VAMPYR (1932)

Country: Germany

Genre(s): Horror

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer

Cast: Julian West / Jan Hieronimko / Henriette Gerard

Plot

While traveling the German countryside, a man comes upon a mysterious village full of supernatural phenomena under the control of a decrepit female vampire who feasts on the blood of the young.

What I Liked

As a 1930s vampire picture with many of the same plot elements as “Dracula,” “Vampyr” will inevitably always be compared with its more famous American cousin, but the comparison is favorable.  Released only a year after the success of “Dracula,” this movie is twice as eerie and three times scarier than its predecessor.  As one of the earliest sound films in the history of German cinema, it has very little dialogue, yet the silence only adds to the film’s unnerving qualities (something that certainly couldn’t be said of conversation-heavy “Dracula”).  Independently financed by its director and lead actor, the film lacked the big budget enjoyed by the spate of horror films released by Universal Pictures in the same period, but again this proves a benefit.  The hazy film quality gives everyone in the film a ghostly pallor and the movie overall the hallucinogenic atmosphere of a nightmare.  With the constrained budget forcing him to work harder for frightful effects than his American contemporaries, director Carl Theodor Dreyer made the most of his outstanding technical expertise to put together a series of flourishes and gimmicks that are more visually impressive than anything Tod Browning accomplished with “Dracula.”  It’s hard to think of any film that makes better use of the shades of black and white to generate repulsion and horror in an audience.  Meanwhile disembodied shadows, transparent spirits, unusual camera angles, and seamless camera movement provide constant amusement for the eyes.  Few, if any, films that I’ve seen have so successfully transfered nightmare to celluloid.

What I Didn’t Like

While it is creepier than many of its horror contemporaries, those used to the intensity of today’s horror will certainly find “Vampyr” to still be on the slow side.  The movie's scariness comes almost entirely from atmosphere and what precious little there is of real action usually takes place off-screen, alluded to either by sound or shadow.  Even the eventual confrontation with the head vampire proves disappointingly simple and anti-climatic.  That relative tameness, when combined with Dreyer’s unorthodox brand of storytelling (using things like dreams, premonitions, and copious shots of the text of a book), can make for an off-putting viewing experience for some.

Most Memorable Scene

Even if the final showdown with the vampire at the end proves dissatisfying, the film continues on to a more intense conclusion involving the death of the vampire’s most loyal minion, the town doctor (made up to look like a cross between Albert Einstein and the mad scientist from “Metropolis”).  His final moments are absolutely gripping and the method by which he is killed feels like something out of Dante’s “Inferno,” hellish to the point that this viewer actually felt a little sorry for one of the baddest baddies in the movie.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5