Scary tale "Viy".

In the 1970s, the film was purchased for foreign distribution: in the USA (under the distribution name "Viy or Spirit of Evil"), Argentina (under the distribution name "Viy, espgritu del mal"), Finland (under the distribution name "Velho") and France (under the rental name "Vij").

Actors and roles

One night main character, bursak Khoma Brut (Leonid Kuravlyov), accidentally killed a witch. Soon he is called to perform a funeral service for three nights for a young lady (Natalya Varley), who turns out to be the same witch who now wants to take revenge on Khoma. Brutus tries to escape, but this is prevented by the pannochka's father, who promised to fulfill his daughter's dying request. Pan centurion puts Khoma before a choice: if the seminarian brings the rite to the end, a generous reward awaits him; if Khoma tries to evade the funeral, he, by the will of the centurion, will be severely punished. Reality and embodiments of folk beliefs are intertwined when Khoma has to pray for three nights to defend himself against various evil spirits: the late pannochka-witch, ghouls, ghouls and, finally, the most terrible Viy ...

The idea of ​​the film adaptation of "Viya" belongs to the famous Soviet director, at that time the director of the Mosfilm film studio, Ivan Pyryev. Only because of the acute lack of time, he offered to shoot the picture to two students of the Higher Director's Courses Georgy Kropachev and Konstantin Ershov. The candidates were proposed by the course leader Leonid Trauberg.

The film was shot in the Bogorodchansky district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region (Ukraine), the village of Sednev, Chernihiv region and the Yelets monastery in the city of Chernigov, Chernihiv region.
- The hardest thing was to find a hut covered with sheaves of straw, - recalls the film's artist Nikolai Markin. - The grass has already been mowed everywhere by combines. At our request, a craftsman was found in a distant village, who squeezed the field with a sickle by hand, laid the sheaves on the roof of the hut in a special way.

However, the material filmed on location disappointed the management of Mosfilm, being "too realistic". So it was decided to involve the famous film director and storyteller Alexander Ptushko in the work. The restless Ptushko infected the entire film crew with his energy. The scenery was made in several pavilions at once. For half a year, the Mosfilm workers were frightened by the gloomy church covered in cobwebs. As a result, a lot of the material filmed by Ershov and Kropachev was cut out, a number of ideas remained unrealized. The appearance of the main monster of the film, Viy, was also changed. A number of scenes were rethought and re-shot.

Initially, Mikhail Kokshenov was planned for the role of Khoma Brut. Leonid Kuravlev appeared in the picture quite naturally. After Shukshin's film "Such a Guy Lives", where he played the charming driver Pasha Kolokolnikov, he could not help but be offered the role of the philosopher Khoma Brutus. With a seminarian haircut "under the pot" Kuravlev did not need to walk in his life. All the freemen in the film were dressed in wigs. But the artist had to memorize prayers and Ukrainian songs.

Alexandra Zavyalova was first approved for the role of Pannochka (Elena Sanko and Svetlana Korkoshko also tried), but immediately after the start of filming, she fell seriously ill .. Some of the material had already been filmed when, at the insistence of her husband, director Rezo Esadze, the actress refused to act. Some shots with Zavyalova, filmed in a general plan, were included in the film.

Director Alexander Ptushko was impressed by Gaidai's comedy " Caucasian captive"Looking in the frame how famously Natalya Varley descends from the window of Comrade Saakhov's cottage on a rope over a mountain river, he realized that he had found "his" lady. It was also a coincidence that the newly-minted "witch" - Natalya Varley - was from the Romanian city of Constanta, and Transylvania has long been considered the birthplace of sorcerers and vampires.

Natalya agreed to act in the role of Pannochka ... out of curiosity. What for a young girl were then flights in a coffin under the dome of the church! Well, let them measure you for the coffin. Life seemed carefree and wonderful. Natasha played in the theater, was the secretary of the Komsomol organization.

The famous flights of the lady in the coffin, which frightened entire generations of Soviet children, appeared due to the fact that a complex mechanism was attached under the dome of the pavilion. All the coffins were black, like Gogol's. Coffin No. 1 was considered the main one - the dead lady lay in it. Coffin No. 2 flew around the church with the lid closed - it was he who, according to the scenario, could not break through the magic circle outlined by the philosopher. This coffin rushed about empty in the frame and was very small. They moved the coffin manually - with the help of ropes. Coffin No. 3 was hung on six metal strings to the ceiling. It was in it that the witch flew around the church, standing to her full height. A metal pin-bracket was mounted at the base of the coffin, to which the actress was fastened with a mounting belt. Behind her back, under the hoodie, she had a reliable support fixed.

Before letting Natalya Varley into "free flight", almost the entire film crew. For example, the assistant director, who weighed about a hundred kilograms, also tested the structure for strength. On high altitude he rocked the coffin and even jumped in it...

Natalya was put on a special vibrator in the frame to give the impression that she was shaking with anger; they put on dull make-up, as if she were turning green with anger; they illuminated their eyes so that they would glow from the inside with satanic fire... And the young actress, who did not want to waste time while the light was being installed on the site, lying in a coffin, read notes and textbooks.

But once during the filming, Natasha ... fell out of the coffin, which was rushing in a circle at high speed. Natasha lost her balance. The injury was inevitable, the actress flew from a height upside down. Leonid Kuravlev by some miracle caught Natasha at the very landing on the plank floor of the church. The entire film crew gasped ... The rumor about the fatal fall of the "athlete-Komsomol member" turned into a speculation that the actress had died ... The whole country was talking about it then. Natalya herself believes that the image in "Wie" did not work out for her. The emphasis was only on the external, spectacular ...

It is repeatedly mentioned that after the release of "Viya" the all-Union glory of Natalia Varley, which hit the actress thanks to the role of Nina in the comedy film "Prisoner of the Caucasus", in an unexpected way ended. A huge number of letters from fans with a marriage proposal abruptly disappeared. According to Natalia, she "began a black streak in life." For 4 years, the actress did not act in films. Varley herself justifies her absence from the screen with a word given to Yuri Katin-Yartsev, a teacher theater school them. B. Schukin, in which Varley began to study.

On the set of "Viya" several centners of candles were burned. Wax was expensive. I had to order thick candles, consisting of wax and stearin, in special church workshops in Zagorsk.

Viya was supposed to play Glazyrin. He was supposed to appear from under the floor, breaking out the boards, and the pannochka's father was supposed to be recognized in him. Ptushko did not allow this option. The role of Viy was played by a circus performer, acrobat Nikolai Stepanov. Viy's costume at Mosfilm was made of burlap. One layer of cloth was impregnated with resins, painted, another layer was applied... Instead of hands, "wiry, strong" tree roots were molded from plaster. As a result, the monster's attire turned out to be incredibly heavy. Three workshop workers could hardly bear the suit. The artist playing the role of Viy had to walk in it ... They began to look for a healthy, muscular artist for the role. We found a suitable candidate only among athletes involved in weightlifting. According to the script, Viy was supposed to "tread hard, stumbling every minute." The athlete did not have to play anything - under the weight of the suit, he barely dragged his feet and each time got out of his stiff robe wet as a mouse.

Viy's "deadly" look was done especially carefully. There were no electronics back then. The eyelids, which did not see the "God's light", leaned back on hinges, they were simply pulled by strings. The eyes of the head of the gnomes were mounted from glass with a reflective surface.

Other evil spirits were also played by circus performers and athletes of the Soviet Union. For example, the honored coach of the RSFSR in freestyle wrestling Boris Veselov. Total - 12 gymnasts and 4 trampoline jumpers. To create a contrast to them, it was decided to take several dwarfs into the extras. Ghouls, ghouls, the dead who came out of the graves were born in the workshop of plastic make-up. The talented artist Sarra Mokil worked on the werewolf masks.
“She was able to work miracles,” recalls assistant director Tariel Gabidzshvili. - Lukich always took her to work in all the films he shot.

Werewolves in the movie at Ptushko's miraculously climbed a vertical wall.
- The most experienced cameraman Fedor Provorov filmed this trick, - says the artist of the film. - A "wall" was knocked together from thick boards. The layout was placed at an angle to the floor and the vampires were filmed sliding down inclined plane, top: above film set the crane with the operator and the director hung. It turned out that the ghouls, clinging with the claws of their arms and legs, climbed right along the vertical wall.

The evil spirit was also represented in "Vie" by a peculiar animal world, for example, a "team" of black cats worked in the picture. Nine grown-up black kittens were inherited by the film crew from the film "The Black Imp", where the main four-legged hero was played in the film by nine understudies at once. (The same cats worked for Gaidai and in "Diamond Arm", in the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession".) Not only did black cats jump out from under the feet of the poor philosopher Khoma at the most inopportune moment in Viy, they also put on cats and special bonnets with horns. They were allowed to jump from a hill, and in the jump their shadows were filmed on the wall.

All living creatures were supplied for filming by Tariel Varlamovich Gabidzshvili, a well-known trainer at Mosfilm and director of stunt scenes with animals.
“About 50 crows were involved in the picture,” says the trainer. - They caught them right there, at Mosfilm, in the yard. They laid out the bait in the old shed, did not approach for several days, so as not to frighten away these cunning beasts. The captives who fell into the snare were taken away only at night, so as not to arouse suspicion among the rest of the free birds. A command was given on the set, and black birds flew noisily from the crackling windows of the church. I used to shout: "Lukic, the crows have run out." He announced a break, we put out the light and climbed with flashlights on the grate to shoot birds, and the pavilions are huge - up to 16 meters in height ...

Alexander Lukich also had favorite animals that wandered with him from film to film. He adored, for example, the dog Mishka. The trainer Tariel Varlamovich brought the dog back from the army. The bear was a real canine sound imitator. Could growl like a real bear, howl like a wolf. In "Vie" he desperately "mourned" the dead Pannochka in the yard. The rooster crowing in the film was previously used by Ptushko during the filming of the film The Tale of Tsar Saltan.

The mystical "influence" of the film

The adaptation of "Viya" is one of my favorite films since childhood) How many times I watched it - do not count))

Masterpiece film. For me, this is just the ideal of the mystical genre. In horrors, it’s not blood, not space monsters that scare me - namely this horror: a mysterious farm, an old lonely church.

These suddenly extinguished candles, cats in the corners, cobwebs, menacing faces of saints, the dull sound of a coffin slamming shut. Something truly Slavic, Old Russian, and even beautiful nature, a farm, the Ukrainian spirit - all this creates a magnificent, truly Gogol atmosphere. I really love these Gogol stories, "Evenings on a Farm", "Viy" and I must say of all the adaptations based on them, the most successful are "Viy" and "Evening on a Farm near Dikanka" - wonderful!
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/wikipedia/
Viy is a character of Ukrainian demonology in the form of a formidable old man with eyebrows and eyelids reaching to the ground. In ethnography, the assumption is made that it is with the image of Viy that the belief about the evil eye is connected - that everything perishes or deteriorates from a bad look.
"Viy is a colossal creation of the common people's imagination. This is the name the Ukrainians call the head of the dwarfs, whose eyelids go to the very ground before his eyes. This whole story is a folk legend. I did not want to change it in anything and I tell it in almost the same simplicity, as heard." (Note by N.V. Gogol.)
In Gogol's work, Viy does not kill with a glance, but rather removes the effects of all amulets from evil spirits when looking at him. He is, as it were, a conductor, and not the killer himself.
**
"Viy" became the leader of the Soviet film distribution in 1968 (32.6 million viewers). This is the first and only horror film made in the USSR.
In the 1970s, the film was purchased for foreign distribution: in the USA (under the distribution name "Viy or Spirit of Evil"), Argentina (under the distribution name "Viy, espíritu del mal"), Finland (under the distribution name "Velho") and France (under the rental name "Vij").
Very interesting to see documentary Nonna Bokareva "Viy. Horror in the Soviet ”(2007), dedicated to the filming of“ Viy ”.


**
The plot, I think, everyone knows. Bursak Khoma, who accidentally killed a witch, the daughter of a pan, must bury her - this is last will pannochki and he has no choice. On the third night he dies - so she takes revenge on him.

Cast members wonderful. Young L. Kuravlev - he is perfect!,

N. Kutuzov - a witch,

and pannochka - N. Varley. She is very beautiful in this movie!

The voice is also beautiful, but it turns out that it belongs to Clara Rumyanova - she voiced the lady.
**
The idea of ​​a film adaptation belonged to the director of the Mosfilm film studio, Ivan Pyryev, but due to an acute shortage of time, he offered to shoot the film to two students of the Higher Director's Courses of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR Georgy Kropachev and Konstantin Yershov. However, much in their plan did not triple him, and it was decided to involve the famous director and storyteller Alexander Ptushko.
I did not know all these details, a lot of interesting things are told in the documentary.
Interesting Facts.
 It is repeatedly mentioned that after the release of “Viya”, the all-Union fame of Natalya Varley, which fell on the actress thanks to the role of Nina in the comedy film “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, ended in an unexpected way. A huge number of letters from fans with a marriage proposal abruptly disappeared. According to Natalia, she "began a black streak in life", but then in the film "Viy. Soviet Horrors" she refused these words. For 4 years, the actress did not act in films. Varley herself justifies her absence on the screen with a word given to Yuri Katin-Yartsev, a teacher at the Theater School. B. Schukin, in which Varley began to study.
 Repeated attempts to show "Viya" during a sea cruise failed. As soon as the film began, a storm was played out, calming down immediately after the interruption of the session. As a result, at the request of Natalya Varley, who, according to the plan of the organizers, was supposed to speak before the show, after the third attempt, it was decided to stop showing the tape.
 Directors Kropachev and Yershov were nominated by Leonid Trauberg, head of the Higher Directing Courses.
 Initially, Vyacheslav Innocent was planned for the role of Khoma Brut.
 Homa's Ukrainian haircut "under the pot" - a wig.
 "Flight" of the Witch (Nikolai Kutuzov) on Khoma was filmed in the pavilion. The pole, disguised as a broom with a horizontal bar, on which Nikolai Kutuzov sat, was attached to low altitude. The performer of the role of Khoma, Leonid Kuravlyov, also hung on this bar and moved his feet in the air, imitating running.
 Alexandra Zavyalova was first approved for the role of Pannochka (Elena Sanko and Svetlana Korkoshko also auditioned). But during the filming, at the insistence of Ivan Pyryev, Zavyalova was removed from the role and replaced by Natalya Varley. According to another version, future husband Zavyalova, director Rezo Esadze demanded that she refuse the role.
 Three of Pannochka's coffins were prepared for the props of the film. One real one, for filming Natalia Varley lying in it. The other two are for the flight scenes around the church: a small indoor and outdoor one, with a special stand equipped with a belt of assembly workers that kept the actress from falling, suspended in a suspended state on six metal cables.
 During the filming of the flight, due to a technical failure, Natalya Varley once fell out of the coffin. Only the reaction of Leonid Kuravlev, who managed to pick up the actress, saved her from injury. After that, Leonid Kuravlev could not act for a week, as he pulled his hands hard. Nevertheless, this case gave rise to multiple rumors about the death of Varley.
 At the insistence of Alexander Ptushko, some scenes of confrontation between Pannochka and Khoma, which took place in the church, were later re-shot in the pavilion scenery of Mosfilm.
 Of all the films in which Leonid Kuravlev starred, "Viy" is his favorite film
 50 crows (caught in the studio area) and 9 trained black cats are involved in the film.
**
In addition, many have probably seen a modern adaptation - the film "The Witch" (2006) with E. Kryukova and V. Nikolaev.

But, I must say, this is not next to Viy. Yes, a lot of tricks, effects, but long, boring. The soundtrack is just good. Well, in general, this is a different film, a different story, and someone likes it too. In principle, I watched it twice - also well done, it has its own atmosphere. But sometimes it's just boring and too much.
**
I also found the trailer today. Here's something else filmed on a similar topic:

**
Here is /my-hit.ru/film/3970/online" target="_blank">http://my-hit.ru/film/3970/online" target="_blank">here you can watch the movie online. The only thing is that when I watched the movie a long time ago, the sound was perfect. Now it looks like they've done something to him. So, in the church, the candles now crackle so intensely, as if they were bonfires all around, the lid slams shut with a clang, some kind of rattling instead of those terrifyingly muffled sounds that gave you goosebumps. I don't know how good this site is.
**
It is clear that the current spectator, experienced in all kinds of horror films, "Viy" seems like just a cartoon. Yes, there is something fabulously folklore in it, somewhere there are blunders.

Viy himself is not at all scary, and even unsuccessful - he is funny, but there is some kind of superstitious mysticism in the film - for example, I won’t watch him alone at home at night)) And in general, shoot like that in those years - 1967! - no graphics .. Great movie. Yes, I think you've all seen it

.

Thank you for your attention! =))

November 26, 1967 in Moscow was the premiere of a real thriller - an adaptation of Gogol's story "Viy"

The film shook the imagination of the inexperienced Soviet audience and collected 32.6 million rubles at the box office for the year. We learned about how the first "socialist horror film" was born from the reporting documents stored in the Mosfilm archive and from the creators of the tape.

In the archives of Mosfilm, an application for the film adaptation of Viy by two desperate students of the Higher Directing Courses, Konstantin Ershov and Georgy Kropachev, has been preserved. They worked in the cinema for a long time, but in different directions: Ershov was an actor, and Kropachev was an artist. Both enrolled in directing courses and fired up making "Viya". Here is what they wrote in the application to the management of Mosfilm:

“Soviet cinema has no right to farm out to foreign artisans the right to use, moreover, predatory, the treasury of Russian classical literary plots. So, recently, the Italian director Mario Bava staged a film based on the story "Viy" as a purely commercial horror film, called "Satan's Mask". Our film is conceived in a direct polemic with handicrafts of this kind ... ”The go-ahead was given at the film studio to launch the script“ Viy ”in order to give an answer to“ artisans from the West. Soon, novice directors began to audition artists.

The actresses were horrified by Pannochka

In the film, Pannochka was played by Natalya Varley. But another actress began to act in the film - Alexandra Zavyalova, who outperformed Elena Sanko and Svetlana Kokoshko in the auditions.

But as soon as the shooting began, Zavyalova became seriously ill. The filmmakers were waiting for the actress, filming one Kuravlev. As soon as Zavyalova received treatment, she arrived at the set and was made up as a witch, when she again became unwell. Filming has been suspended again. Then her husband called Zavyalova with a request to leave this “devilish picture” altogether, saying that this role would bring trouble. Zavyalova left the picture. And rumors have already spread around Moscow that the role of Pannochka is cursed.

The directors urgently began to look for a new artist on female role. But the actresses refused to even show up for auditions. Zhanna Bolotova and Natalya Varley agreed to play Pannochka. During the trial, Bolotova suddenly fell ill, and Varley, who was not afraid of the "devil", was automatically approved for the role of Pannochka.

The very next day after approval, measurements were taken from her for ... a coffin in which she was to fly.

By the way, many actresses even at the stage of trials refused the role old witch. As a result, this role had to be taken not by a woman, but by a man - actor Nikolai Kutuzov, who unexpectedly began to "lay behind the collar" on the set. For this reason, once even the shooting failed. But the actor, either jokingly or seriously, explained the weakness with the fear of a diabolical role ...

How to film evil

It soon became clear that the footage was no good. The authorities, in order to save the situation, threw to strengthen the picture of two venerable film storytellers who filmed together “Sadko”, “Ilya Muromets”, “ Stone Flower”, - directed by Alexander Ptushko and his cameraman Fedor Provorov.

Ptushko, literally rolling up his sleeves, enthusiastically set to work. He forced the workers to remake the “church” already built for filming, in which Khoma was supposed to read prayers. The church was made rickety, crooked, the director demanded that rotten logs, rotten boards be found for the scenery ...

More than one week worked on the creation of the Viy troops. Vampires were made lop-eared, ghouls - three-nosed, ghouls - lipped (with "dumplings" in the face).

Ptushko even invited ten midgets to shoot to contrast with the tall evil spirits, to give it a more sinister look.

Real crows and owls took part in the filming of Khoma's second night. 50 crows were caught right at Mosfilm in snares, laying out the bait. At the command of the director, black birds flew out with a noise from the crackling windows of the “church” ...

March 7, 1966 filmed the third night with the monsters. These were dolls in the amount of 14 pieces. Actors who played living evil spirits - ghouls, ghouls and vampires also ran here. Everyone was made up to look bald and naked. Some had a bluish tint, others were grayish-black, - says film researcher, writer Fyodor Razzakov. - March 9 - 10 shooting episodes with monsters and evil spirits continued. At Pannochka's command, they attacked Khoma, but could not break through the magic circle that he had drawn around himself with chalk on the floor. On March 16, they filmed all the same Pannochka and Khoma, as well as the evil spirits that climbed the vertical wall. This trick was shot like this: a “wall” was put together from thick boards, which was placed at an angle to the floor, and the shooting was done from above, from a camera crane. 12 gymnasts and 4 trampolines were filmed here as evil spirits.

On March 17, they began filming Viy for the first time. The costume for the monster was made of burlap, and instead of hands, tree roots were attached to it. This heavy robe was worn by a weightlifter.

ABOUT important role vibrator in art

Three coffins were made for filming the horror film: in the first, Pannochka was lying, in the second she was flying, and the third was flying with the lid closed (the last was half the size of the other two to make it easier to move). A metal pin-bracket was mounted at the base of the “coffin for flight”, to which the actress was fastened with a mounting belt. Behind her back, under the hoodie, she had a reliable support fixed. But Varley was very afraid of these flights - from childhood she had a fear of heights, which she overcame in the circus.

Pannochka's Anger was filmed on a special vibrator that shook and swayed along with the actress.

Wii's Curse

Despite big success paintings, for many years after the premiere, it was accompanied by notoriety. Gossip, they say, it is not by chance that the creators of this picture after a while began to leave for another world one after another. And indeed, after the premiere, he began to get very sick main director Ptushko tapes. He died in 1973 before reaching his 73rd birthday.

Two years later, cameraman Fedor Provorov passed away, two months before his 70th birthday. In the 71st year, the actor Alexei Glazyrin, who played the centurion in Viy, died, three and a half months before his 49th birthday. Two years later, the actor Stepan Shkurat, who played Yavtukh, died: Viy was his last work.

In the 84th year, the second director of the tape, Konstantin Ershov, died at the age of 49.

Natalya Varley immediately after filming for a long time fell ill with a serious illness. "Viy" pursued her for a long time. According to her confession, sometimes it came to mystical things. For example, once the actress went on a sea cruise, the organizers of which took a cassette with Viy with them. The show was announced on the first day. Varley said introduction. But before the beginning of the session, the calm sea suddenly raged. Varley saw this as a bad sign and persuaded her to reschedule the session for the following days.

But a day later, history repeated itself. Only in the wardroom the lights went out, the sea foamed. The second show was also cancelled.

The next day, Varley persuaded the cruise organizers to show another film instead of Viy. They agreed, and they themselves stubbornly put "Viya". Not even five minutes had passed since the beginning of the session, when the strongest pitching began on the ship, the ship began to heel. Her son ran into Varley's cabin, shouting: "Mom, they still show Viy!" The actress rushed into the wardroom and almost forced her to stop the session. As soon as the show was stopped, the sea calmed down. More this film from superstition on the ship did not try to show.

Varley admitted that she regretted that she starred in the first Soviet horror film: “After the film, troubles began to fall on me. I seemed to attract them ... For this role, I repented, received forgiveness from the church and I am sure: you can’t look where mortals are not allowed to enter.

However, the fate of Leonid Kuravlev turned out to be quite happy. According to the actor, his role did not affect him in any way. True, he still FIGHTED evil spirits in Viy. And almost won...

Leonid Kuravlev: To get a role according to Gogol is happiness!

Vyacheslav Nevinny, Vladimir Korshunov auditioned for the main role of Khoma. But they approved the test of Leonid Kuravlev. Here is what the artist himself told us about it.

Auditions are a natural thing in cinema. In this picture, they approved not the Glory of the Innocent, but me. And, for example, in another, joint with the Finns, picture - "For matches" - Gaidai tried me, but in the end he took the Glory of the Innocent, - says Kuravlev.

As for Gogol, I got great pleasure from filming in Vie. It is happiness to get a role in a film based on Gogol. I have read and re-read the author's text many times. An aura of mysticism exists there. She helped me a lot as an actor.

They say you saved the actress on the set?

Natasha Varley. There is an episode where she flies in a coffin. Once the coffin with Natasha was spinning, and suddenly she began to fall. From a height of 2.5 - 3 meters. But I was at the point where I just had to put my hands up without stepping back - and she fell into them. Miracle. This is also Gogol!

"Horror" "Viy" was filmed in 1967, with adventures. It seemed to the actors that the evil spell of the ghouls spread even beyond the film set... The workers tried not to go into the church built at Mosfilm once again. Meanwhile, only one drop of blood was shed in the Soviet thriller: the pannochka witch, frightening the philosopher, let out a bloody tear.
The picture was still "in launch", and nine countries of the world had already bought it. In the Soviet box office, the film took a symbolic 13th place.

Viy - in Ukrainian demonology, a formidable old man with eyebrows and centuries to the ground. Viy cannot see anything on his own, but if several strongmen succeed in raising his eyebrows and eyelids with iron pitchforks, then nothing can hide before his formidable gaze: with his gaze, Viy kills people, destroys and turns cities and villages to ashes.

In ethnography, the assumption is made that it is with the image of Viy that the belief about the evil eye is connected - that everything perishes or deteriorates from a bad look.
In one of the tales, there is a mention that Kashchei the Immortal is raised with seven pitchforks. This indicates his relationship with Viy.
Viy - king underworld, brother Dya. Governor of Chernobog. In peacetime, he is a jailer in Pekla. He holds in his hand a fiery scourge with which he treats sinners. He has a deadly look that is hidden under huge eyelids or eyelashes. A person who could not stand the look of Viy was dying.

“Viy” is a feature film shot in 1967 in the USSR based on the story of the same name by N.V. Gogol. One of the leaders of the Soviet film distribution in 1968 (32.6 million viewers). It is repeatedly mentioned as the first and only horror film made in the USSR. Although the authors planned to make a romantic fairy tale film, an adaptation of a classic work.
There are legends that the film, having a special, mystical flair, in a strange, mostly negative way, affected the fate of its creators. Actors, in particular Natalya Varley, deny this in every possible way.
In the 1970s, the film was purchased for foreign distribution: in the USA (under the distribution name "Viy or Spirit of Evil"), Argentina (under the distribution name "Viy, esp?ritu del mal"), Finland (under the distribution name "Velho" ) and France (under the rental name "Vij").

The idea of ​​​​the adaptation of "Viya" belongs to the famous Soviet director, at that time the director of the Mosfilm film studio, Ivan Pyryev. Only due to an acute shortage of time, he offered to shoot a picture of two students of the Higher Director's Courses of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR Georgy Kropachev and Konstantin Ershov.
Filming was carried out in the Bogorodchansky district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region and the village of Sednev, Chernihiv region. Extras - bursaks-seminarians - were recruited in Chernigov.
- The hardest thing was to find a hut covered with sheaves of straw, - recalls the film's artist Nikolai Markin. — Grass everywhere has already been mowed by combine harvesters. At our request, a craftsman was found in a distant village, who squeezed the field with a sickle by hand, laid the sheaves on the roof of the hut in a special way.

However, the material filmed on location disappointed the management of Mosfilm, proving to be "too realistic". So it was decided to involve the famous director of the film-storyteller Alexander Ptushko to work. As a result, a lot of the material filmed by Ershov and Kropachev was cut out, a number of ideas remained unrealized. The appearance of the main monster of the film, Viy, was also changed. A number of scenes were rethought and re-shot.
The restless Ptushko infected the entire film crew with his energy. The scenery was made in several pavilions at once. For half a year, the Mosfilm workers were frightened by the gloomy church covered in cobwebs.

There is an episode in the film when a myriad of monsters fly into the temple: icons fall to the ground, fly down broken glass, doors are torn off their hinges ... A huge chandelier - a chandelier - should immediately fall. Props were not too lazy and hung a lot of dust bags on the base of the chandelier. When the chandelier crashed on the floor of the church, everyone was numb for a moment: in the rising column of dust it seemed that an explosion had been heard...
On the set of "Viya" several centners of candles were burned. Wax was expensive. I had to order thick candles, consisting of wax and stearin, in special church workshops in Zagorsk. Ghouls, ghouls, the dead who came out of the graves were born in the workshop of plastic make-up. The talented artist Sarra Mokil worked on the werewolf masks.
“She was able to work miracles,” recalls assistant director Tariel Gabidzshvili. - Lukich always took her to work in all the films he shot.

From hundreds of sketches, Ptushko selected the most fantastic ones. This is how ghouls with three turned-out noses, fold-eared vampires, ghouls with half-faced lips appeared in the film... According to the director's intention, the Soviet film evil spirits should have been distinguished not only by "cute" faces, but also by size. To contrast with the "growing evil spirits" Ptushko gathered dwarfs from all over Moscow. Bow-legged, with large, artificially elongated heads, they were supposed to personify the fiends of hell. All immigrants from the other world were made up so that they seemed completely bald and naked. Vampires and ghouls were smeared with multi-colored makeup: some had a bluish tint, others were grayish-black ... "Khoma heard how the evil spirit rushed around him, almost catching him with the ends of his wings and disgusting tails." Probably, the witch Pannochka did a lot of sins, since the evil spirit stood for her so much.

The famous flights of the lady in the coffin, which frightened entire generations of Soviet children, appeared due to the fact that a complex mechanism was attached under the dome of the pavilion. All the coffins were black, like Gogol's. Coffin No. 1 was considered the main one - the dead lady lay in it. Coffin No. 2 flew around the church with the lid closed - it was he who, according to the scenario, could not break through the magic circle outlined by the philosopher. This coffin rushed about empty in the frame and was very small. They moved the coffin manually - with the help of ropes. Coffin No. 3 was suspended on six metal strings from the ceiling. It was in it that the witch flew around the church, standing to her full height. A metal pin-bracket was mounted at the base of the coffin, to which the actress was fastened with a mounting belt. Behind her back, under the hoodie, she had a reliable support fixed.

Before letting Natalya Varley into "free flight", almost the entire film crew flew in an unusual coffin. For example, the assistant director, who weighed about a hundred kilograms, also tested the structure for strength. At a high altitude, he rocked the coffin and even jumped in it ... By the way, at first they took the role of pannochka the actress of Kievsky drama theater. But director Alexander Ptushko was impressed by Gaidai's comedy "Prisoner of the Caucasus". Having looked in the frame how famously Natalya Varley descends from the window of Comrade Saakhov's cottage on a rope over a mountain river, he realized that he had found "his" lady. It was also a coincidence that the newly-minted "witch" - Natalia Varley - was from the Romanian city of Constanta. And Transylvania has long been considered the birthplace of sorcerers and vampires.

Natalya agreed to act in the role of Pannochka ... out of curiosity. What for a young girl were then flights in a coffin under the dome of the church! Well, let them measure you for the coffin. Life seemed carefree and wonderful. Natasha played in the theater, was the secretary of the Komsomol organization.
Natalya was put on a special vibrator in the frame to give the impression that she was shaking with anger; they put on dull make-up, as if she were turning green with anger; they illuminated their eyes so that they would glow from the inside with satanic fire... And the young actress, who did not want to waste time while the light was being installed on the site, lying in a coffin, read notes and textbooks.

But once during the filming, Natasha ... fell out of the coffin, which was rushing in a circle at high speed. Like in a kaleidoscope, the candles flickered, the beams of the church flashed by... Natasha lost her balance. The injury was inevitable, the actress flew from a height upside down. Pan philosopher - Leonid Kuravlev, having no experience in insurance, by some miracle caught Natasha at the very landing on the wooden floor of the church. The entire film crew gasped ... The rumor about the fatal fall of the "athlete-Komsomol member" turned into a speculation that the actress had died ... The whole country was talking about it then. It turns out that the aerial gymnast was terribly afraid of heights ... What kind of willpower this fragile girl must have had to get up every time in a coffin under the church ceiling ...
We admire her beautiful witch, and Natalya herself believes that the image in "Viya" did not work out for her. The emphasis was only on the external, spectacular ...

The performer of the main male role, Leonid Kuravlev, appeared in the film quite naturally. After Shukshin's film "Such a Guy Lives", where Leonid Kuravlev played the charming driver Pasha Kolokolnikov, he could not help but be offered the role of the philosopher Khoma Brutus. With a seminarian haircut "under the pot" Kuravlev did not need to walk in his life. All the freemen in the film were dressed in wigs. But the artist had to memorize prayers and Ukrainian songs.

Gogol, who left the world several volumes of magnificent works, continued to remain a virgin throughout his life. Trying to curb passions and overcome fears, Nikolai Vasilievich deduced an axiom: a woman is "beautifully colored natural evil", therefore, she cannot be anyone but a witch. Gogol walked all the time, as if on a knife edge, between God and the devil, trying to look into the abyss. Gogol's end was terrible - he went mad.
Years later, Natalya Varley, wise with life experience, regretted that she starred in the role of a witch: “It was a terrible sin. Now I think with horror how I could decide to lie in a coffin ...” After the release of the film, something terrible began to happen in her life. One misfortune followed on the heels of another. Natalya realized that such roles as Pannochka in the film "Viy" are not in vain ...

How can one not recall William Friedkin's blockbuster "The Exorcist" ("The Exorcist"). After filming, the performer leading role Linda Blair, who played the witch, was hospitalized with a serious mental disorder. Apparently, you can not seriously flirt with the devil.
The werewolves in Ptushko's film surprisingly climbed a vertical wall.
- The most experienced cameraman Fedor Provorov filmed this trick, - says the artist of the film. - A "wall" was knocked together from thick boards. The layout was placed at an angle to the floor and the vampires were filmed sliding down the inclined plane from above: a crane with a cameraman and director hung over the set. It turned out that the ghouls, clinging with the claws of their arms and legs, climbed right along the vertical wall. But people from the next world could not see a living person and needed a special shaman. And the monster with the "evil eye" did not fail to appear in Gogol's story.