Viy - La Maschera del Demonio (Russia, Ucraina - 2014) è un fantasy/horror diretto da Oleg Stepchenko. Il film è basato sul racconto “The Vij" by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol (1809 - 1852), a work that inspired Mario Bava in 1960 for The Demon's Mask and in 1967 also the duo consisting of Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov with Viy.
In Viy - La Maschera del Demonio (aka Forbidden Empire) from 2014, Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng), an 18th-century English cartographer and scientist, sets out on a journey to make a map of the lands of Transylvania from his invention. Passing the Carpathian Mountains, the scholar gets lost in a sinister and isolated village threatened by demons and mysterious creatures. The evil that dwells there has actually already possessed the souls of the inhabitants and can only be stopped by the fearless cartographer Jonathan Green.
The early sequences, thick with irony, then give way to fascinating and somber atmospheres that are channeled into this fanta horror populated by imaginative and incredible hellish creatures. The fantasy component, well blended with the horror component, gives a seductive imagery with strong evocative power. Stunning indeed are the sequences (just to name a few) concerning the drowned witch (Pannochka) whose body is watched over for three nights in a church. Suddette images, like paintings on canvas or as in the bleakest poetry, dazzle and excite by the beauty in which the subject is depicted in death.
Visually stunning (photography is by VladimÃr Smutný), Viy è un fanta-horror russo della durata di quasi due ore, tempo in cui si assiste ad una carrellata immane di situazioni e di personaggi. Questo potrebbe intaccare il risultato finale proprio perché a tratti ci si scontra con una narrazione degli eventi un po' confusionaria che risulta essere trascurata. A discapito della storia, effective special effects (by Pyotr Gorshenin) are brought to the fore instead.
In this regard, we recall that Viy has been a long-suffering film. In production since 2006, the release date slipped from 2009 to 2012 and then again to 2014, when it was released in 3D. The conversion choice led the crew to reshoot many scenes. This certainly affected the smoothness of the narrative, which in Viy è vistosamente irregolare, probabilmente a causa del travagliato montaggio e dell'editing sofferto.
Undoubtedly, this fantasy-horror by Oleg Stepchenko is a film to be commended for the ambitious efforts poured into its making. It has the power to astonish the viewer by dragging him or her into a seductive and visionary world where the powerful images and the incredible creatures that populate the story definitely do the talking.
The script of Viy - The Mask of the Demon (aka Вий and Forbidden Empire) is edited by Oleg Stepchenko himself and Aleksandr Karpov.
In the cast: Jason Flemyng, Andrey Smolyakov, Agnia Ditkovskite, Yuriy Tsurilo, Olga Zaytseva, Aleksey Chadov, Aleksandr Yakovlev, Igor Jijikine, Valeriy Zolotukhin, Nina Ruslanova, Viktor Bychkov, and Ivan Mokhovikov.
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Viy - The Mask of the Demon è uno dei titoli proposti da Midnight Factory (Koch Media). In un'imperdibile Limited Edition con booklet, il film è disponibile nei formati DVD e Blu-ray 3D.
Like the previous home-video releases of the said label, that of Viy is carefully edited down to the smallest detail. With hardback slipcase, the Limited Edition DVD enjoys a comprehensive booklet and perfect audio-video quality, as well as satisfying extras (trailer, making of, interview with Jason Flemyng, backstage).
Tab Viy - The Mask of the Demon:
Director and cast: Oleg Stepchenko. With Jason Flemyng, Andrey Smolyakov, Aleksey Chadov.
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Label: Koch Media
Distribution: Koch Media / Midnight Factory
Format: DVD, Blu-Ray 3D
Edition: Limited Edition + Booklet
No. discs: 1
Release date sale: DECEMBER 12, 2016
