Details

Release year: 1960

Storyline

Decades after being executed for witchcraft, vengeful Princess Asa Vajda and her fiendish servant are resurrected and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of Asa Vajda's beautiful look-alike descendant Princess Katia.

Top credits

Directors

Mario Bava

Writers

Cast

Barbara Steele — Princess Asa Vajda, Katia Vajda
John Richardson — Dr. Andrej Gorobec, Dr. Andreas Gorobec
Andrea Checchi — Dr. Choma Kruvajan, Dr. Thomas Kruvajan
Ivo Garrani — Prince Vajda

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Did you know

• Mario Bava was a big fan of Nikolay Gogol's short story, "Viy," on which this film's plot and characters are based. He recounted that he often used to read the story to his children and that the tale scared them so much they insisted on sleeping in bed with their father. He so admired the horror elements of "Viy" that when given the chance to choose the material for a film he was to direct, he immediately selected it in order to make this film.

• The sets were designed in monochrome, absent of all color, to add to the dark mood.

• A young girl is sent out at night to milk a cow when Javutich (Arturo Dominici) claws his way out of the grave nearby. The young girl is played by Dominici's real-life daughter Germana Dominici.