The 1987 Russian dystopic science fiction horror film Veld is based on several short stories and novel excerpts by Ray Bradbury.

It opens with a quite recognizable dramatization of “The Dragon.” Action then switches back and forth between “The Martian,” and “The Veldt.” In “The Martian,” an elderly couple, Hernando (spelled Ernando in the Internet Movie Database credits), played by Gogi Gegechkori, and Cora (spelled Kora in IMDb), played by Tamara Skhirtladze, live in an isolated hut and obsess over memories of their son Tom, who died many years earlier at the age of fourteen.

“The Veldt” is the principal story. The parents’ names have been changed from George and Lydia Hadley to Michael (spelled Maykl) and Linda Stone (spelled Stoun). Linda is played by Nelli Pshyonnaya. The children’s names are correctly left as Peter (spelled Piter) and Wendy (spelled Vendi), played by Darius Palekas and Sigute Larionovaite. All the stories except “The Dragon” connect to Michael, played by Yuriy Belyaev, who is the film’s central character.

The Stones live in a huge and gloomy mansion very different from the bright house of the future described in the story “The Veldt.” The entire film has a heavy, dreary, ominous vibe. Although shot in color, the palette is a mixture of brown and sepia. Unfortunately, this includes the high tech nursery’s virtual reality lions. This was probably done to give the film a uniform look but works against the story. The whole idea of the lions was that they seemed so real they could become real. These lions are not only not full color, but some of the films used are in the wrong aspect ratio, making them look completely unreal. For this reason I cannot give the special effects high marks. Of the four filmed versions I have seen of “The Veldt,” this was the poorest in that respect.

In this version, Peter is fifteen, five years older than in the original story. Darius Palekas plays him as a vicious, homicidal punk, spitting venom to a degree that makes Jason Bateman look like a little angel. Perhaps Peter should be played more cold and calculating as in some other versions including that on The Ray Bradbury Theater, but the makers of this film chose to go that route and Palekas certainly takes it to the max.

Other stories portrayed or referenced are “Calling Mexico,” (although in this movie the Colonel, played by Henrikas Kurauskas, calls Buenos Aires), “Punishment Without Crime,” “The Third Expedition/Mars is Heaven!” and a few details from Fahrenheit 451. The only character I could not connect to any Bradbury story is a happy hippie nicknamed “Gandhi,” played by Gitis Padegimis. He dresses in orange robes reminiscent of a Buddhist and is continually captured and taken to a hospital only to escape to the seashore. Even the ocean looks dull, and the orange outfit is the only bright bit of color in the entire film except an apple.

An outbreak of some sort of entities taking on the identities of people’s deceased relatives occurs, and a terrifying hazmat team wearing gas masks takes to the streets to eradicate them. While this is going on, the elderly couple’s deceased son Tom, played by Darius Cicinas, seemingly returns.

Objectionable content mostly consists of violence, including a scene of child abuse in “The Veldt” which does not occur in the original story. There is also a delightfully gruesome final image to that segment of the film.

I don’t know, mixed feelings on this one. The acting was good and the stories recognizable but the whole thing was just so downbeat and grungy. Viewers may love it or hate it.