The Vij

The Vij is a Gothic horror-fantasy movie, based on the novel by Nikolaj Gogol. It is about an evil genie who manipulates the life of a young priest causing him to commit murder and fall in love with a witch.

It's inspired by a short story by russian writer Gogol. We've taken many characters from there, but we departed from the original story. We've taking themes from the original, but the humour and the philosophy has been removed. In the original story, there is an argument among students in a village. They mention our plot, so we've taken that mention of the plot and made our movie out of it. A priest goes the village to save the rich man's daughter, who's cursed by the fallen angel, The Viji, the guardian of the purgatory, who came to Earth. So, we elaborated that and made it our basic plot story. — Robert Englund — BadTaste.it

Italo producer Loris Curci is producing “The Vij” for Rome-based horror shingle ReDark in association with Canada’s Remstar and Spain’s Canonigo Films. Shooting is scheduled to start in April in the Lazio region with assistance and incentives from the Rome/Lazio Film Commission. The uninhabited medieval village of Civita di Bagnoregio will be a prime location for “The Vij.” — Variety