Synopsis
A pastor and ethnographer visits a remote corner of 19th-century Lithuania where folk customs associated with the area's pagan past still have a hold on the population.
Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach
Cast
Józef Duriasz Edmund Fetting Gustaw Lutkiewicz Małgorzata Braunek Zofia Mrozowska Hanna Stankówna Władysław Dewoyno Witold Holtz Irena Horecka Andrzej Hrydzewicz Anna Jaraczówna Andrzej Krasicki Jadwiga Kuryluk E. Kuźniar Wiesława Kwaśniewska Witold Lisowski Wiesława Mazurkiewicz Stanisław Milski Adam Mularczyk Tadeusz Ordeyg Józef Pieracki Ryszard Pietruski Andrzej Rausz Józef Rosinski Andrzej Szafranek Danuta Wodyńska Paweł Unrug Witold Zarychta Bogusz Bilewski Show All…
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Alternative Titles
熊, Lokis
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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Poland
25 Mar 1971
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Hungary
07 Apr 1972
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Germany
17 Jul 1972
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USSR
TV
10 Jul 1972
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Germany
Releases by Country
Germany
07 Apr 1972
- Theatrical East Germany
10 Jul 1972
- TV West Germany
Hungary
25 Mar 1971
- Theatrical
Poland
25 Sep 1970
- Theatrical
USSR
17 Jul 1972
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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This Polish folk horror begins with a pastor travelling to stay with a young nobleman. It transpires that the nobleman may be the result of an encounter between his now insane mother and a bear. This plot has obvious hues of Lovecraft's Arthur Jermyn and may well be a precursor to Walerian Borowczyk's The Beast. It does not provide Lokis with any real narrative thrust, however - as the film doesn't really have one. Instead, this possible beastiality theme overhangs the narrative; highlighting certain odd details (for example, the treatment of the mother) and hinting at more interesting fantastical elements that never really go far enough (such as the old witch that lives in the woods) Director Janusz Majewski succeeds…
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i mean it's an eastern european manbear film and in minute 4 you're introduced to some fine ass honeys dressed head to toe in long spooky silk dresses. can't go too wrong. guy goes to dilapidated centuries old castle/church thing, is immediately surrounded by strange occurrences and hot women who want to fuck him. sounds bad? here are ten reasons why that's good
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Shudder released Lokis right around the time of their excellent folk horror documentary, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched. This Polish folk fantasy horror nails the atmosphere that makes films of this ilk so rich.
However there is a frustrating insipidness to any actual horror, which feels like such a waste because they did the hard part so well and set it all up. I don't know what the reasoning behind not pulling the trigger and making this film something special, because it just flaccidly reaches its conclusion and leaves very little impression besides the sadness of a wasted opportunity.
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“Farewell, king of the beasts!”
There’s something off with this count. For one, he wears a hideous, lime green jacket. For another, it’s rumored that he’s the result of his mother being raped by a bear. Pastor and amateur ethnographer Wittembach arrives at the count’s manor to translate a rare copy of the gospel found only in his library.
While lodging at the manor he finds the count's mother either tied to the bed, locked in a cage or repeatedly dunked in a lake to help cure her insanity. Also staying at the manor is a family doctor that seems more interested in watching his patients suffer than get well. There's a beautiful and eligible young woman that lives nearby…
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A wonderfully atmospheric Polish gothic fantasy. I enjoyed this more than expected, even though it's longer than it needed to be. It relies on dialogue, imagery and your imagination as nothing supernatural is definitely shown but the ambiguity works well with the story, and it manages to slowly creeps up on you. Some truly excellent cinematography, beautiful setting, superb performances and cast, and an amazing moustache.
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Folk horror with a capital F in Blackletter font. Bringing the shock of the old into boggy, Baltic territory while dipping the idea of “slow burn” into the cold creek water. This is as woodsy as it comes, oozing deer blood, espousing the darkness in horse eyes. Imagine horror about the unnatural auras of historic land, simmering on the proposition that weird things happened and could happen. It invites the “nothing even happened” reaction, but it rewards you deeply if you’re tapped into the druidly oddness from the start.
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The Rocky Hooper Picture Show (Hooptober 6.0)
6 countries (3/6) PolandA pastor, not a priest, is doing research in Samogitia in rural Lithuania, in hopes of translating the Gospel of Matthew into Samogitian. He stays in a beautiful manor with a Count and his mother, the deeply-troubled Countess. The truth about the Count and his possible heritage comes to light. Based on the 1869 novel by Prosper Mérimée.
In answer to your question, this is not the Cronenberg body horror you’d expect from the poster. It’s a slow-burn period drama with a gothic feel and a subtle Lovecraftian theme of tainted ancestry. H.P. Lovecraft’s stories often mixed in some racism with his fear of dying in an asylum like…
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“I’ve no love for animals, they’re no better than people”
Polish folk horror reduced to the elements (of cinema and the natural world), resulting in a leisurely, grim genre oddity that finds its fear(s) in the nature of man and all of his pursuits for personal and professional gain, noble or not
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While this was beautifully shot and the story was very interesting. The pace was very slow and boring.
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All The Haunts Be Ours Disc Eight
“There are more things in Lithuanian forests than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Our protagonist is a bookish, ecclesiastical professor of dead languages mingling amongst the decadent, decaying, disenfranchised nobility of backwoods Lithuania. The result is something like a Lovecraftian version of The Last Unicorn, and that easily sets up shop right in my wheelhouse with a warm welcome. The wheels come off this thing early, quite literally, and it’s a joy.
“Aren’t you seized by a desire to jump mixed with a sense of fear?”
Every damn day, Count. Every damn day.
A fair bit of gallows humor breaks up the melancholy, keeping things from being one-note. This is a front…
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Folklore fantasy from Poland. Great ambiance, very unnerving and it looks good. It probably could use a little less distance, but it makes from a good spin on the creature movie.
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*beautiful camera move*
"Whoa! Look at that weird thing going on in the distance!" - A Character.
*We look at weird things*
"And now, I carry on" - A Character
HAVE THIS HAPPEN EVERY FIVE MINUTES
*roll credits*