‘The Overcoat’ is Nikolai Gogol’s best-known short story. Jhumpa Lahiri hung her plotline for The Namesake upon that story. But the shy and unpopular Gogol, called a ‘mysterious dwarf’ by his classmates, also wrote a horror story about a monster named Vij:

Gogol came to St. Petersburg in 1828, an insecure and frightened young man, fresh from the Ukrainian countryside. In his early Ukrainian short stories Gogol echoed the supernatural fears of country people–particularly in his tale of the nightmarish monster called Vij. [Link]

I must’ve dated Gogol’s sister or something. Zhal, Maria Gogolova, zhal. The kid is not my son.

The Vij was made into a 1967 horror movie (the clip is riotous) and is being remade this year (thanks, C.):

Based on an eponymous novel by Russian writer Nikolaj Gogol, The Vij revolves around an evil genie who conditions the actions of a young priest, leading him to commit murder and fall in love with an old witch who is actually not what she seems… Shooting is scheduled to start in April in the Lazio region [of Italy]… The uninhabited medieval village of Civita di Bagnoregio will be a prime location… [Link]

The Vij (1967) was set around a night in a crypt as the hero waits for the princess to arise… [Link]

Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street) directs. Legendary horror movie actor Christopher Lee (Saruman in Lord of the Rings) stars. And I’ve got a story idea in my itchy fingers about a rapacious beast called — what else? — the Lahiri.