mailing list for regular programme updates. Not yet registered? Create a new account at www.bfi.org.uk/signup

Programme notes and credits compiled by the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
Questions/comments? Contact the Programme Notes team by email