This should be a pleasant surprise for those of you who enjoy their period adventures tinged with horror. FORBIDDEN EMPIRE, which stars Jason Flemyng as an 18 century cartographer who stumbles upon some supernatural shenanigans in Ukrainian village, has been awaiting release here in the states for a good bit of time. Now, it will finally see the light of day next week, and to help get your blood pumping for it we’ve got an exclusive clip that shows off plenty of ghoulish visual effects and fantastical frights. Not looking too bad!
FORBIDDEN EMPIRE was released overseas as VIY and did very well in its native Russia. Let’s see if it can find an audience on our shores.
Directed by Oleg Stepchenko, FORBIDDEN EMPIRE goes like this:
Early 18th century. Cartographer Jonathan Green undertakes a scientific voyage from Europe to the East. Having passed through Transylvania and crossed the Carpathian Mountains, he finds himself in a small village lost in impassible woods. Nothing but chance and heavy fog could bring him to this cursed place. People who live here do not resemble any other people which the traveler saw before that. The villagers, having dug a deep moat to fend themselves from the rest of the world, share a naive belief that they could save themselves from evil, failing to understand that evil has made its nest in their souls and is waiting for an opportunity to gush out upon the world.
The great Charles Dance co-stars in FORBIDDEN EMPIRE, which eOne will be release on VOD on May 22nd.