Russian cinema must have been awfully late in bringing the country’s horror storytelling to life on the big screen. But when it stepped into the horror genre, reportedly with the folk horror Viy in 1967, a timeless classic was born, one still underrated and yet to be discovered by many horror fans.

The directorial trio of Konstantin Ershov, Georgiy Kropachyov, Aleksandr Ptushko created Viy with all the elements of classic gothic fantasy-horror genre: dark and ghostly places, magic, evil creatures, and the priest versus evil witch storyline that never ceases to amuse in the European folklore.

In Viy, the young priest Khoma (Leonid Kuravlyov) is terrorized by a witch (Nikolai Kutuzov/ Natalya Varley) in four stages of the story – an initial encounter where Khoma succeeds...

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