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Savage Hunt of King Stakh
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Deaf Crocodile Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (10th February 2025). |
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The Film
 Golden Raven: Valeri Rubinchik (winner) - Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film (BIFFF), 1983 Gold Hugo (Best Feature): Valeri Rubinchik (nominee) - Chicago International Film Festival, 1980 Jury Prize: Valeri Rubinchik (winner) - Montréal World Film Festival, 1980 Mystfest (Best Film): Valeri Rubinchik (winner) - Mystfest, 1980 Caught up in a storm while trekking on foot through the Pinsk marshes, Andrei Bielarecki (The Ascent's Boris Plotnikov) seeks shelter at the ancient Marsh Firs estate where he is received by mistress and last of the Janowski line Nadzieja (Elena Dimitrova), a fearful young woman who is not amused that Andrei regards the local folklore as mere legends he is collecting for an academic work. Woken from his sleep that night, Andrei discovers the housekeeper (Ruslan and Ludmila's Mariya Kapnist) performing spells to ward off evil from her mistress. The next early morning, he walks in on Nadzieja's coming of age party attended by the local gentry – who estate manager Ignati Gacievic (Assassination Attempt's Albert Filozov) reveals refuse to leave their homes after dark – where she is gifted a painting of her seventeenth-century ancestor Roman Janowski by her guardian Dobotovk (The Diamond Arm's Roman Filippov). Andrei is accosted by Ales Vorona (In Search of the Castaways' Boris Khmelnitskiy) who sees him as a parvenu and a rival for Nadzieja's affections but befriended by fellow aristocratic academic Svetilovich (Aleksandr Kharitonov) who provides him with the local gossip including the widow Kulsha ('s Valentina Shendrikova), Nadzieja's cousin who stands to inherit Marsh Firs if anything happens to Nadzieja along with her overly-solicitous coachman Rygor (Back in the U.S.S.R.'s Igor Klass). Later that night, Nadzieja defaces the portrait of her ancestor and collapses, whereupon Ignati explains the sources of her terrors in the family's own legends: that of the Little Man whose appearance foretells death, the Lady in Blue who haunts the family to avenge her execution, and most of all Stakh who may or may not have been a real king but was regarded as such by the Belarusian peasants to whom he promised reforms. Aristocrat Roman Janowski opposed him but offered Stakh his hospitality only to slaughter him and his hunters, tying their bodies to their horses and sending them racing into the swamp. Since then, the marshes have been haunted by spectral hunters lead by Stakh who have vowed to persecute the Janowskis to the twentieth generation. For Andrei, apparitions have not place in "the age of steam and electricity" (1900) and believes that it is the servants keeping the legends alive that is doing the damage to Nadzieja's psyche. Even Ignati does not believe in the Little Man or the Lady in Blue or that Nadezdha has actually seen them; he does, however, believe in the "Savage Hunt of King Stakh" that has frightened many of the Janowski ancestors to death. Andrei, however, may be onto something when he hears the sound of horses in the marshes but is wounded by a bullet from a very real gun, followed by a series of murders of anyone who promises to divulge knowledge about the mystery of Marsh Firs. Based on the 1964 novel by Uladzimir Karatkievich, The Savage Hunt of King Stakh is a Gothic novel set in "the age of steam and electricity" before Belarus was under Soviet control but written when they were and Belarusian culture was repressed; as such, the "return of the repressed" is a folk hero from the feudal past reviled by decadent landowners and haunting their descendants ("We haven't the right to exist, even the most honest of us, the very best of us. The blood in our veins is not blue, it's dirty blood," cries Nadzieja). Stakh's royal status is debated but a puppet show depicting him as a ruthless lord who demands Roman Janowski's daughter and then his castle, and has both father and daughter murdered – their wooden necks opening up to unleash birds form their hollow bodies – contradicts Ignati's telling of the legend but would seem to play favorably to the aristocracy; however, the pantomime ends with a hero proclaiming Stakh within the play to be an imposter and decapitated (his neck opening up to reveal a slithering snake). Someone does indeed use the legend of Stakh and his hunters to run poor families off their farms, to terrorize the widow Kulsha who turns out not to be a femme fatale but a childlike madwoman who believes Stakh claimed her husband, and to be the outlier to be deduced once Andrei has solved the mysteries of the Little Man and the Lady in Blue. The authorities are not interested in solving the mystery, attributing various deaths to local traditional feuds and rivalry over the hand of Nadzieja, and the local representative of law and order (Ballad of a Soldier's Yuriy Dubrovin) stating that Andrei's attempt to shift the direction of the investigation to the "some nonexistent in reality participants of the case, some mythical werewolves," makes him suspicious while also warning him to give up and leave suggests that upsetting the status quo is a greater crime; indeed, for his efforts, Andrei and his "ghost hunting" partner are charged with inciting a riot even as they expose a vile murderer (who ironically is too hunted down by Stakh's hunters). Director Valeri Rubinchik was less interested in what the work had to say about Belaursian culture than the genre elements of the film, leading to Karatkievich (who adapted his work for the first draft) expressing his dislike of the film. While fantasy was not unusual in Soviet cinema, overt works of horror were far less common, leading to debate as to whether this film or the 1967 adaptation of Viy should be considered the first Soviet horror film. While broader statements about power and the manipulation of history and myth-making survive, genre fans can also savor the film's Gothic atmosphere and production design that seems like a fusion of Mario Bava's Black Sunday, Kill, Baby... Kill!, The Innocents, and Roger Corman's The Fall of the House of Usher, the latter particularly with surreal paintings of the Janowski ancestors and the accounts of their madness and deaths. The film is divided into two parts, a talky first half of set-up and a second half of longer atmospheric sequences punctuated by dialogue scenes in which the interjection of logic seems more and more like an attempt to ignore and dismiss the truth (even if in itself it is not illogical). Fans expecting a more consistent horror experience may end up preferring either one part of the other, and it is perhaps best enjoyed more as a horror-tinged thriller or Sherlock Holmes-an detective story (to divulge which one would be a spoiler, although mystery fans can probably guess). Whether The Savage Hunt of King Stakh is or is not the first Soviet horror film, it whets appetites to search out other examples even if they are diluted by other genres and/or censorship constraints. 
Video
Given a brief arthouse theatrical release in the United States by International Film Exchange (IFEX) who released a number of contemporary foreign films and reissued earlier ones in the eighties – which lead to a lawsuit over the U.S. rights to The Bicycle Thief in 1985 – The Savage Hunt of King Stakh was almost impossible to see in English-friendly form subsequently until 2002 when Ruscico released region free PAL and NTSC DVD editions. While Image Entertainment did not port the disc over as part of their distribution deal with Ruscico, the import could be found at online shops, in Russian-American markets, and entertainment shops that stocked imports. Unfortunately, this version which included English subtitles and a new English 5.1 dub was the 109 minute theatrical release version which was rather choppy in some of its trims for pacing but was the only game in town. Deaf Crocodile's Blu-ray – released simultaneously in this standard edition and a 2,500-copy limited edition with slipcase and booklet available directly from their website and DiabolikDVD – debuts the home video release of the film's 132-minute director's cut. The 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.37:1 pillarboxed fullscreen Blu-ray comes from the only surviving elements for this cut which suffered from various degrees of fading which have been corrected here for the most part. Colors are a little dull but that appears to be part of the color scheme which favors blacks – the darkest areas of the frame are still a tad lighter than the side mattes – grays, browns, and whites with a few pops of blue and red. The feature was encoded by David Mackenzie's Fidelity-in-Motion, so it is likely that it looks the best that it can given the source and the clean-up. 
Audio
The Russian LPCM 1.0 mono track is very clean with only a hint of surface noise in the stretches of silence. Dialogue is post-dubbed as was the practice and is always clear, as are the film's sound effects. The music sounds a little low, although this may have always been the case as the film does not really rely on it for atmosphere and Rubinchik seems reticent to deploy it for dramatic accent. Optional English subtitles are free of errors and utilize slightly different transliterations of character names than the earlier DVD. 
Extras
The film is accompanied by two new commentary tracks. First up is an audio commentary by Mike White of "The Projection Booth" podcast who discusses the various versions of the film and makes the case that the shorter theatrical cut is well-done. He goes into some detail about the differences between the novel and the film, and the effect of changing the setting from the nineteenth century to the dawn of the twentieth century, as well as the themes of mourning and memory, mythmaking and the manipulation of history, and Belarus under Soviet control. White also conveys his criticisms of the film and its predominance of talky scenes. The second audio commentary by comics artist, film historian, and author Stephen R. Bissette divides the discussion into two parts like the film, with the first focusing on the novel and biographies of the film's participants – Fillipov was the Kremlin's official Father Christmas – while the second part focuses more on the savage hunt in myth and in other works. Bissette also goes into to detail about the differences between the novel and the film – including reading some excerpts that seem cleverly timed to match the onscreen action – as well as noting the presence of characters who in the novel were the voice of the Belarusian people and their frustrations and how they are reworked in the film. He also provides background on the studio Belarusfilm which had primarily produced children's films including some of the first Soviet stop motion and animation features.  The disc also has an introduction by filmmaker and author Kier-La Janisse (13:01) who like the other participants it the extras discusses the folk horror and Gothic aspects, but also points out the similarities between the story and the 1970 Polish adaptation of the Prosper Mérimée story "Lokis. A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach". She also discusses the Russian Gothic and its concern with the instability of the fringes of its empire, with Belarus being considered hopeless and backward by the very people who forbid them from publishing works in their own language during the Soviet policy of Russification; and how author Karatkievich was part of a movement from the late fifties onwards to recover Belarusian identity, while also noting that being couched in romantic notions of the past was another form of the negotiation rather than research of history. "The Wild, Wild Hunt of King Stakh" (16:10) is a "genre-rically" broader video essay by film historian Evan Chester who emphasizes the film's Gothic and folk horror elements, and its value lies primarily in telling people for which the folk horror genre is suddenly "a thing" that they should look beyond films like Blood on Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man to lesser-known works like this film.
Packaging
Housed with the disc is an insert with a QR code to access transcriptions of the extras.
Overall
Whether The Savage Hunt of King Stakh is or is not the first Soviet horror film, it whets appetites to search out other examples even if they are diluted by other genres and/or censorship constraints. 
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