To be honest, it took me five sittings to make it to the end of this German, mostly silent, 74 year old film but the effort was well rewarded. The story is difficult to follow as the words rarely matched the actions onscreen and it is tough to decipher who the vampire actually is. However, both the words and visuals are engrossing. There is a very surreal quality to Vampyr and the use of lighting, double exposures and shadows set a dire mood.
While staying at a remote European inn, Allan Gray is given a package by an elderly man that reads "To be opened in the event of my death." Before long, the old man does die and the contents of the package reveal the history of a vampire who has been wiping out entire villages. There are some radical differences between the vampire depicted in this film and the standard Transylvanian icon. I would love to see some of these characteristics listed below revisited as they elicit a sense of horror and dread that are all but lost in the later Bela Lugosi template.
1) Here the vampire is explained as a "horrendous demon of the full moon. The dead, not at peace because of the terrible deeds they did while living, rise from coffins and suck the blood of children and young people to prolong their own life in the land of the shadows." Deliciously dark stuff. No cape, no sexual innuendos, just a pure creature of evil.
2) The vampire literally drains the victims' blood until they are reduced to a weak, bedridden state. I LOVE this aspect as the blood thing never quite sat well with me in the Dracula movies. He needs blood to survive and yet the victim immediately turns into a vampire too. So which is it?
3) Once the victim is significantly weakened, the vampire gains mental control over the person and drives them to suicide so that their souls are damned for eternity. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just fucking brilliant.
4) The wounds that are left on the victims' necks are signs of damnation and described as bites from a cat or rat (but not bat). The bat has no business in this movie and I'm all for that too.
5) The vampire has helpers in the form of shadows of executed criminals. Yet another slice of genius that has gone missing over the years.
Vampyr is not exactly "must-see" material but it's intriguing nonetheless.
2 comments:
Wow! That sounds great. I love the bizarre realm of really, really early cinema (not that I really know a whole lot about it).
Good catch.
What's the deal with these movie titles that look like typos?
Jenifer? Vampyr? What's next, The Rin?
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