Virtual Friday Night Films at the Wende: Soviet Horror Flicks

In celebration of Halloween, the Virtual Friday Night Films at the Wende series is offering two weeks of Cold War era frights. This week we invite you to watch two horror films from the Soviet Union: The Savage Hunt of King Stakh and Viy. Because the indulgent horror genre rarely matched up with Soviet ideology, only a handful of such films came out of the USSR.

In this atmospheric gothic horror film, a young folklorist travels to the remote Belarusian countryside, where he encounters its eccentric inhabitants. At an isolated mansion, he finds a superstitious heiress and learns about the legendary King Stakh and his ghostly retinue who seek revenge on her family line.

Watch for free on YouTube.

Viy, dir. Konstantin Ershov and Georgiy Kropachyov, 1967, Soviet Union, 77 mins.

Based on Nikolai Gogol’s horror novella, Viy is often claimed as the first and only Soviet horror film. It follows a seminary student who is ordered to preside over the wake of a witch in a remote village, spending three nights alone in a church with her corpse. Viy is a dark fairy tale with uniquely bizarre visuals, including a witch flying around on a coffin, and many-eyed and many-tentacled monsters.

Watch for free with ads on Tubi.

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Virtual Film Picks are inspired by the in-person Friday Night Films at the Wende program series. This selection is part of a curated list of weekly movie suggestions that can be watched at home, in conjunction with #WendeOnline.