Viy

Viy (1967) is the Soviet Union's first horror film — watch it online on iFILM. Directors Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov adapted Nikolai Gogol's story about a seminary student condemned to spend three nights alone in a locked church with the body of a dead witch.

Leonid Kuravlyov plays Khoma Brut, a theology student who once rode an old woman across the night sky and woke to find her dead — and transformed back into a young beauty played by Natalya Varley. Each night inside the church ratchets up the dread: the coffin circles the room on its own, the undead press against every wall, and when Viy himself finally appears, Khoma breaks the one rule that might have saved him. Every effect was built by hand — no digital compositing, just 1967 Mosfilm ingenuity working at full stretch.

The film was a box-office hit and remains a genuine oddity: a straight genre horror that cleared Soviet censors. Stream Viy online on iFILM.