FOIRBIDDEN EMPIRE

Directed by Oleg Stepchenko

Screenplay by Aleksandra Karpov, Oleg Stepchenko

Based on Viy by Nikolai Gogol

Starring Jason Flemying

Aleksey Chadov

Valery Zolotukin

Anna Churina

Charles Dance

Forbidden Empire is a Russian and Ukraine fantasy film co-production, starring English actor Jason Flemying as Jonathan Green, a cartographer traveling from Western Europe to the East creating a new type of map, and longing to marry his love back home.

While travelling throughout Transylvania Green finds himself caught in a deep, dark and cursed village where evil infests.

The truest evil that Jason Flemying’s character faces in Forbidden Empire is the film itself. A stellar work of Russian cinema it isn’t. The film is bogged down with a lack of focus, no direction, uneven acting and a lackluster script.

While Flemying may never be considered a great actor, he does bring energy to most roles. That energy does nothing to help in this film, as it is counteracted by his character being a buffoon.

For a film that is supposed to be about a cursed village, overwhelming evil and horror it surprisingly lacks in any of those elements. If anything it is more goofy and campy.

The production values don’t help. While the cinematography is good, and color pops, poor CGI kills the mood of the film. What creatures and demons there are look terrible. I can’t imagine this being a 3D film of any good quality.

Yes, this film was released in Russia and Europe as a 3D production.

Now it is time for full disclosure: I tried. I really tried, but I couldn’t quite finish this film. I made it twenty-minutes in, then fast forwarded through the rest.

This film is based on a story called VIY, but it does nothing to make one what to seek out the source material.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
It should be FORIDDEN to see this film.

RATING: UNFINISHED