This seems often to get pegged a horror film, and the first Soviet example of one. It certainly takes the imagery of that genre in certain sequences, but is thoroughly too an adaptation of the Nikolai Gogol story of the same name.
It's a somewhat eccentric adaptation, but in a sense it needed to be. The story is someone short, and not really especially visual. In the transition to feature film, this means that events get spread out quite a bit (even as events that happen to the other seminary students than our main hero are streamlined out), and therefore the film, especially in its first half, is rather slow moving. Though the visuals that are filled in end up including some very nice outdoor cinematography, and interesting scenes of the nineteenth-century Orthodox Church.
Gogol's story was also characterized by a sort of ambiguity of tone that was part of his effectiveness as a writer, and that is not really completely maintained. Things become broader -- the old lady in the farmhouse at the start is obviously decrepit and witch like, for instance, and, yes, the ghostly scenes at the end are more horror-like. These sequences where the dead body in the church rises and summons demons are really very effective and thrilling (though sometimes showing budget limitations) and its no surprise they end up among the most memorable elements. Leonid Kuravlyov plays the lead as so hapless and dim that he's often not easy to believe in scenes that are not supposed to be funny -- except these ones.
In all, an imperfect but worth-seeing adaptation of a Gogol story that would be very difficult to adapt in any circumstances -- and the better for the "horror film" influence that several appropriate scenes show.
It's a somewhat eccentric adaptation, but in a sense it needed to be. The story is someone short, and not really especially visual. In the transition to feature film, this means that events get spread out quite a bit (even as events that happen to the other seminary students than our main hero are streamlined out), and therefore the film, especially in its first half, is rather slow moving. Though the visuals that are filled in end up including some very nice outdoor cinematography, and interesting scenes of the nineteenth-century Orthodox Church.
Gogol's story was also characterized by a sort of ambiguity of tone that was part of his effectiveness as a writer, and that is not really completely maintained. Things become broader -- the old lady in the farmhouse at the start is obviously decrepit and witch like, for instance, and, yes, the ghostly scenes at the end are more horror-like. These sequences where the dead body in the church rises and summons demons are really very effective and thrilling (though sometimes showing budget limitations) and its no surprise they end up among the most memorable elements. Leonid Kuravlyov plays the lead as so hapless and dim that he's often not easy to believe in scenes that are not supposed to be funny -- except these ones.
In all, an imperfect but worth-seeing adaptation of a Gogol story that would be very difficult to adapt in any circumstances -- and the better for the "horror film" influence that several appropriate scenes show.