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FORBIDDEN EMPIRE – The Review – We Are Movie Geeks

Review

FORBIDDEN EMPIRE – The Review

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In the grand tradition of Russian fantasy films comes a new version of the supernatural legend of The Viy, written by Nicolai Gogol and previously filmed several times, most memorably by Mario Bava as one of the tales in Black Sabbath, (easily my favorite due to the participation of Boris Karloff.).

In FORBIDDEN EMPIRE, a young English cartographer Jonathan Green (Jason Flemyng) takes to the road after being chased out of the house by his lovers Father, played by Charles Dance, after being caught in bed with her.

Looking very much like a Terry Gilliam movie, with the frame over crowded with bizarre machinery, filthy looking characters in period costume (set in the 18th century) and lots of cgi monsters, FORBIDDEN EMPIRE is a beautiful film to behold and more than a little disjointed and episodic.

But like classic Russian fantasy films of the past such as Sword and the Dragon, and more recently Wolfhound, FORBIDDEN EMPIRE weaves a strange and unsettling spell. Our hero drives a horse drawn carriage that is meant to drive itself with the aid of his own inventions. His cartographer’s machine, also of his own invention, is a complicated and fascinating piece of machinery.

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In his travels he encounters Cossacks who change into wolves, falls from his coach into a village that is overrun with demons and a local priest who is tasked with watching over the body of a young girl who drowned in a ritual meant to find her true love.

All manner of demons, large and small, assail the poor, superstitious villagers and the cartographer is not much help. Among the horrors is a Cossack who loses his head and keeps fighting while his disconnected head will not shut up. Over and over again we hear that “all women are witches” and the villagers behave accordingly.

FORBIDDEN EMPIRE has some good scares and is actually quite funny. If it has a drawback almost all the dialog is Russian dubbed into English, and very badly dubbed at that. Apparently dubbing is now a lost art.

The cinematography and the historical atmosphere are simply excellent. But with all the talk of witch craft and how to put witches to the test one can’t help but remember Monty Python and the Holy Grail “She turned me into a newt!”

FORBIDDEN EMPIRE is exotic and entertaining, a well crafted fantasy in the grand tradition.

FORBIDDEN EMPIRE lands on VOD May 22nd

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