Continuing our vampire month of Watch Out!, following Ultraviolet and Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary.
Vampyr, the only horror film made by the celebrated Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer, is an example of a film only appreciated long after its release. 77 years later today, Vampyr is more accepted than it was then—when it was laughed at by critics and rejected (violently, at one point) by audiences. So severe was its failure that the director checked into a mental hospital from suffering a nervous breakdown.
What happened? At its premiere in Germany, it was booed by the crowd and picked apart by international critics. Later, at the premiere in Dreyer’s own home country, he decided to no-show out of stress. At one showing in Vienna, a riot broke out after the audience requested their money back and fought with the police when their demand wasn’t met. Holy shit, how bad can this movie be?
As it turns out, not bad at all. It’s not surprising to find that many critics today look at the film favorably, even if they consider it Dreyer’s weakest work—which it may very well be. Vampyr had a few things working against it right out of the gate that could’ve colored its expectations. It was Dreyer’s direct follow-up to the highly talked about The Passion of Joan of Arc. It was released following Universal’s popular Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931) as a way to capitalize on them. On the technical side, Dreyer was uncomfortable shooting Vampyr because it was his first time working with sound. It was originally meant to be shot as a silent film. As a compromise, dialogue is kept at bare minimum and title cards act as a narrator. It’s distracting at first, but 30 minutes in they’re replaced by pages from a book about vampires, written by a dead man, which do a better job clarifying what’s going on in an otherwise undercooked script.
The premise is, more or less, a crude simplified take on Dracula. It's based on Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's short story Carmilla, which was a huge influence for Bram Stoker 25 years later when he wrote his masterwork. In a rural French village, a man meets a woman, whose sister has been taken under the influence of a vampire and must save her by killing the original. The film’s description of vampires does not contradict that of the popular lore:
“At full moon the Dead, not at peace because of terrible deeds they did while living, rise from their coffins—to suck the blood of children and young people—and prolong their own life in the land of the shadows.”
But it differs in one important point. Vampyr introduces theology into the mix by specifying that the vampires are agents of Satan and the goal is not only to feed on human blood, but also to send them to Hell—the vampire bite referred to as Damnation. We don’t physically see much of these vampire creatures in the film. Dreyer lets us see them through how they effect humans, creating a scary metaphor for sin. Vampire is a manifestation of evil that still exists more as a concept than a direct villain.
With such an abstract threat and loose plotting, it’s no surprise that the best thing about Vampyr is the chilling, ambiguous imagery. Sentient shadows dancing on an old castle's walls; a living skeleton handing a vial of poison; the main character wandering as a ghost, watching his own burial; a woman turning her head, grinning for no reason; and a man suffocating under an avalanche of flour. These are some of the hauntingly dreamlike sequences that keep the film from being the disaster that its reputation implies.
The best version of Vampyr to date was released by Criterion Collection
Watch Out! is a feature on JustPressPlay where Arya Ponto showcases lesser-known, lesser-appreciated and often bizarre small films that are cool and deserve to get some attention. Venture here to see all previous entries.
