I had high hopes going into this movie, and they were exceeded. I think it's a true classic of world horror cinema, as good as anything Universal ever put out. It never saw the light of day over here because it was a Soviet era film. I think there are a lot of these waiting to be rediscovered in the West. The movie it most brings to mind is Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY, but this is in color and has much better effects.
A seminarian in Czarist Ukraine must say prayers for three nights over the corpse of a deceased witch who had a vendetta against him. No blood, sex or CGI, just a brilliantly chilling story, elegant effects, and a final reel of full of horrifyingly conceived monsters . Faithfully adapted from the Nikolai Gogol short story.
Here's a clip from youtube (sorry no subtitles, the DVD version has them):
I'm not sure how they got the effect with him rising at the end, but it looks very real. The special effects were quite remarkable, and I'm not sure how they were all acheived.
Here's another, longer clip, with subtitles this time:
The final scene is really something to behold. There are dozens of unique monsters on the screen at one time, stuff you've never seen before in your nightmares.
They're remaking this in a big-budget version, but it's automatically going to be disappointing. I don't think the original can be improved upon.
The one downside is that the DVD's a bit pricey. It's available on Netflix, but there was a "long wait" and when it never came I finally broke down and bought a copy. I didn't regret it. Fans of classic supernatural horror need to check this out.
