Director: Konstantin Ershov, Georgiy Kropachyov
Year: 1967
Country: Soviet Union (Russia)
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
After leaving their seminary school teachings, a group of monks sent out for a break manages to encounter a strange woman in the village nearby who takes a liking to one of them, and when she dies soon after, he is sent to look after her dead body for a special ritual that will test his faith.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty solid genre outing. The best elements at play here are when it manages to drop those aspects into more overtly straightforward fantasy-based elements. This mainly comes about from its technical aspects rather than the storyline itself, as the main setup here involving him meeting up with the girl and their interaction being the motivating factor to watch over and guard the body after she dies, falls squarely in the genre. It's the lead-up to these sections, focusing mostly on the interaction with the witch, that gives this the most to say about that, with the highly impressive work for the time to make these scenes work. With the visual trickery enabling them to float through the air unaided by anything, to the fine matte shots of the two actually in flight, there's no sense of thrills generated here, but instead is more of a lightly-hearted take that adds a whimsical atmosphere to everything.
With this firmly in place, the film's exercises in more traditional genre thrills come off quite fun. These are mainly based on the concept of him being trapped inside the church, where everything takes place, as the series of events inside escalates while trying to gain his soul. While the execution of the scenes where she keeps trying to get at him manages more of a fantasy basis for what's happening, the concept of the witch rising from her coffin, looking to begin her series of tricks and spells to get at him. Several of them, including the mounted coffin ambush or the sequence involving giant hands and skeletal beings popping out of the walls under her control, which is a lot of fun and manages to help this one maintain a bit of a chilling atmosphere while still offering up a fantastical atmosphere with how it continues to pile on. Featuring an impressive set of special effects to create the fantastic beings and creatures here, there's a lot to enjoy.
There are some issues to be had with this one. The main detriment here is that the film's focus on a fantasy atmosphere and the build-up of the lives of the monks makes the first half rather tough to get through. A lot of the interactions in the village with the monks trying to find shelter, interacting with the rest of the parish after returning from their ordeal, and the lives of the villagers around them are painfully dull and not that interesting. It's not until the funeral that takes place here that anything thrilling actually happens, which is just shy of the halfway mark of the film due to its length, which is a bit too long for something like this to go without much in the way of genre thrills. As well, the other issue that's hard to get over is the actual treatment bestowed upon him by the villagers, who treat the subject matter rather curiously, considering his appearance and behavior during each interval, yet never offer up anything resembling help or ask what's going on, and it is rather odd to see unfurl. Otherwise, there's not much to really dislike about this one.
Overview: ****/5
A generally impressive fantasy/folklore effort, there’s more than enough to like here that manages to hold it up as one of the better entries in this style, as it does have a few drawbacks present that hold it back. Those who appreciate this kind of genre fare or who are curious about it will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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