If there is one thing I love in this world its mythology from different cultures. Learning their stories and what influences their heroes and fears makes for fascinating story telling. That is why I jumped at the chance to review Forbidden Empire, a film based on a short story written by Nikolai Gogol in 1835. The film is a fun blend of folklore, mystery, and mass hysteria. Sadly, a lot of its charm is lost in translation.

Synopsis: An 18th century English cartographer, Jonathan Green, sets out on a journey to map the uncharted land in order to achieve fame and fortune. Along the way he discovers a small village in a Ukrainian forest cut off by the rest of the world. He soon discovers the dark secrets and dangerous creatures hidden around the town. As he draws closer to solving the mystery he comes face to face with the legendary creature known as Viy.

There is much to love with this film, especially since the film has its foot firmly planted firmly in a dark fairy tale world. Quickly the hero is sent out on his adventure and thrown into this strange village that is seemingly haunted by witches and a demon named Viy. The cast is settled into to their roles in a very animated almost over the top manner, but it helps make the film fun. The over all production design and characters make this feel a bit like a classic Disney film from the 80’s, back when they were going through their cool phase, with a bit of over the top horror comedy found in the Evil Dead films. This is most prominent in a scene where one of the characters is chased around the church by a flying coffin. You can tell the filmmakers had fun making this film especially scenes that take place in the church. A rich setting of a haunting church on the edge of a tall cliff is where much of the action takes place. When the creatures come out that is when the filmmaker’s imagination truly shines. All of the designs reflect a West European look emphasizing hooves, shrunken limbs, horns galore, and one man walking around with no head.

There was a lot I liked with the film, but ultimately it has a few of faults. The biggest fault of this film has to do with the dubbing. The film was not originally recorded in English and the screener was dubbed instead of subtitled. When a dub is done right you will barely notice it, but here it is all too obvious with the voicing not matching the emotion of the actor, often falling flat. This took me out of the film way too many times. This brings into question what was lost in the translation of the film because often times they will cut out references in the dialogue when shown to Western audiences. This doesn’t help if the audience isn’t familiar with the folklore or culture which the film is based and often leaves the film feeling incomplete. The bit that stuck out the most as troubling was the film’s inconsistency with whether or not what was happening was real.

The film takes place in the 18th century in a village that is extremely isolated from society. The film paints this world as taking place in a magically supernatural realm early on, but as the film progress it starts to show that it was actually a case of mass hysteria. Now, I love stories of mass hysteria so I enjoyed this quite a bit, but when reflecting on the film I felt troubled. In order for hysteria to take place there has to be a source, like when a villager tells tales of witches. This plants the seed in the character’s mind of witches and all their witchy ways. But the film throws fantastical creation at Jonathan and us as an audience without a frame of reference to what is happening. This could be explained as an ACTUAL witch doing ACTUAL magic, but the entire experience is chalked up to collective imagination fueled by religious hysteria at the end of the film. Again, this makes sense that the villagers would experience this, but how could Jonathan Greene have any reference to these very specific cultural references? It doesn’t help that the pacing of the film is a bit inconsistent, jumping around a bit and drawing out moments that should have a bit more punch. When they are ramping up the climax of the film they don’t allow the pace to come down even though there isn’t much going on for bits, then ramp up the speed during the wrap up.

Ultimately the issues I had with the film barely stood in the way of having a fun time. The film has some good fantasy and comedic moments, especially the old villager who constantly critiques what is happening.  The creature design is really good, especially when Viy comes onto the screen, totally stealing the entire movie. The film doesn’t take itself too seriously and neither should the viewer in order to give a chance this film a chance to be fun. I would however suggest finding a subtitled version of the film as the dubbing is pretty terrible. All in all I gave the film a 6.5/10

Catch Forbidden Empire In theaters and on VOD on Mat 22nd, 2015

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