Psycho's Movie Reviews #309: Gogol: Viy (2018)

Gogol. Viy is a 2018 fantasy-horror film directed by Egor Baranov, sequel to Gogol. The Beginning.

Plot

After the events of the first film, Nikolai Gogol finds a case: among the things of Yakov Petrovich Guro is a secret file on himself with a postscript: "Mystery of birth — dark?". Five brothers of Gogol died at birth or soon after birth; later, in the visions of Nikolai and the memories of Yakim (who does not dare to reveal the truth to the gentleman), Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky accepts from despair the offer of a stranger with a bandage on his face, covering his nose. The stranger promises that the baby will survive, but payment for this will be an agreement with certain forces; Vasily replies that he is ready for anything, just to not bury his children anymore. When Nikolai is born, the stranger revives the stillborn baby.

Chapter Three: Enchanted Place

In the morning, foreign sorcerer Basavryuk arrives in Dikanka: local people know him and are afraid, because he is famed as a hunter for the souls of Christians. However, there are no grounds for his arrest, and the priest warns Gogol to stay away from him.

When the next girl disappears in Dikanka (Darina) and her search leads to nothing, Gogol notices in Guro's notes a list of dates - church holidays and one victim of the Dark Horseman corresponds to each holiday. In attempts to find Darina, Gogol tries to learn how to control her gift and sees a red flower in the "den of the beast." Not knowing how to interpret the vision, he finally accepts Oksana's help; her condition - Nikolai must belong to her. The flower turns out to be a blossom, blooming once a year, where the magic of gold is hidden. It's only the innocent soul that can break it and get hold of the treasure if it spills the blood of another innocent.

"The lair of the beast" is the Bear's ravine, which the locals pass by, believing that this is a damned land. In the visions, Nikolai foresees that there will be a murder, and an unknown girl asks him a question: "Maybe you are my betrothed?". Taking the gun, Gogol goes there at night, but instead of the Horseman, Darina is brought there by the sorcerer. He proposes the fiancé of Darina's sister to shed blood so that he will receive gold (and become rich to marry), and the sorcerer will take his soul. When he agrees, Nikolai, unable to dissuade the villains, kills him, and the sorcerer disappears. Wounded Darina is saved Dr. Leopold Bomgart who exerts great efforts: although he has committed to operate on the living after he failed to save a child in the past, the doctor finds the courage to try again and he succeeds.

However, it is impossible to prevent the killing of the new victim of the Horseman: she is the second girl from visions. Nothing is left for Gogol, Bomgart, Yakim, blacksmith Vakula and investigator Binh, except to wait for the next holiday.

Chapter Four: Viy

On a new holiday, Gogol advises Binkh to urge residents of Dikanka not to leave the houses at night. Although the night passes without new victims, the next morning seven houses are marked with the sign of the Horseman. What's unusual is that they also marked the Danishevskys' house, although the Dark Horseman had never touched noblemen before and killed only peasants. Not seeing other options, Nikolai suggests to hide all the girls from the labeled houses in a secret place under the protection of the Cossacks. This proposal does not find support from Binh, since he begins to suspect Gogol of having links to the murderer. Danishevsky also rudely rejects the proposal to take Lisa with him.

Thanks to the little daughter of the blacksmith Vakula, Gogol guesses that the signs on the houses were put by the witch from the village (the signs were painted with the blood of a dog, and in her house the girl saw a dead dog). However, the witch can not be interrogated: she is stabbed by a stranger with an aspen stake, who runs away when Nikolai appears. Waking up at the scene of the murder, Gogol falls under the suspicion of Binh (no one except him saw the killer) and finds on the floor the spell he wrote in Latin.

After studying the evidence and weapons of a stranger (Oksana, scarcely seeing him, says in horror that this is an aspen from the holy land, conspired against the evil forces), Nikolai comes to the conclusion that the murderer intended to perform a ritual over the body, but did not have time to complete it, which means that he will try to finish the deed later. The murderer is really ambushed in a shed, where the witch's body lies; it turns out to be the wandering exorcist Homa Brutus. He arrived in Dikanka to fight again with the demon Viy, and the witch needed him as a bait. Making sure that Gogol is not a murderer, Binh gives the go-ahead to hide the girls.

Khoma, escaping from imprisonment, takes Gogol hostage and asks him to help him defeat Viy: he simply does not have enough strength alone, and only a man with a dark gift strong enough that the spell that casts out the demon would work. Locked in a church with a witch's body and drawing a circle, Homa waits until Viy arrives, but dies. Gogol reads the spell himself, why Viy disappears, but Nikolai himself falls dead.

At night, the Dark Horseman finds a secret place (abandoned farm) and kills all Cossacks and girls inside it. Arriving at the site, Binh and Vakula conclude that someone had revealed the location of the shelter to the Horseman, which only four knew: Binh himself, his assistant (scribe Tesak), Gogol and Alexei Danishevsky. The first thing Binh decides to arrest and interrogate Gogol, but finds him in the church without signs of life.

The film ends with scenes from the sequel, "Gogol. Terrible Revenge": the return of Yakov Petrovich Guro, the funeral of Gogol and the battle with the Dark Horseman.

Box Office

Box office $8,011,641

My Review

Russian movies have done quite the leap in the Science Fiction department. The first part may have looked a bit like a Sleepy Hollow thing, this has more detective parts in it. And while the movies sort of work as standalone movies, they actually only really work seen together.

So it is quite difficult to understand how this will be (seen) by those who only watch this and not the other two movies. This is the middle part and we have become aware of the central characters we get more of them, but they stay "intriguing" to say the least Looks and sounds good, this seems a little bit more focused than the first but again, it may have to do with knowing the characters better by now.

I love Gogol but I don't understand, is this a tv show or separate movies? I stumbled across it quite by accident and while trying to find what I thought was a movie I instead found Gogol tv series on YouTube. I suppose it doesn't matter but still strange. That aside this is a great show/movie. It has beautiful cinematography, the actors are very believable and the atmosphere and costuming/ set designs are as good as a period piece can be. It definitely reminds me of burtons sleepy hollow which I don't mind in the least, seeing how that's one of my favourite movies. I have nothing but positive to say about this show/movie. I don't know much of the legend of Viy other then the movie Viy; aka forbidden empire, which may or may not be related but regardless this is a brilliant film/ series. Highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys gothic period pieces you wont be disappointed.

I personally like these films. They have a great Gothic feel to them. We are battling demons, witches, nymphs and uncertain pasts making this a great boiling pot for an "Anything Could Happen" type of film.

I'd recommend it for folks who like to watch Gothic horror. While most of it is taking place in a small village, there are scenes of a more opulent nature taking place in the house of a nobleman so there is some of the more lush qualities of Gothic style to be seen and more to come in the next film.

The best Russian horror movie I've seen, which could be the worthy competitor of western horror movies. I love the book and read it many times, I thought the movie will not be able fully describe the mysterious world of Gogol's stories, but I was excited from the first to the last minute. Playing of the actors are awesome, the special effects are fabulous and THE MUSIC! Just fantastic and already in my playlist. Highly recommend to see especially for lovers of Gogol's oeuvre. 7.5/10