Last night I watched this:

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l24/Gojirosan/viy.jpg

VIY 1967 Soviet Union Dirs: Konstantin Yershov, Georgi Kropachyov & Alexandr Ptushk. Hanzibar/Pagan Films

As a lover of the novella upon which this is based I was delighted to discover this film existed (again, thanks Loops! :) ). It's really very close to the source text indeed and pulls off the conversion from odd story to film with considerable success.

It's a film both charming and spooky with a lovely look to it. The performances are great (and often funny) and the naïve special effects are a joy to behold. Ity also manages to cram a lot into a short running time (78 mins) which is something I admire greatly! A Gothic tour-de-force is not too strong a term. A film deserving of a greater audience. I recommend this highly.

Apparently a large budget remake with fancy CGI is due any day now.

It certainly had its moments in the final 3rd...But I thought the rest was just frustratingly empty with nothing really going on.
It took ages to get to the village, and then there was just a lot of standing around doing nothing once there.
The 'staying the night' part of the film was so good and well done, I wish it had played a much bigger part.


SPLATTERDRAGON:

Nice to hear! I've have been wondering about "Cold Prey 1 & 2" as I've been very impressed with recent Euro horror.
I'll have to pick this up i think.
:cool:

I suppose it could be seen that way, but I'm quite happy for a film to have nothing happening so long as it looks good! And I loved the style and atmosphere of this film. :)

Let me know what you think of TERROR FIRMER when you get it

Will do mate. :nod:

i love terror firmer, did you get the 2 disc editon of it and combat shock? how much was the dead pit ?

I have just watched the Blue Underground disk of Nightmare City only to discover that I have never seen it before!!! I always assumed I had seen it but no. Nice.

I had always thought it was a zombie flick, had no idea it was an "infected living" film á la The Crazies and 28 Days Later.

Not entirely awful I thought! Clearly it was rushed, but it was competently made by and large and fairly well shot. I am appreciating Lenzi more as I am older, perhaps cutting him more slack as I know more about the industry and imtes in which he worked.

Decent disk, but I thought colours were a little faded and edges a little soft. I wonder if that was just down to film stock though.

What a surprise! I wonder what film I got it mixed up with to make me think I had seen it? Perhaps it was "Zombie Creeping Flesh"? I am about to watch that right now - for the first time in about 20 years (at a guess!) - so I'll soon know!

Yep, I got the two disc versions of Terror Firmer and Combat Shock. I'd been meaning to pick up these for a while now.

I got The Dead Pit for £7.14 - pretty cheap I thought! :woot:

I am intrigued by this "The Dead Pit" thing. Investigations may begin...