Russian cinema can be interesting. I have watched my share of Russian made WW2 movies on Tubi. They are on a big scale. In the 1950s, the Soviets made Ilya Muromets, a fantasy movie based on mythology (also on Tubi).

In December 2006, I was Russia and saw billboards in Moscow for a movie called The Wolfhound that was coming out. I asked my driver, Alexi (whose grandfather had been a general under Stalin) about the movie. He replied it is a “mystic” movie. An interesting word to describe fantasy.

I have watched trailers for the movie on Youtube but never saw the movie until now. A friend of mine sent me the DVD.

I was expecting it to be subtitled in English but the DVD was overdubbed in English.

The movie itself appears to influenced by the 1982 Conan the Barbarian starring Chip Rommel and Lord of the Rings. The Grey Hound tribe is wiped out at the beginning with the blacksmith dying in combat just like William Smith in CtB 82. His young son is sent to the mines like Conan sent to the Wheel of Pain.

The next scene has a warrior entering a mountain fortress of a warlord killing him. He rescues an old dude and a damsel. The warrior is known as the Wolfhound (Volkodav in Russian). A tangent, there was a Celtic tribe called the Volcae (“Wolves”) who pushed into Eastern Europe in Classical times.

He becomes a guard for a caravan. Fights off an attack of the Dark Lord and gains a sword. He gets to know the princess of principality (something grad). He becomes her bodyguard as she is sent to marry a strongman to save her city.

There is a flashback where the future Wolfhound escapes from the mines.

There is skullduggery with the plan to sacrifice the princess by the Dark Lord to free an evil goddess who will enslave mankind.

The Wolfhound is a good warrior, not quite to the Conan level. There is good use in the cinematography of the Russian countryside including some mountainous regions. Don’t know if that was filmed in the Ural Mountains or Caucasus Mountains. The city was great looking built out of wood as I imagine how Kievan Rus period towns looked.

I don’t know if this has any basis on any Slavic or Russian mythology. The Conan and Tolkien influence was there. The plot reminds me in ways of the 2011 Conan the Barbarian. That was made by Marcus Nispel, a German who may very well have seen The Wolfhound. If you have an itch for a decent fantasy movie, check out The Wolfhound.