Will-McClay

I was privileged enough to pick up a copy of this seminal piece of Russian horror (horrorpiece, to employ the official term)at Mike Knight's Open-All-Night VHS Dungeon on W 5th Street, LA in the early 90s. For anyone familiar with the area at this time, Mike's store was a great place for the distinguished VHS "aficionado" to relish in the more under-appreciated World rarities. Sadly, he who lives by the sword dies by the sword; I last heard Mike's Dungeon was closed down for video piracy by none other than LA's infamous video piracy vigilante, The Pirate JB. On to the film, and what a film! Marina Levtoza (who later went on to star in what was a bigger box office success, yet inferior critical success, 'President i yego zhenshchina' aka 'The President and his Women') delivers a strikingly convincing performance as the mentally unhinged love interest Belogurochka. It is delightful to see a horror film of this calibre (trash horror) trying its hand at some old fashioned Biblical symbolism, as Marina is enticed by the dark side, or Satan's path, as represented by the witches. This is pure Genesis parody, and the tremendous clout of the chromatic imagery is rival, if not commensurate, to that of Polanski's 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968). The witches, of course, inhabit a cave, symbolic of that small, hidden alcove in all our hearts where Satan lurks, "whispering" to us with his empty promises. NOTE: The witches communicate with each other by whispering! Class!