10 Russian Horror Movies You Need To See

Today, the special effects found in Viy (aka Spirit of Evil or Vii in English) might come off as a bit hokey and akin to something you'd see in a seasonal haunted house. Still, at the time, they were rather revolutionary and a large part of what made it such a popular film back in 1967.

Based on the novella of the same name by Nikolai Gogol, viewers of the film both then and now were drawn to its over-the-top and artistic approach to horror. In the movie, a religious man incidentally met a witch and later prayed over her dead body. As no good deed went unpunished, the witch constantly came back to torment him, whether it was summoning an army of demons to attack him or simply riding on his back as though he was some kind of enchanted broomstick.

In addition to the plethora of horror tropes that made Viy a must-see for any horror buff, the film was also intriguing because it was one of the few and last horror films ever produced in the USSR. It did beg the question of how such a grotesque flick ever escaped the harsh and fastidious media scrutiny of the times.