[3] Marquis d'Urfé, a young French diplomat, finds himself in a small Serbian village, in the house of an old peasant named Gorcha.

The host is absent: he left the house ten days ago along with some other men to hunt for a Turk outlaw, Alibek.

The family awaits the hour with growing anxiety and there he is, appearing on the road at 8 o'clock in the evening, exactly on the time he left ten days ago.

[4] The novella became the basis for "I Wurdulak", one of the three parts of Mario Bava's 1963 film Black Sabbath, featuring Boris Karloff.

Episode 1 of the animated horror anthology series, "Red Iron road" is called "family of the Vourdalak" and follows the Tolstoy novel.