Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach

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Lokis: A Manuscript of Professor Wittembach

1970

Lokis: Rękopis profesora Wittembacha

Directed by Janusz Majewski

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.

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Slig001
Review by Slig001 ★★★

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…

Marcissus
Review by Marcissus ★★★ 2

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

Paul Thomas
Review by Paul Thomas ★★½

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.

Gentry Austin
Review by Gentry Austin ★★★★ Liked

“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…

Justin Decloux
Review by Justin Decloux ★★★½

*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*

sirvived
Review by sirvived ★★★

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.

Wirthit
Review by Wirthit ★★★½ Liked 3

“There are more things in Lithuanian swamps then are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Right off the bat, the score sounds familiar. Then the composers name comes up: Wojciech Kilar.
Ah, that explains it! For most the name might not ring a bell, but you’ve certainly heard his work before in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Ninth Gate. Good stuff!

I hadn’t had much exposure to Eastern European cinema until about five years ago, and ever since, I’m repeatedly surprised. An incredible blend of skill and artistry, free from French and Italian cinema’s obsession with posturing masturbatory bourgeoisie antics. The focus is on the tale told and its meaning, not the director and his ego.

Anyways, the movie.
To be…

lizzy deane
Review by lizzy deane ★★★★ Liked

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.

Kaishakunin
Review by Kaishakunin ★★ 2

This is one I delayed for quite some time as I was waiting to be in the right mood. Alas.

Just as uneventful as I heard it was, Lokis is the kind of film that wants to tell a story without any storytelling tool. Not that it's poorly shot — it actually looks decent — but the pacing is awfully dull, interactions between characters barely believable and I don't feel that it belongs in a folk horror boxset. Having a poorly portrayed — almost comical —witch appear in the woods doesn't justify the appellation. No vibes, no cinema, just decent looking sets and costumes. Next.

Samm Deighan
Review by Samm Deighan ★★★½ 1

More of a slowly unraveling gothic folk drama than actual folk horror, this is a strangely compelling and often eerie interpretation of the same story that inspired Borowczyk's The Beast (spoilers: there's no werewolf cum).

Justin LaLiberty
Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★

“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