''Viy 3D'' (russian: Вий, internationally known as ''Forbidden Empire'', and in the UK as ''Forbidden Kingdom'') is a 2014 fantasy film produced by Russian and Ukraine Film Group and Marins Group Entertainment and loosely based on the

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...

story of the same name. The film was released in cinemas in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan on 30 January 2014, in the United States on 22 May 2015 and in the United Kingdom on 1 June 2015. The film is directed by Oleg Stepchenko, based on the first manuscript of

. The film has been in production since December 2005 and stopped several times due to lack of funding. In October 2012, the filming was completed. ''Viy'' was a huge commercial success, even breaking a record for opening weekend in Russia, but was met with mixed reviews.История создания. Часть 1 Вий 3D
/ref>

Premise

Early-18th-century

cartographer Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...

Jonathan Green undertakes a scientific voyage from Western Europe to the East. Having passed through

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

and crossed the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

, he finds himself in a small village lost in impassable woods of

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. The villagers share a naive belief that they could save themselves from evil, failing to understand that an evil curse has already made its way into their town.

Cast

* Jason Flemyng as Jonathan Green *

Aleksey Chadov Aleksey Aleksandrovich Chadov (russian: Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Ча́дов, born 2 September 1981) is a Russian film actor. Brother to Andrei Chadov. Career Chadov made his film debut in the film ''War'' (2002) by directo ...

as Petrus * Anna Churina as Miss Dudley * Charles Dance as Lord Dudley *

Agnia Ditkovskite Agnia (Agne) Olegovna Ditkovskyte ( lt, Agnija (Agnė) Ditkovskytė), after marriage — Chadova, born 11 May 1988, Vilnius, Lithuanian SSR) is a Russian actress of a Lithuanian origin.

as Nastusya * Anatoli Gushchin as Gorobets *

Igor Jijikine Igor Vitalievich Jijikine (Russian: И́горь Вита́льевич Жижи́кин; born 8 October 1965) is a Russian-American actor working in Los Angeles and Moscow. Early life and career Jijikine was born in Moscow and from 1983 to 1 ...

as Dorosh * Aleksandr Karpov as Panas * Ivan Mokhovikov as Khalyava * Aleksey Ogurtsov as Spirid * Alexey A. Petrukhin as Khoma *

Nina Ruslanova Nina Ivanovna Ruslanova (russian: Нина Ивановна Русланова; 5 December 1945 – 21 November 2021) was a Soviet and Russian theater and film actress. She was honored as a People's Artist of Russia (1998).Andrey Smolyakov Andrey Igorevich Smolyakov (russian: Андре́й И́горевич Смоляко́в; born 24 November 1958) is a Soviet and Russian actor and director. He is known for '' Vysotskiy. Spasibo, chto zhivoy'' (2011), ''Stalingrad'', and '' Forb ...

as Paisiy *

Oleg Taktarov Oleg Nikolaevich Taktarov (russian: Оле́г Никола́евич Такта́ров; born 26 August 1967) is a Russian actor and retired mixed martial artist. He was a practitioner of Sambo and Judo and competed in the Ultimate Fighting Cham ...

as Gritsko * Yuriy Tsurilo as Sotnik * Aleksandr Yakovlev as Kosoglazyy Kazak * Olga Zaytseva as Pannochka *

Valeriy Zolotukhin Valeri Sergeevich Zolotukhin (russian: link=no, Валерий Сергеевич Золотухин, 21 June 1941 – 30 March 2013) was a Soviet and Russian stage and cinema actor who performed at the Taganka Theatre which he also headed between ...

as Yavtukh *

Emma Černá Emma Černá (23 March 1937 – 2 July 2018) was a Czech stage, film and television actress. Upon her graduation from the Academy of Performing Arts, Černá worked at the Theatre on the Balustrade and the Palmovka Theatre. She was also a guest ...

as Babka Ganna

Production

In 2006, Russian producer Alexey Petrukhin and Russian director Oleg Stepchenko decided that they wanted to make a film based on the horror story of ''Viy'' by

. By then, two other projects based on Gogol's tale were in production, such as '' Taras Bulba'' film from 2009 and ''The Witch'' from 2006. In order to secure the title, they needed without any further delay to release the information on the forthcoming project. In the course of three days, they filmed a teaser trailer where the role of Khoma Brutus was played by Petrukhin himself. Only after that did the active production of the film begin. When the teaser was shown in theaters, the script was not yet written and the actors were not cast. The story kept growing and changing until it turned from a simple screen version into a big-budget fantasy thriller. The authors understood that the new times set new rules, so in 2011 they made a difficult but very important decision: they decided re-shoot the picture in 3D, even though half of the footage was already filmed. Conversion was out of the question. The decision to re-shoot was not just a PR trick. The re-shooting was taken seriously—the producers developed an innovative technology that had no parallels in the world. ''Viy'' is an intersection of two storylines. One is the narrative from

's horror story. The writers used the first edition of the story still untouched by Belinskiy's proofs. The original version has quite different motifs and the whole narrative focuses on a different kind of drama. What's more important, this version abounds in secrets and riddles. Thus, Gogol's immortal story will be screened without cuts. The second storyline is centered on a real person— Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan (1595–1685)—a French traveler and cartographer who was the first to study the Ukrainian territories and their people and culture. His research is included in the book ''From Transylvania to Muscovy''. The producers chose his figure because he was also the first to collect and systematize under one cover Slavic myths and legends. De Beauplan was a prototype of the film's main character—Jonathan Green.История создания. Часть 1 Вий 3D
/ref>

Filming locations

The castle in England where Green sets out on his journey is doubled in the film by the Czech

Sychrov Castle Sychrov Castle can be found near the village Sychrov in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It is a unique example of Neo-Gothic castle architecture from the second half of the 19th century. A large park surrounds the castle. History Since ...

. Despite being a few hundred years old—it was built in 1693—it is the newest castle in the Czech Republic. The legend goes that somewhere in the dungeons of the castle is hidden a treasure guarded by a "Black Lady", a woman dressed in a black gown of mourning. In order to make her figure even scarier, some storytellers began calling the lady of the castle "the Black Widow".

Special effects

The film is shot in real 3D. Stereoscopic design of the film was done by the German company Stereotec. The producer, Alexei Petrukhin, said that originally the film was supposed to be stereoscopic. The scenes that were filmed during the first shooting period (about 20 minutes) were filmed in 2D and postconverted to 3D (in particular, episodes of Pannochka's funeral in the church were filmed that way). In 2011 the production decided to cooperate with Stereotec for the rest of the movie, a worldwide-operating, Munich-based 3D company. The rest of the picture (the remaining 2 hours) was shot with special

3D rig 3-D, 3D, or 3d may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Relating to three-dimensionality * Three-dimensional space ** 3D computer graphics, computer graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data ** 3D film, a ...

s from Stereotec and Cameras from

ARRI The Arri Group () is a German manufacturer of motion picture film equipment. Based in Munich, the company was founded in 1917. It produces professional motion picture cameras, lenses, lighting and post-production equipment. Hermann Simon menti ...

in native 3D.

Release

Theatrical

The announced release date was 12 March 2009 which was timed for the 200th anniversary of

, but it was postponed indefinitely since then. After they finished shooting the first film of the trilogy, the producers decided to postpone the premiere until the work on the second film, ''Viy 2'' («Вий-2. Проклятое место»), is complete.История создания. Часть 1 Вий 3D
/ref> In April 2012, according to the official website of the trilogy, a new estimated release date was set as 2013. On 15 May 2013, as part of the Cannes Film Festival, RFG representatives has signed an agreement with Universal Pictures, to take part in production as a distribution company. The film finally appeared in theaters on 30 January 2014.История создания. Часть 1 Вий 3D
/ref>

Home media

''Viy'' was released on VHS and DVD in June 2014.История создания. Часть 1 Вий 3D
/ref> The theatrical Blu-ray version of ''Viy'' dubbed to English was released in the United States in May 2015.История создания. Часть 1 Вий 3D
/ref>

Reception

Box office

The first weekend take was 605.2 million rubles (some $17+ million), which was an all-time record for a Russian movie at the time. It grossed in Russia.

Critical response

Reception of the film was mixed. According to Russian reviews aggregator Kritikanstvo, ''Viy'' holds an approval rating of 57%, based on 39 reviews. Yury Gladilshchikov in '' The Moscow News'' gave a positive review, although he noted that the film lacks a target audience, since it is too intellectual for mass production and too simple for an educated audience. He also unfavorably compared it with '' Sleepy Hollow'' by Tim Burton. Mir Fantastiki magazine was more positive about the movie and even named it the best Russian science fiction/fantasy movie of 2014.

Sequel

On 5 April 2015, a press conference was held in InterContinental Hotel in Moscow with producers Alexey Petrukhin and Sergei Selyanov. Actors Jason Flemyng, Charles Dance and Anna Churina reprise their roles, with Rutger Hauer and Helen Yao joining. During the conference, it was confirmed that the filming of the sequel, titled ''Viy 2: Journey to China'', has been started. The movie was partially shot in China and received help from the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, stunt coordinator He Jun, and operator Man-Ching Ng. The film debuted in China in August 2019.

References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control 2014 films 2010s fantasy adventure films Russian fantasy adventure films Films shot in Prague High fantasy films Russian epic films 2014 3D films 2014 horror films 2010s dark fantasy films 2010s English-language films English-language Czech films English-language German films English-language Russian films English-language Ukrainian films Films based on Russian folklore Films based on Viy (story) Films set in the 18th century Films set in Ukraine German 3D films 2010s Russian-language films Russian 3D films German fantasy adventure films Russian horror films 2010s supernatural horror films Ukrainian fantasy films Films about witchcraft Czech adventure films Films shot in the Czech Republic Czech horror films Czech fantasy films Films about Orthodoxy 2010s German films Czech dark fantasy films Russian dark fantasy films