Living Dead: Soviet Style

As a rule, feature films of the USSR did not deal with horror or mystical topics. Only rare exceptions, like Viy or Spirit of Evil, 1967, surprised Soviet audience from time to time. The country, which officially embraced atheism, followed materialistic teachings in the movie industry too. However, decadent tendencies in its arts and humanities, distinctively taking shape at the end of the seventies, brought macabre themes to the surface. The final period of the USSR’s history was marked by a series of suspicious deaths of its leaders. Moreover, graveyard overtones of decadent movies exacerbated a gloomy mindset of Soviet people. Let us review several examples of morbid scenes in Soviet movies.

Epic photoplay Siberiade («Сибириада», directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, produced by Mosfilm Studios, 1979) features an oil executive, who has met his dead and alive relatives on a ruined cemetery of his native village. Fantasy drama Parade of the Planets («Парад планет», directed by Vadim Abdrashitov, produced by Mosfilm Studios, 1984) depicts a group of men, engaging in reservist training. After completion of military drills, they have visited an isle, where dead people live in a nursing home. Drama comedy A Forgotten Tune for the Flute («Забытая мелодия для флейты», directed by Eldar Ryazanov, produced by Mosfilm Studios, 1987) has a scene, where a heart sufferer on the brink of death experiences nightmarish dreams, meeting with departed souls.

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