Semya vurdalakov

Soviet horror. Lots of closeups of worried faces and a hero who looks like he came out of an early 80s sitcom. Striking imagery, lovely landscapes, dull colours and suspicious peasants with blunt faces. Snow and wind, often silent with creaks and shadow and with lots of meaningfulness about something. One where you let the imagery wash over you. Great ending!

It was difficult to find this rare masterpiece. It is not published yet. But it was quite popular in the 90s and was shown on TV. It is a brilliant screening of a famous horror story by Alexei Tolstoi. There were a t least two more efforts, screening that story, including Mario Bava's. I liked this the most. It includes perfect deep Russian suspense,necro realism, mysticism of Russian forests, very smart story, bad ending and 100% dark ambient analogue music. The reporter goes to some unknown village to find out why the village is dying out and comes exactly to the center of beyond madness. This film works really deep and real.