Viy

Yes, it is based on Nikolai Gogol's 1835 story about the seminarian Khoma Brut, who is forced to keep vigil over a dead young woman in a church. The film keeps the core three-night structure and the climactic arrival of Viy, the heavy-eyelidded monster from Slavic folklore.

Viy is often labeled the first officially released Soviet horror feature because Mosfilm released it in 1967, when supernatural horror was rare in Soviet cinema. Its mix of Orthodox imagery, witches, flying coffins, and folk demons made it stand apart from the realist cinema more associated with the USSR.

The film was directed by Konstantin Yershov and Georgi Kropachyov, with Aleksandr Ptushko often credited for supervising the fantasy effects. The final church sequence uses practical creature work, wire effects, and painted sets rather than modern optical or digital effects.

The 2014 film Viy, also released internationally as Forbidden Empire, uses Gogol's story as a starting point but is a much looser fantasy adventure. The 1967 Mosfilm version is the direct, compact adaptation people usually mean when discussing Soviet horror history.