"Forbidden Empire" is a 2014 Russian/Ukranian fantasy film also called "Viy". It was directed by Oleg Stepchenko, and the stars include Jason Flemyng, Andrey Smolyakov and Aleksey Chadov.
An English cartographer named Jonathon Green departs from his girlfriend who lives with her strict dad (played by Charles Dance, who was Tywin Lannister in "Game of Thrones"), to work in an unchartered forest in East Europe. He comes to a formidable region full of monsters, shadow wolves and legends of the horrible Viy, a horned beast responsible for taking the lives of innocent girls. Only there he has to discover where the answer is when he comes to a remote village full of superstition.
This is based on a story "Viy" by Ukrainian novelist Nikolai Gogol. The film was very popular in Russia and other countries in Europe, then made a sequel released in 2019 called "Viy 2: Journey to China". However the film wasn't released in cinemas in UK or USA but went straight to DVD. The making of the film was gradual and started in 2006. One of the film's locations at Sychrov Castle is actually haunted by a legendary ghost named the "black widow".
A very entertaining and monstrous film with some laughs too. I could watch it again and again, so I give this a full 10/10 score.
Blood Strawberry
No comments:
Post a Comment