Genre: Fantasy
Duration: 128mins
Director: Oleg Stepchenko
Cast: Andrei Smolyakov, Jason Fleming, Alexei Chadov, Agniya Ditgovskite, Yuri Tsurilo, anna churina, charles dance, alexey a. petrukhin

This big budget Russian-Ukrainian co-production is a mystical, dark fantasy loosely based on Nikolai Gogol’s classic tale of gothic horror. At the beginning of the 18th century, cartographer Jonathan Green undertakes a scientific voyage from Western Europe to the East. Having passed through Transylvania he finds himself in a small, strange village lost in the Ukrainian backwoods. The villagers share a naive belief that as long as they keep away from the rest of the world, they can save themselves from evil. But they fail to realise that evil has made a cosy nest in their souls and is just waiting for an appropriate opportunity to leap out. The cartographer attempts to unravel the mystery of an extraordinary mythical creature. But investigating the secret awakens the beast.

This 3D horror film is replete with stunning special effects, lavish production design and amazing fantasy sequences that broke Russian box office records on debut.