Baba Yaga: Terror of the Dark Forest

This adaptation of the traditional Baba Yaga folk story from Russia on first inspection looks like a winner but, well, its not.

Rather than taking the obvious route of a classic, scare filled tale, of a cannibalistic witch, it goes off on what feels like a psychedelic acid trip. There's lots of far out fantasy sequences, with groovy coloured lighting effects, string (yes I did say string) and way out memory lapses.

It's as if the story was re-written as a 60's style hippy horror fest, for reasons I really can't even begin to appreciate.

As a result, its not only not terribly scary, its at times downright silly and feels largely pointless. Which is crying shame, as the acting is solid and the core premise is loaded with horror potential.

4/10.

What can I say? It's just another horror movies among thousands of similar ones. It's not especially interesting but it could work better for a younger audience (like teens, I guess).

Not a horror movie, but just a horror of surviving watching this drivel. I regretted of my time, my money, and the same thing of all people who worked on this movie.

My expectations weren't high for this film, but I still left unsatisfied with the story. There are definitely more entertaining and better films portraying this classic folktale.

Svyatoslav Podgaevskiy is a proper director, his films are a mix between good points and bad points. "Yaga. Koshmar tyomnogo lesa" is good, folk horror with a great cinematography and an interesting script, the performances are fine and the film locations are creepy. A horror fairy tale! This movie is Podgaevskiy's best flick so far, he could be a great horror director in the future.