#katia icon

[devilznights]

Like or reblog if I use the icons and give me credits.

[blondedmartini]

SITE MODEL ICONS

like or reblog if you save

@ archivosprada on twitter

[theroleplayerchronicles]

Like/reblog if u save it, pls ♡

[alchimilla]

M A G N O L I A_Ghostly Baby

Unboxing Alternative Reborn toddler Ghost_

Kit Elliot by Michelle Fagan_

Artist Dreadfully Odd_

[pixiesp1991scharatmecharacters]

Fantasista Doll characters in CHARAT.ME icons

[serialadoptersbracket]

Round 3, Match 23: Camilla Noceda vs. Professor Hershel Layton

Submitted kids:

Camila Noceda: Vee, Willow Park, Amity Blight, Gus Porter and Hunter (ex-)Wittebane

Professor Layton: Katrielle, Alfendi, Luke, Flora

Propaganda under the cut!

Camila Noceda:

1. “She found out a shapeshifter had been posing as her daughter and instead of turning on said shapeshifter she instead beat the hell out of the guy holding the shapeshifter captive. And kept the shapeshifter. Like any true mother.

She’s a Star Trek fan. She wears a pride pin. She’s a single mother. She’s a queen and an icon and we all love her very much”

2. “She fucking adopted all of these children as soon as Luz brought them from the demon realm, and has taken them all under her wing like a true mother.”

3. “Sadly, she doesn't appear much in the series (especially because of the shortened season 3) but she's such a good mom.

I hope she gets another submission, cause as I said in my Eda propaganda I don't remember much from the later seasons, besides general plot points, so I don't have any scenes to point out.

Though basically every scene of them all together is on the first episode of season 3, "Thanks To Them". Also, there's MoringMark's comics that I and half the fandom treat as 100% canon.”

4. “Need I elaborate? Her daughter shows up after several months missing with 4 traumatized teenagers in tow, and she's kind of just like "welp, guess I have 4 more kids now." absolute icon.”

Professor Hershel Layton:

“#But anyone who's played PL can tell you Hershel Layton adopts every kid he meets #Even if he doesn't give them a home - he would die for them #Not listed are also: #The Black Ravens #Arianna Barde # Tony Barde #Nina #Amelia Ruth # Janice Quatlane #Melina Whistler #Bonnie/Cookie #Aurora Azran #Katia Anderson #Sammy Thunder #Espella Cantabella #Maya Fey #And so many more”

[eldritch-spouse]

Ooo, questions!!! I know you mentioned that Gallon is more of a loose slime, so what does a more...solid(?) slime look like? N how would a half slime half other creature (monster or human) look :O?

I also read that one of Vorticia's kids has a Wrath dad, n I was curious how having demon parents from different rings work? Does the rank of each parent influence which sin is more prevalent, or is it just kinda a toss up?

Gallon is a pretty loose slime, yes. If you want an example of a more solid slime, look no further than Pinter, his own dad.

Pinter is a lot more defined as you can see. More than humanoid, he's pretty decently gelatinous and doesn't drip around himself like Gallon, only in certain spots.

A hybrid between another species and a slime varies according to genetics. Sometimes, they can create ectoplasm monsters, like Fasma, who tend to be a lot more consistent and sometimes feature a series of strange abilities science can't quite yet explain.

Vorago's dad was wrathful, Berle's dad was lustful.

I think I've spoken about this in more detail, but I can do it again really quickly.

It's not the Ring that matters here, it's the type of demon. More than that, it's the genetics of said demon parents.

Recall the situation with Katia and the triplets, if you will. Katia is a mid-ranking sloth demon and the triplets' father was a wrath demon, likely mid-rank too. In spite of this, only one of Katia's kids is wrathful, and she has no slothful child to her name. That's where genetics and pure chance comes into play. In spite of being their respective types, both these parents had genes that corresponded to other types of demons, and since the rank between them was equal, it was only a matter of chance.

Were the chances of the kid being wrathful or slothful higher? Certainly. But there were still chances for them to be other types, and that's what happened with Obie and Mervin.

Yes, the rank of a parent influences the outcome of the child's type. Meaning, essentially, a high-ranker's genes are more dominant, therefore if you had an imp glutton and a high-ranking prideful demon, the chances of the kid being prideful are quite high in this case. They could also turn out to be another type in the prideful demon's genes, but that's a little less likely in these inter-rank cases.

Now, when you add a demonlord into the equation, recall what I said in this ask.

Demon types are inherited only in specific scenarios, particularly when:

A) Only one of the parents is a demon;

B) One of the parents is an Icon;

Demonlords are overpoweringly dominant when it comes to their genetic material's influence on the outcome of their children.

All of Vorticia's children are gluttons.

There are little tells here and there that may reveal the types of their fathers (they were usually all high-ranking males), but they could never have been another type other than their demonlord mother's.

[r1-jw-lover]

In honor of pride month what are your queer headcanons of characters in the jw franchise ? :3c

Sorry for the late reply. My queer headcanons aren't that original but I'll try to answer as best as I can.

In canon, there are a fuckload of characters I headcanoned as queer, including but not exclusively:

John Wick (bisexual ace)

Caine (bisexual arospec)

Koji (polysexual)

Tracker (aro)

Akira (lesbian)

Katia (lesbian)

Mia (pansexual, sapphic)

Of course, there are a ton more from the other movies, but the fourth movie is my favourite, so my list is not surprisingly just the JW4 characters whom I like a lot.

That being said, I fully support other people's queer headcanons (your icon looks so pretty <3<3<3 tfem!Marquis my beloved) and encourage you guys to go wild lmao.

Happy pride month to you, bestie. :D

[laytonnpcbracket]

Welcome to the Layton NPC Showdown!

This is a bracket to determine which of the many memorable NPCs from across the Professor Layton games are the greatest.

GAMES INCLUDED: Every game except LBMR. Eternal Diva characters are also not included here.

WHAT COUNTS AS AN NPC?: Anyone who doesn't have a puzzle animation. Characters excluded are Layton, Luke, Flora, Clive, Emmy, Randall, Aurora, Des, Espella, Phoenix, Maya, Katrielle, Ernest, Sherl, Hastings, and Emiliana.

WILL THERE BE NOMINATIONS?: Nope! Every NPC will be included.

WHAT ABOUT THE LAYTONMOBILE/MOLENTARY EXPRESS?: No vehicles. Not characters.

WHAT ABOUT THE PUZZLE LADS/LASSES?: I only plan on including characters that we can speak to in-game, so no Puzzle Lads or Lasses. Sorry to the people who like them 😔

WHICH CHARACTERS ARE INCLUDED, THEN?: Anyone who isn't an exception listed above that is in the profiles of the game! A full list is enclosed below.

WHEN WILL THE TOURNAMENT START?: More information forthcoming on that! I have to seed the bracket first :)

WHY IS NAIYA YOUR ICON?: In my opinion, she's one of the more underrated NPCs of the series. I'll probably cycle through some of the ones I have available to me right now.

WHAT CRITERIA SHOULD I VOTE ON?: Whatever makes you happy :)

ARE ALTER EGOS SEPERATE CHARACTERS?: No. For instance, Ratman is not included because his secret identity is in the tournament.

US OR UK NAMES?: I will try to make available as many names for the NPCs as possible! Which includes their Japanese names and as many names in the localizations as I am able to obtain from the wiki and my own sources. I'll probably reliably have the English (both versions where applicable), Japanese, and French names for every character when I do the bracket rounds. The list below however is entirely in English.

And now for a list of the entries! I didn't check all of these for inconsistencies, but I attempted to ascertain that I used the US versions. Some of them might be UK versions though because that's the version of the game I have (specifically Diabolical Box NPCs and Last Specter NPCs -- I know some of their US names but not all).

Franco

Stachenscarfen

Ingrid

Percy

Marco

Ramon

Matthew

Lady Dahlia Reinhold

Gordon Reinhold

Simon Reinhold

Claudia

Beatrice

Deke

Agnes

Pauly

Crouton

Flick

Rodney

Chelmey

Lucy

Zappone

Gerard

Jarvis

Adrea

Pavel

Crumm

Prosciutto

Archibald

Sylvain

Martha

Giuseppe

Augustus Reinhold

Granny Riddleton

Don Paolo

Bruno

Andrew Schrader

Anton Herzen

Katia Anderson

Sophia

Mr. Anderson

Beluga

Sammy Thunder

Macaroon

Chester

Babette

Tom

Ilyana

Geoff

Garland

Nigel

Jacques

Barton

Grousley

Steve

Capone

Mitzi

Lili

Sally

Marjorie

Conrad

Karla

Romie

Dorothea

Clabber

Oscar

Nick

Gabe

Balsa

Wurtzer

Lopez

Laurel

Parcelle

Lulu

Albert

Madeline

Remy

Angus

Kostya

Dylan

Joseph

Rory

Lila

Damon

Felix

Niles

Duke

Hopper

Olson

Derby

Dawson

Joanie

Krantz

Grinko

Marina

Opal

Ray

Gregorio

Narice

Gertie

Hamster

Precious

Winston

Claire

Dimitri Allen

Bill Hawks

Spring

Cogg

Dean Delmona

Shipley

Puzzlette

Beasley

Parrot

Subject 3

Bostro

Family Goon

Lockjaw

Splinters

Marzano

Layman

Fisheye

Silky

Shmelmey

Shmarton

Ward

Smith

Florence

Vito

Art

Niklaus

Anita

Alfie

Hazel (UF)

Adeline

Max

Becky

Margaret

Pallard

Dupree

Natalia

Harold

Horace

Hardy

Cuthbert

Segal

Catanova

Rosetta

Colby

Rudolph

Misha

Dylan

Viv

Pepper

Checker

Avogadro

Maya (UF)

Myrtle

Belle

Graham

Slate

Ernest (UF)

Berta

Minnie

Paige

Raleigh

Beacon

Mark

Rosa

Grosky

Keats

Clark Triton

Brenda Triton

Arianna Barde

Tony Barde

Doland Noble

Levin Jakes

Loosha

Toppy

Crow

Marilyn

Roddy

Scraps

Tweeds

Wren

Socket

Louis

Badger

Aldus

Charlie

Jasmine

Bucky

Fische

Beth

Mido

Clarence

Joe

Molly

Marion

Browne

Hugo

Dominica

Paddy

Brock

Aunt Taffy

Shackwell

Greppe

Goosey

Mimi

Hans Jakes

Maggie

Yamada

Sean

Olga

Finch

Sebastian

Cornelius

Chappy

Hannah

Mick

Colby

Monica

Thomas

Nate

Ewan

Chief Engineer

Naiya

Chippe

Bram

Ghent

Nordic

Gilbert

Roland Layton

Lucille Layton

Henry Ledore

Angela Ledore

Alphonse Dalston

Leonard Bloom

Sheffield

Billson

Mrs Ascot

Pascal

Guy

Lapushka

Gustav

Gonzales

Drake

Tyrone

Sterling

Mordy

Collette

Maurice

Juggles

Puck

Yukkles

Murphy

Cookie

Tanya

Firth

Madelaine

Stumble

Artie

Michelle

Nils

Frankie

Conner

Humbert

Policeman (MM)

Yuming

Esther

Lionel

Doug

Mr. Collins

Leon Bronev

Raymond

Prima

Harald

Donna

Mascha

Georg

Mackintosh

Solveig

Erik

Hazel (AL)

Igor

Sonya

Moos

Larisa

Karpin

Boris

Dariya

Pavlova

Carmichael

Amelie Chelmey

Policeman (AL)

Tommy

Morel

Chestnut

Amanita

Blewitt

Chanterelle

Button

Lepidella

Bud

Javier

Benny

Miranda

Martine

Barbara

Ruby

Scarlett

Flint

Old Red

Jesse

Derringer

Julien

Romilda

Sheppard

Piet

Felicia

Rik

Beatrix

Umid

Banu

Dana

Temir

Mehri

Nassir

Adler

Robin

Macaw

Plover

Grouse

Gannet

Swift

Carmine Accidenti

Olivia Aldente

Allan

Bardly

Zacharias Barnham

Newton Belduke

Birdly

Boistrum

Cecil

Cinderellia

Constantine

Cracker

Cutter

Darklaw

Dewey

Dzibilchaltunchunchucmil

Patty Eclaire

Eve (cat)

Flynch

Foxy

Jean Greyerl

Hoot

Judge

Kira

Knight Captain

Knightle

Lottalance

Lyewood

Lettie Mailer

Balmung

Mary

Muffet

Muggs

Ridelle Mystere

Nozey

Petal

Petter

Ms Primstone

Emeer Punchenbaug

Robbs

Old Rootie

Rouge

Servius

Shakey

Johnny Smiles

Snowy

Storyteller

Tuggit

Price

Wordsmith

Pipper Lowonida

Phineas Barnone

Madame Doublée

Liza Wight

Grant Sloans

Cesar Chance

Mustafa Fulhold

Hans Lipski

Aleks Lipski

Maverick D. Rector

Seymore Fraymes

The Major

Eddie Torre

Hayes

Maid

Wooooster

Bianca Teller

Security Guard

Shadee

Taboras Lloyd

Douglas Dert

Ratboy

Mo Heecan

Mrs Slow the Tailor

Midas Pullman

Declan Swabber

Abel Seamon

Felicity Hastings

Gene Ohm

Billy Kidd

Royall Britannias

Clover Pryce

PC Beate

DC Booker

Waiter

Séan Butchin

Bo Bells

Hessie Tate

Benjy

Bess

Keane Fisher

Bob Bracket

Stripey

Patch

Cat

Yapper

Gudrun Weldon

[kavalyera]

chad stahelski doesn’t know it but he made a banquet with john wick. you like dilfs? well there’s fucking LOADS of them here. you into loserboy men who tries to act tough and subsequently still is a loser? bro. iosef tarasov. are you into older men with tragic backstories? john wick himself is there for you and boy does he have a LOT to unpack. oh wait, you like older men that are mean and sassy? caine is there, father of one daughter. oh how about old men with class!! winston. or are you into pure husband material? well we have the sweetheart of the series charon<33 are you into men that are assholes with taste and are crime bosses? santino d’antonio, everyone’s fav big bad since 2017 hell yeah. or are you into twinks who are so fucking bitchy it’s almost comical? we have bill “horror bf” skarsgard as the marquis vincent de gramont!! oh wait you’re into women?? what kind?? rage filled women who can snap you like a twig? oh sweetie we have akira shimazu here played by THE rina sawayama. are you into emo butches who have tattoos? katia is here, a personal fav!! and underrated one too!!! oh wait you want another kind of tattooed lesbian? look no further for we have ruby rose as ares in the series she doesn’t talk but let her hands speak for themselves(pun intended). remember santino? he has a sister! a hot sister actually. she’s hot and she’s so mother to the point the director was like “okay thats enough from you claudia gerini” so we have gianna d’antonio the iconic milf of the series despite only having fucking four seconds of screen time. you’re into non binary people? ur t4t even? the adjudicator is here and my god are they fashionable. oh youre an aroace? well funny enough this series has only few ounces of romance and not even a single scene of sex but keanu reeves killing people in a fuckass suit can already be counted as erotic ;)

[adarkrainbow]

The Yaga journal: The Polish Baba Yaga

I won’t follow the actual order of the articles in the journal, I’ll rather went by those that strike more my fancy. And today’s article is “Portrait of a Polish Baba Yaga”, by Katia Vandenborre.

It might seem surprising to describe “a Polish Baba Yaga”, when the hag is one of the most iconic characters of Russian culture - and even though similar characters have been noted in Ukraine, in Bielorussia, in Slovakia and in Czech Republic, her presence in Poland is not obvious. For Polish folklorist, Baba Yaga belongs to the Russian tradition, hence why she doesn’t appear in “Slownik folkloru polskiego”, The Dictionary of Polish folklore, from 1695... And yet she is one of the main characters of one of the most popular Polish fairytale collections of the second half of the 19th century: Bajarz polski, Zbior basni, powiesci i gawed ludowych, by Antoni Jozef Glinski (The Polish storyteller. Collection of fairytales, short stories and folktales). When the book was released, in 1853, Poland had lost its independance for a few decades now, and finding itself under the domination of Russia, Prussia and Austria, it used folklore as a way to preserve their national culture. In this context, the presence of Baba Yaga in three of the four volumes of Glinski’s work leads to several questions... And thus the article wants to paint a portrait of the “Polish Baba Yaga” by studying the seven fairytales she appears in, to understand how different and similar she is to her Russian counterpart. 

Baba Yaga in the video game “Smite”

I) The two faces of Baba Yaga: angel and demon

Glinski depicts Baba Yaga under two opposite and yet fused aspect, benevolent and malevolent at the same time, a self-contradicting nature that makes it hard to simplify the character.

The first of these “faces” the reader meets in Glinski’s collection is Baba Yaga’s role as a precious auxiliary that helps the hero find back his beloved. It is “The Princess turned into a frog” (O krolewnie zakletej w zabe). The story begins with a prince finding a wife, but said wife has been cursed to turn into a frog. After a failed attempt at trying to break her curse, the princess flees away from her husband-to-be, now turned into a duck. After wandering for weeks searching for her, the hero discovers a house on chicken legs. He pronounces a rhyme that basically says “Little house, little house, moves your chicken islands, turn your back on the forest, and face me”. The house moves on its leg, and opens its door to the hero. He enters and find Baba Yaga, spinning a spindle while singing a little song. The hero tells her all of his misadventures, and trying to help she tells him to catch the duck that comes to her house every day. However the duck escapes the hero, and turns successively into a pigeon, a falcon, and a snake. Baba Yaga is angry at the prince, because now the duck will not come to her house ever again. She however gives him a ball of thread that will lead him to her sister, where he will try his chance again. The scene of the chicken-legged house is repeated, and the second Baba Yaga again tells the prince he needs to catch the duck visiting her house. This time, as the duck escapes, it turns into a turkey, a dog, a cat and finally an eel. It is only by visiting a third chicken-legged house, and meeting a third Baba Yaga (the older sister of the other two) that the hero will finally catch the duck, and break the spell of his beloved princess.

In the fairytale that follows “The princess turned into a frog”, Glinski again shows a Baba Yaga in a similar “helper” function. It is “The princess Virgin-Miracle, the prince Yunak, and the invisible mace”, where the Baba Yaga appears in the second part of the narrative to resolve the crisis. While without any sisters here, she gives precious advice that allows to free the titular princess from the hands of Koscej. It is actually the sun itself who tells the hero, the knight Yunak, to go seek Baba Yaga in order to deliver the princess Virgin-Miracle from the castle of the wizard Koscej. Yunak first fetches an invisible mace with the power to hit things on tis own, and then a horse that can lead him to Baba Yaga. The prince arrives in “the sleepy and virgin wood where Baba Yaga lives”. After admiring the enormous tallness of the oaks, pines and firs, he notices that the forest is entirely silent, “as if all the trees had fallen asleep, and no living creature was in sight”. They finally reach the chicken-legged house, and after pronouncing the same formula as in the previous tale, enter the building. Baba Yaga is surprised to see Yunak, wondering how he could come here when no other “living soul” ever managed to reach her house. Not answering her, Yunak rather asks for her hospitality - the Baba Yaga promptly gives him food, drinks and a bed to sleep on. It is only after two more days of hospitality that the hero agrees to tell the witch the reason he came here. Impressed by this “great and beautiful deed”, Baba Yaga tells him where he can find “the death of Koscej”, that he needs to obtain in order to vanquish the sorcerer: she tells him to go on an island in the middle of the ocean, to dig up a chest from under an oak, to get from it a hare, from inside the hare a duck, from inside the duck an egg - and inside is Koscej’s death. With this advise, Yunak kills the evil wizard, breaks all of his spells, and marries the princess. Another tale where Baba Yaga worked for a happy ending.

Even though these two tales do show Baba Yaga as doing poitive actions, she still has a negative aura to her. She is an old, grey-haired woman with an aspect as disquieting as the places she live in. She lives in a house that is initially closed to the hero, since it only opens up after a certain magical incantation - and it is located in a very dark, very old, very silent forest, a forest that evokes death. So even as a helper, Baba Yaga seems to be tied to death - and she seems to have a mysterious side to her as, when the heroes see her for the first time, the narration tends to mention that he finds her in the middle of “hatching plans inside her head” or “conceiving plots in her mind”. So the witch is constantly up to something, a something that is never revealed.

A third tale breaks what seemed to be some sort of generosity. In “The Princess Virgin-Miracle”, Baba Yaga acted out of admiration for the noble deeds of the hero ; in “The princess turned into a frog”, she purely helped without asking anything in exchange. But in “The prince with the mustache of gold, the princess with the hair of gold, the heating cap and the cooling flask”, she starts asking for things in exchange for her help, revealing her more ambiguous nature. In this tale, Baba Yaga agrees to help the titular “prince with a mustache of gold” only if he brings to her some “water of youth” that is said to run down the mountain where the hero’s quest is heading to. To recap briefly the story, a royal couple had two boys, young princes that tried to rescue an imprisoned princess (the titular princess with gold hair) at the top of a mountain, only to die trying to (though everybody merely believes them mysteriously gone). God took pity on the couple and gave them a third son, with supernatural power, here to remedy to the disappearance of his brothers. Growing rapidly into adulthood, the magical prince sets on his quest, and finally arrives in a dark forest, where he finds the chicken-legged house, in the middle of a field surrounded by blooming poppies. The closer he gets to the house, the sleepier the prince gets, so he has to destroy the poppies before being able to reach the house. After pronouncing yet again the same formula, he finds inside Baba Yaga, a decrepit and grey old thing covered in wrinkles and pimples. This awful demon is however surrounded by two young and pretty girls, all three sitting at a table. Upon seeing the prince, Baba Yaga asks what he is looking for, and after hearing his tale, she explains to them how and where her brothers died. The hero asks her how he can find the one who ravished the princess (who as it turns out is a living hurricane, a sentient malevolent wind), even though Baba Yaga warns him the wind might take him away too. However the prince is confident in his supernatural power, and so the Baba Yaga asks in exchange of her help for some of the water of youth located on the same mountain as the princess. She gives to the prince three gifts: a ball of thread to show him the way, a heating cap, and a cooling flash. These three objects will allow the young man to reach the mountain, and climb it without fearing the strong temperature changes. Once his quest is done, he returns to Baba Yaga and gives her some of the water of youth. She takes it, and immediately she becomes young and beautiful. Overjoyed, she gives as a reward her two daughters (the two maidens seen in the beginning) to the prince’s brothers for them to marry (the prince with the golden mustache marrying the princess with gold hair).

Now, it seems that Baba Yaga is a benevolent character here... But it is implied she had a role to play in the kidnapping of the princess, the one that caused all those misfortunes in the first place. Indeed, the palace where the princess is locked up by the malevolent wind is... standing on chicken legs. And the prince also has to sing a rhyme-incantation “Palace, palace, move on your chicken legs, turn your back to the void and face me” to enter it. Given the two building work identically, one can wonder if the violent hurricane that took away the princess isn’t just another shape of Baba Yaga... It brings to mind the fact that Baba Yaga was often associated in folklore with storm clouds. So in this tale, she would play both the villain AND the helper... 

Such an ambiguity is also found in “The prince turned into a crayfish”. In this tale, Baba Yaga doesn’t actually exist as a character, but her absence is noted when the protagonist enters her empty chicken-legged house. Instead of the old hag, the prince sees in the house a beautiful maiden. The narrative voice insists that this maiden cannot be Baba Yaga, since Baba Yaga is old and ugly. And indeed, the maiden is revealed to be the daughter of a royal couple, who has been kidnaped by “the master of all wizards”, that is to say “a viper-flyng spirit” (a zmij-latawiec). Nothing implies that this reptile-wizard has anything to do with Baba Yaga, but maybe some secret link can be seen - again, in folklore Baba Yaga has strong snake connotations and serpentine roots. On top of that, “latawiec” is the male form of “latawica”, and while latawica usually designates a flying spirit, it is also a term to designate a witch in Polish. This mysterious evil wizard, who not only kidnapped the princess, but also turned the titular prince into a crayfish, might very well be Baba Yaga under another shape... And yet, it is in Baba Yaga’s house that the hero finds the answers he needs to complete his quests, and the means to destroy the evil wizard. So again, from Baba Yaga, good and bad seem to come.

Baba Yaga’s villainy is however growing when we look at “The flying carpet, the invisible cap, the ring that gives gold and the hitting staff”. While not part of the action, Baba Yaga casts a shadow over the tale. The antagonist of the tale is the rival of a king, who several times tries to invade his kingdom, only to be defeated by an humble fisherman with a magical ring. After being beaten two times, the antagonist seeks Koscej to ask him to kidnap the princess. And the narration points out that the idea of seeking Koscej has been suggested to the antagonist... By Baba Yaga herself! 

Her antagonism is even clearer in the tale “The devil and the old woman”. This folktale is tied to an old peasant proverb: “When the devil can’t, it is the woman he sends.” The devil of this story will say this proverb at the end, admitting that sometimes women are much more talented than him to do evil. The story goes as such: the devil can’t stand seeing the happiness of a couple, and tries to break their relationship, to no avail. A “baba” comes by and sees the desperate devil - she agrees to help him, in exchange for new shoes. This woman is described as “dry, and wrinkled, and charred like a fire-poker”, and it is suddenly revealed that this woman is none other than “the famous Yaga” (or Jedza in Polish), “who had been called a witch, and who had been plunged in the pond several times without ever drowning”. Baba Yaga manages to create trouble between the lovers, and the devil pays her with new shoes.

However it is in another tale that Baba Yaga clearly appears as a malevolent being: The knight Niezginek, the sword that cuts on its own, and the gousli that play on their own”. A couple who has twelve sons advises them to go to Baba Yaga, to ask the hand of her twelve daughters in marriage. The parents tell them of “the famous witch Baba Yaga with a leg of bones, who moves in an oak-mortar, who uses an iron pestle, and who erases her tracks with a broom.” They also tell them of Baba Yaga’s twelve daughters, all beautiful and wealthy and ready to be married. The twelve brothers go to Baba Yaga’s house, but the horse of the twelfth son (the titular Niezginek) warns his mater of the witch, reminding him that “it is hard to reach her house, but it is even harder to leave it, because she devoured thousands like you”. Baba Yaga is described as a demon, a cruel old witch as old as the world, and even though she appears to be human, she actually eats human flesh. Baba Yaga welcomes the brothers, gives them wine, mead and plenty to eat, she prepares twelve beds in front of the ones of her aughters. At midnight, she gives the order to her gousli to play music, and tells her sword to cut the head of the boys. However Niezginek tricks them into cutting the head of the daughters instead. Discovering this in the morning, she screams, tear off hair from her head, and using her mortar and pestle hunts the brothers down. Thanks to magical helpers, Niezginek slows her down by making a river, than a lake, then a forest appear. Baba Yaga is forced to let them go and return home, but it is said that her blood-shot eyes still glow in the sky, leaving a red trail behind them. While the witch seems vanquished, the eleven brothers of Niezginek grow jealous of him, and force him into confronting the witch again. They inform the king of the existence of gousli playing on their own, and convince him to send Niezginek steal them. Thanks to his horse, who gives him a magical herb putting Baba Yaga to sleep, the hero returns with the gousli. The increasingly jealous brothers tell the king about the sword that cuts on its own, and Niezginek once again goes there - neutralizing the sword with holy water. The jealous brothers finally evoke the existence of the princess Virgin-Miracle, and the king asks Niezginek to bring her to him. The hero discovers that Virgin-Miracle is actually the youngest daughter of Baba Yaga - after losing her other twelve daughters, her gousli and her sword, she feared to be robbed of her last daughter. So she locked her in a boat of silver with a mast of gold, and sent it to wander across the sea, the key to its doors thrown into the depths of the ocean. And Baba Yaga guards the boat by swimming in her mortar, sending malevolent winds to push away any boat getting too close. (Another association with wind, which confirms the suggestion from “The prince with the gold mustache” that Baba Yaga might be the same evil hurricane that took away the princess). 

Baba Yaga in “Thea: The Awakening”

II) A double nationality: Russian witch, Polish witch

The ambiguity and mystery of Baba Yaga doesn’t simply rely in her morality, but also in her nationality. 

Despite her shape-shifting, the Baba Yaga from the tales of Glinski is extremely similar to the one of Russian folklore. Like her Russian counterpart, she keeps hoping from the role of a helper, to the role of a villain, to an ambiguous character. And the Polish Baba Yaga shares with the Russian one several traits: the appearance, the familial relationships, the house, the powers, the objects owned, the symbolisms... Baba Yaga lives alone, or with her daughters - sometimes she had sisters with the same appearance and same name. Very old, she has grey hair, is covered in wrinkles and pimples, and has a bony leg. She is a decrepit, dry, even “charred” person, except when the water of youth turns her into a beautiful maiden. She moves in a mortar of oak, with an iron pestle and a broom. She lives in a chicken-legged house in the depths of a dark and morbid wood. The hero must use a magical incantation to enter the house, and inside Baba Yaga is spinning some thread, singing, or thinking about various projects. Surprised by the hero, she questions him, and offers him hospitality, and afterward she either helps him or tries to devour him. She has numerous magical servants and helpers, and in exchange for her help she can ask something, be it new shoes or the water of youth. However when she hunts down the hero, she can only be stopped by other magical means. For the symbolism, the witch is tied with death, is linked to a violent wind that captures human, and also appears as some sort of flying spirit associated with snakes.

All these traits are found in or have equivalent in Russian fairytales. It seems thus very obvious that Baba Yaga was borrowed from the Russian fairytales to be placed into the Polish ones - which is very probable given the “Ivan Krylov” incident. Respected for a long time as a great collector of folk tales of Poland, Ivan Krylov caused a scandal when in one of his book about Polish folktales he merely rerote several tales of Aleksander Puskin, Vasilij Zukovskij and Piotr Ersov. This caused an outrage among Polish folklorists, and under this light, some of the stories talked about above seem to be tied to Russian folktales. The second part of “The Princess Virgin-Miracle” seems to be inspired by “Ivan Tsarevitch and the Grey wolf”, while the main plot of “Knight Niezginek” might have been taken from “The Small Hunchback-Horse”. The tale of “The Princess turned into a frog” seems to confirm this transfer from Russia to Poland, since this tale is very common and widespread in Russia. Its most famous version was collected by Aleksandr Afanassiev as “The Princess-Frog”. However, Glinski couldn’t have plagiarized Afanassiev’s collections of Russian folktales - simply because they were not published and still in the works when Glinski’s own collection of Polish folktales was released. Given how the tale of the princess-frog is very popular in the Slavic tradition, it is more probable that, instead of borriwing it from Russian folklore, Glinski might have rather ressurected a memory of it from the Bielorussian or Ukrainian folklores (which were very strong in the region Glinski came from). This would notably explain the different depictons of Baba Yaga in his tales.

Now... while there are attested roots of Russian literature, these roots only cover a quarter of Glinski’s collect. And even then, when we look in more details, other sources were clearly in the work. For example, “The Princess Virgin-Miracle” has ties to Ersov’ “The Small Hunchback Horse”, and yet this tale doesn’t have the Baba Yaga part the Polish one has - it seems to be mixed with a tale of the type “Baba Yaga and Small Piece”. What is unclear is if Glinski actually fused the two tales himself, or if the fusion had been done by the storyteller Glinski took his story from - probably a fusion born from a “local genealogy”. A similar “wedding of fairy motifs” is found in a Bielorrusian tale called “Ivan the idiot and the Small Hunchback Horse”, which seems to confirm that Glinski might have been more influenced by Bielorussia than Russia.

So... is Glinski’s Baba Yaga actually a character of the borderlands of Poland, rather than Poland itself? You see, Glinski came from the region of Nowogrodek (Navahrudak) who, while being part of the Republic of the Two Nations for a very long time, is now located in Bielorussia. Glinski claims that the tales of his book are coming from his childhood - so it is safe to assume that “The Polish storyteller” (Glinski’s book) is actually reflecting the fairy-traditions of the Nowogrodek region in the first half of the 19th century. Which means Baba Yaga could be part of a local folklore, mixing influences from Poland, Bielorussia, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Russia. Glinski himself, noticing this cultural mix, did not felt the need to make a difference between strictly Polish tales and “foreign” stories. For Glinski, this local folklore of the borderlands reflected the original Slavic unity that preceeded the divide of the various nations - it is a leftover of a distant, pagan past. Glinski was convinced that all the folktales of Poland, Lithuania and Russia where all once part of a same culture of the Slagic tribes, which then was split among different countries, and each “nationalized” until they couldn’t be recognized anymore. This idealized vision of a “primal Slavic culture” was notably an echo of the theories of Johann Gottfried von Herder, Zorian Dolega Chodakowksi and Kazimierz Brodzinski, when they insisted that intellectuels should re-create a national literature based exclusively on Slavic folktales. Glinski (who was a fan of Brodzinski) seemd to clearly have the goal to recreate a “Polish fairy literature” through the Slavic culture of the borderlands - and thus, his Baba Yaga is a manifestation of what is supposed to be the Slavic pre-Christian community. 

This idea was denfed by Wojcicki in his essay “On witches”. This man, who was named “the Polish Grimm” for being the first to ever publish a compilation of fairytales in Poland, deemed that the witches of Russia and Poland have numerous common points, most notably in their physical appearence. He noted that, in both countries, they were old women with wrinled and dry faces, with deep and red eyes, an abominable and repulsive creature”. He concluded in a common origin of those two figures. The “Slagic genelogy” theory can also be reinforced by the study of Ryszard Berwinski, in his “Study of enchantments, spells, superstitions and folk-belief”: he pointed out that Baba Yaga seems to be born from the degradation of a Slavic deity who was probably the wife of Perkunas and the mother of the world. Christianity apparently reduced her to a mere “wicked witch”. This theory, still very popular today, seems coherent from a linguistic point of vie, as the word “baba”, which denotes the feminity of the character, is present in ALL Slavic languages. “Yaga” is more ambiguous, but some trace it to the proto-Slavic. Glinski, in his tales, rather uses “Jedza”, the Polish variant of “Yaga”, though he uses the Russian form “Jaga” in one tale, “Knight Niezginek”. 

Despite this complicated and confusing genealogy, the heavy use of the Polish “Jedza” suggests that one of the main preoccupation here was the “Polization” of the figure. We could once again invoke the essay of Wojcicki who, despite theorizing a common Slavic source, pointed out the national differences that allowed the creation of a strictly Polish witch. For example, even though Baba Yaga’s role as a “witch” can be disputed, she clearly has parallels with the myth of the Polish witch. In Polish folklore, the witches are linked to the devil, and they gather some nights for a “sabbath” on the Bald Mountain (Lysa Gora). Even though there is a Bald Mountain among the mountains of the Holy-Cross (Gory Swietokrzyskie), the name was actually a general description for any high place outside of a city or a village. Already present in medieval literature, the character of the witch becomes more frequent in Polish texts starting in the 17th century, thanks to the numerous witch trials, which reached their peak in Poland between the 17th and 18th centuries.

In the “Komedia rybaltowska nowa”, the witch is called “baba”, even though the most common name of a witch is “czarownica”, or “wiedzma”. The witch has a lot of other names: lamia, latawica, poludnica, przepoludnica, nocnica, jedza, strzyga... And it is the last one that interested searchers such as Berwinski. The strige, the striga, the stryzga, with which witches were fused in Polish minds. This type of feminine vampire is not only tied to the Roman Lamia, but also to the “jedza” who was originally supposed to be a “female demon of the forest, appearing as a human and who dates back to the Middle-Ages ; she is the embodiment of the soul of a woman who died giving bith.” Due to an etymology tied to the verb of eating (jezenie), the jedza is also a flesh-eating, human-eating monster. The fusion of these pagan demons and the witch probably happened when the witch figure was brought from the West into the Polish culture, and while the witch took over the pre-Christian creatures, she still kept their names, even though they were emptied of their original meaning.

Glinski did use a few of the terms talked above to designate Baba Yaga - though he does so rarely. In “The devil and the old woman”, she is called “czarownica”, while in “The knight Niezginek” she is called “jedza”. But in all the other tales, Glinski doesn’t mention that Baba Yaga is a witch, he doesn’t even mention her occupation or position. So she is only called a witch when she plays a negative role in the story. It is very revealing of Glinski’s own Catholic culture - by associating the witch with evilness, he feeds into the demonization of Slavic traditions through Christianity. In fact, Glinski even mentions the punishments inflicted to witches - how they were thrown in the water to see if they were in a pact with the devil. However Glinski still tries to reach out for the old paganism. For example in “The devil and the old woman”, the “baba”, who is described as a “czarownica” is called Baba Yaga - however, in a story collected prior by Wojcicki, the character of the witch is simply called “baba”, without any mention of Baba Yaga. So Glinski seems to have tried to fuse the witch of the Catholic Polish folklore with Baba Yaga. Similarly, in “The Knight Niezginek”, the character called by the Russian name Baba Jaga, is also called “jedza” and “czarownica”, when in truth this Russian character shouldn’t have any link to the Polish witch. So, the author of the article here, thinks that Glinski actually tried to make the figure of Baba Yaga more “polish”, the same way he made other Russian fairytales “Polish” in nature.

The conclusion of the article is that the ambiguous Baba Yaga of Glinski’s tales is reflecting the contradictions of his project, and the mentality of his times. Glinski tried to make appear from Polish folktales the “pre-Christian, Slavic source” he had perceived in the multiculturalism of his native region, at the borderlands of the Russian Empire. So it makes sense to see this witch, supposed to be a cultural core of the Eastern Slavic, appear in Polish folktales, and it makes just as much sense to see her share common traits with her Russian counterpart. This way of resurrectng Polish culture through Slavic culture (and more precisely the Russian one) might be interpreted as slavophilia by Glinski, and a proof of him belonging to this wave of Polish men who, disappointed by the West and its values after the Spring of the People, turned towards Russia in hope of finding in it the salvation of Poland. In such a context, the presence of a Russian Baba Yaga in “The Polish Storyteller” is far from a trivia, and the huge success of Glinski’s tales in Poland even less trivial. It shows that readers recognized themselves in this “slavophile Polishness”, and it favored the integration of the character of Baba Yaga in Polish culture.

Baba Yaga in “Castlevania: Lords of Shadows”

[soulsanitarium]

‘La máscara del demonio’ (‘La mascchera del demonio’, Black Sunday (1960), Motion picture, Unidis, Italy, dir. Mario Bava

In Black Sunday, Barbara Steele plays Asa, a witch who swears vengeance on the descendants of the men who executed her hundreds of years ago. She was a Moldavian princess accused by the Inquisition of practising witchcraft and worshipping Satan. The Grand Inquisitor is her own brother who watches while the mask of Satan, lined with sharp spikes, is placed upon her face.

She will die when the spikes penetrate her brain. Two centuries later her coffin is discovered and the mask is accidentally removed, revealing her face, which is still miraculously preserved.

The dead woman awakens and, although unable to move, is able to orchestrate her bloody revenge from the crypt. Gradually Asa begins to take over the body of her great-granddaughter Katia, who is also played by Barbara Steele. Eventually the witch is caught and consigned to the flames. (Creed 1995)

Bava has been influenced not only by the Gogol’s Viy novel, but also by Fisher's Dracula film adaptation. In the film Black Sunday the characteristics of a vampire and a witch are combined. After Bava developed a four-page outline faithfully based on Gogol's story, several other screenwriters, both credited and uncredited, worked on the script. Bava later noted that, "Such was the genius of the screenwriters, myself included, that absolutely nothing remained of Gogol's tale”.

“After dying, the witch recovered the aspect of the beautiful blonde daughter of the centurion. The centurion was deeply saddened by her loss. He called Chomà, according to his daughter’s last will, telling him that he must perform a service over her body for three successive nights. (Excerpt from the Original script by Bava 1959.)”

Bava has situated death and desire within the framework of the Gothic genre. Transgression pervades Bava’s Gothic works as a means to a paradoxical state of terror and passion whereby neither one is resolved but rather they meet in a kind of jouissance, intermingling iconic binaries such as pleasure and pain, beauty and the grotesque, and order and disorder. (Studsor 2011)

- - defining lines between vampire, witch, and Satanist began to blur. In Black Sunday, American International’s English-language version of the film, the narration tries to bridge the gulf between the two by saying, “History has given these slaves of Satan the name of Vampire.” (Lucas 2007)

Such movies as Black Sunday, reinforce the stereotypical image of the witch as a malevolent, destructive, monstrous figure whose constant aim is destruction of the symbolic order. (Creed 1993)

The film also repeats the myth of breaking the taboo of breaking into a grave. In that sense, it's a mummy movie. The resurrection of the erotic ghost witch.

This confluence of brutality and eroticism (the opening scene) does not contradict the initial impression of childhood recollection, but enhances it – for was not the whole world once charged for us with such obscure sources of pleasure and terror? (In psychoanalysis, Freud will discuss this confluence by way of the primal scene.) This sequence could serve as the prologue to just about every film Bava has ever made. ( Ishii- Gonzales 2004)

Abjection is the feeling when an individual experiences or is confronted by the sheer experience of what Kristeva (1982) calls one's typically repressed "corporeal reality", or an intrusion of the Real in the Symbolic Order (like in the Alien-film). Studying abjection has proven to be suggestive and helpful for considering the dynamics of self and body hatred. Abjection preserves what existed in the archaism of pre-objectal relationship, in the immemorial violence with which a body becomes separated from another body in order to be—maintaining that night in which the outline of the signified thing vanishes and where only the imponderable affect is carried out (Kristeva 1982).

Psychologically it is also a great example of the fear how the content of the repressed is returning. It is almost like the overpowering sadistic maternal object returns to suck the lifeforce of the living.

Bava’s vampire/witch monster was one of the first active female horror characters in the big screen.

- - as equally strong as their male counterparts (Bunce 2021)

[theroleplayerchronicles]

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[news365timesindia]

[ad_1] The 29th edition of the European Union Film Festival , which will travel across New Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad, will run through November 7 and November 16. The festival, billed as an annual celebration of European cinema, will screen 26 award-winning films in 31 languages, offering a window into the society, culture, and people of the continent. Organised by the Delegation of the European Union to India, in collaboration with the Embassies of EU Member States and regional partners, EUFF will kick off in New Delhi and will be hosted across three iconic venues in the national capital: India Habitat Centre, Instituto Cervantes, and Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan. The gala will showcase films, including “La Chimera” , “What A Feeling” , “Five & A Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius” , “Stairway To Heaven” , “Death is a Problem for the Living” , “Jim’s Story” , “The Last Ashes” , “Blood on the Crown” , “Afire” and “How is Katia?” . Yile Yara Vianello, lead actor in “La Chimera”, Tomas Vengris, director of “Five & A Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius”, and Pedja Miletic, producer of “Blood on the Crown” will also participate in the festival. Herve Delphin, the Ambassador of the European Union to India, said Europe and India are bound by a shared passion for cinema and storytelling, and EUFF is a vibrant celebration of this unity. “This year’s #EUFF2024 proposes to the Indian public a top selection of award-winning European films from renowned international festivals, offering a unique #WindowtoEurope through the cinematic lens. I invite you to EUFF 2024; feel free to walk into any screening, sit in the cinema dark room and embark on a luminous cultural journey of entertainment and reflection with a European touch,” Delphin said in a statement. Veronica Flora and Valerio Caruso, curators for EUFF 2024, said this year’s programme delves into the turmoil of the human soul and the often unfathomable complexity of daily life. “The 29th edition of EUFF India promises to take audiences on a cinematic journey, surprising them with new experiences by presenting a rich array of genres and languages. It explores the unexpected landscapes of the imagination, revealing the ghosts of the present, while celebrating humankind’s resilience and its relentless pursuit of love and collective fulfilment,” they said. EUFF will also feature films from other member states Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. [ad_2] Source link

[news365times]

[ad_1] The 29th edition of the European Union Film Festival , which will travel across New Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad, will run through November 7 and November 16. The festival, billed as an annual celebration of European cinema, will screen 26 award-winning films in 31 languages, offering a window into the society, culture, and people of the continent. Organised by the Delegation of the European Union to India, in collaboration with the Embassies of EU Member States and regional partners, EUFF will kick off in New Delhi and will be hosted across three iconic venues in the national capital: India Habitat Centre, Instituto Cervantes, and Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan. The gala will showcase films, including “La Chimera” , “What A Feeling” , “Five & A Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius” , “Stairway To Heaven” , “Death is a Problem for the Living” , “Jim’s Story” , “The Last Ashes” , “Blood on the Crown” , “Afire” and “How is Katia?” . Yile Yara Vianello, lead actor in “La Chimera”, Tomas Vengris, director of “Five & A Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius”, and Pedja Miletic, producer of “Blood on the Crown” will also participate in the festival. Herve Delphin, the Ambassador of the European Union to India, said Europe and India are bound by a shared passion for cinema and storytelling, and EUFF is a vibrant celebration of this unity. “This year’s #EUFF2024 proposes to the Indian public a top selection of award-winning European films from renowned international festivals, offering a unique #WindowtoEurope through the cinematic lens. I invite you to EUFF 2024; feel free to walk into any screening, sit in the cinema dark room and embark on a luminous cultural journey of entertainment and reflection with a European touch,” Delphin said in a statement. Veronica Flora and Valerio Caruso, curators for EUFF 2024, said this year’s programme delves into the turmoil of the human soul and the often unfathomable complexity of daily life. “The 29th edition of EUFF India promises to take audiences on a cinematic journey, surprising them with new experiences by presenting a rich array of genres and languages. It explores the unexpected landscapes of the imagination, revealing the ghosts of the present, while celebrating humankind’s resilience and its relentless pursuit of love and collective fulfilment,” they said. EUFF will also feature films from other member states Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. [ad_2] Source link

[scary-movies-on-netflix]

BLACK SUNDAY (1960)

This one starts off, as most movies do, with an angry mob in the seventeenth century.  Asa (Barbara Steele) and her lover, Javutich, have been captured and accused of witchcraft.  Asa is tortured.  She swears eternal vengeance on the local inquisitor, who is also her brother!  The mob places a nail-ridden mask over her face and then hammer it onto her.  (“The Shrine” (2010) also featured masks being hammered onto faces.)  The mob then tries to burn the bodies, but a huge storm arrives and puts out the fire.  Javutich’s body is buried in a local cemetery, and Asa’s body in placed in her family crypt.

We jump to the nineteenth century.  Two doctors are riding to Moscow for a conference, but they decide to go through a spooky forest.  Their carriage breaks, and they take the opportunity to explore a local ruin, which turns out to be the very same crypt mentioned above!  Asa’s still-masked body is buried in a big sarcophagus with a little glass window, so that she is always in view of the cross set over the tomb.  A big rubber bat flies toward the older doctor, named Choma, and whilst killing it he breaks the cross and cracks the glass window over the tomb.  The doctors are curious.  They remove a little icon and then take off the mask.  Asa’s body is in relatively good shape, except for lacking eyes and having nail-holes in her face.  Choma cuts himself.  The doctors head off, but over the next few scenes we’ll see as the blood drips onto Asa and she begins to recompose herself.

Heading back to their carriage, the doctors run into Katia, who is a dead ringer for Asa, because she is also played by Barbara Steele.  The younger doctor, Andrej, is smitten with her, because she looks like Barbara Steele.  They continue to the next town.  We follow Katia back to the local castle, where she lives with her father and brother.  They are basically the descendants of Asa’s brother, upon whom Asa previously swore vengeance!  We move down to Asa in her tomb as her eyes re-form.  She summons Javutich back to life, and whilst the doctors drink vodka at the inn and a young woman collects milk from a cow, he crawls free of his grave!  (Strangely enough, the young maid reminds me of the Polish girl sneaking around the forest from “The Zone of Interest” (2023).)

Back at the castle, Katia’s dad is asleep in bed, but Javutich, his face hideously scarred, stalks into the room.  Katia’s dad waves a cross at him, and Javutich runs away, but Katia’s dad goes into shock.  Katia remembers that the doctors are staying at the local inn, and they send a coachman to summon help.  The older doctor, Choma, is out having a smoke, and the young woman who was milking the cow watches as an ominous coach appears.  A voice calls out to Choma, and it is Javutich!  We watch a very dramatic carriage ride back to the castle, a scene that was essentially recreated in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992).  Javutich leads Choma into the castle, and then down a secret passage to the crypt!  Asa’s tomb bursts open!  Asa, her face still punctured with wounds, mesmerizes Choma, telling him, “You will be dead to men, but you will be alive in death.”  She commands him to kiss her, and he plants a smooch on her lips. 

Katia and her family are upstairs, wondering where the coachman is, and Choma appears.  His hair is now white.  He says he’ll look over Katia’s dad, but tells Katia to take away the cross.  The next morning Katia and her brother find their dad dead, his face horribly disfigured!  Also, Choma is missing.  Back at the inn, the younger doctor, Andrej, is looking for Choma, and the innkeeper tells him that he went to the castle the night before.  Things start to pick up quickly now.  Andrej borrows a horse and heads to the castle, and villagers find the body of the dead coachman.  Andrej spends more time with Katia and meets the local priest, who agrees to help him translate the inscription on the icon they found in Asa’s tomb.  Katia’s dad’s body is laid out in the castle for his funeral.  A secret panel is discovered with a latch for the secret door behind the fireplace. 

Andrej and Katia’s brother explore the secret passage and find a nude painting of Asa.  They enter the crypt and find Asa’s body, which is breathing!  Andrej heads to the village to find the priest.  Katia’s brother goes to protect Katia, but he is intercepted by Javutich!  They fight, and brother falls into a pit.  In the town, Andrej and the priest are looking for Javutich’s burial site.  They locate it, but Choma is inside the coffin!  The priest explains that Choma is indeed dead, but his body has been reanimated by Satan!  He presses a cross against Choma’s head, which sizzles, and then he drives a nail through his left eye to put Choma’s spirit at rest.  The priest tells Andrej that the witch, Asa, wants to possess Katia.  Andrej rushes back to the castle.

At that very same castle, Katia is freaking out because she is all alone.  She collapses at the open coffin of her father, who comes back to life!  He tells Katia, “An accursed poison flows in your veins!”  Katia passes out, and undead dad is about to eat her, but Javutich stops him!  He throws dad onto a fire, and we have a grisly scene of him burning to death.  Javutich takes Katia down to the crypt with Asa.  Asa touches Katia and begins to drain the life out of her.  We can tell because Katia starts to look older, and Asa to look younger.  Asa tells her, “Now you shall have a beautiful life of evil and hate in me!”  She reaches out to Katia, but she sees Katia’s cross and is repulsed!

Andrej arrives back at the castle and heads to the crypt, but Javutich tries to stop him!  They fight for a while and open up the same pit where Katia’s brother fell.  Brother, who’s apparently been hanging out down there, helps to throw Javutich down the hole, and then he (the brother) dies.  Meanwhile, the townspeople have gathered a mob and are heading to the castle.  Andrej reaches the crypt, where Asa, pretending to be Katia, embraces him and tells him to finish off the witch, quickly.  Andrej is about to drive a stake through Katia’s left eye, but he spots her cross, which Asa cannot touch.  Andrej moves toward Asa with the cross, and when she turns from him she reveals her body, which is still mostly bones and half-formed flesh.  She rejoices in killing off the family and completing her vengeance, and then she attempts to mesmerize Andrej. 

Luckily, just then the mob arrives!  They capture Asa and tie her to stake and start to burn her.  As she dies, Katia is restored.  Andrej kisses her as the villagers rejoice over the burning witch.

This was…really good.  There are some excellent spooks, and the film’s Wikipedia page explains how most were performed (such as using different colored lights for certain shades of makeup to age and de-age characters).  For the most part, the physical acting is excellent, and even the voice acting is competent (being dubbed, per usual for an Italian horror movie).  Barbara Steele is mesmerizing, again.  She performs double duty, both as the Asa (the witch) and Katia (her hapless descendant).  She is crazed and desperate as Asa.  As Katia, we first see her outlined in some ruins of the castle, handling two huge dogs by their leashes.  The image promises a strong, powerful character.  Unfortunately, she’s mostly lackluster, fainting everywhere and depending on a man to save her.  Not a perfect movie, but a boundary-pushing pioneer for its time.