90 Years Later: Vampyr

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Starring: Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel
Running time: 73 minutes

After he gained critical – but not financial – acclaim garnered from The Passion of Joan of Arc, Carl Dreyer decided to move from silent films into the already bustling sound era; teaming up once again with cinematographer Rudolph Maté to make the eerie supernatural horror film Vampyr. Due to a fall out with the production studio he previously worked with, the film was funded by Nicolas de Gunzburg, a French aristocrat. His caveat to funding it was he was to play the lead role of Allan Gray, a wandering man whose studies in the occult have led him to a mysterious town where a family has fallen prey to the spirit of a vampire with the help of an evil doctor.

Despite being Dreyer’s first sound film, there is actually very little dialogue; this is mostly down to the stress of having to dub the film in various languages, but also a creative decision. The lack of spoken words allows the film to focus almost entirely on the visual images – which is where Dreyer and Maté’s undeniable talents lie. Vampyr has an incredibly loose plot in which a town is haunted by a vampiric curse which has caused one of the inhabitants to turn into a vampire herself. The film follows Gray as he tries to make sense of what is going on whilst trying to save the woman who has fallen victim. This loose plot allows the film to focus more on emotions and allow the viewers to feel the film rather than understand it.

Throughout the film is the ethereal feeling of being trapped in a dream, or more appropriately, trapped in an everlasting nightmare. As Allan moves through the different parts of the town, including a delightfully creepy castle, there is an overwhelming feeling of uncanniness and that something is just slightly off. Although this film is about vampires, it has an almost Lovecraftian feel to it with how eerie and mysterious the isolated town is, with the vampire itself feeling like a cosmic force that has the whole town under its grasp. Like most classical horror, Vampyr does not rely on cheap tricks or constant jump scares to terrify its audience, and instead opts for inducing a feeling of dread and unease that never really goes away, even in the film's final moments.

One terrific scene is when Allan has an out of body experience where he sees himself as a dead person, trapped in a coffin, about to be buried. It is an incredibly creepy sequence that helps to build the atmosphere of the film – never knowing what is real or fake, alive or dead. With its dreamlike visuals and the fantastical, yet whimsical, nature of the plot, it isn’t hard to see how this film would’ve gone on to influence surrealist directors like David Lynch. Dreyer is much more experimental with this film than he was with Joan of Arc and they almost feel like films made by a different person. Like their previous collaborations, Maté and Dreyer are able to capture facial expressions and close ups with an immense amount of emotional impact, showing every intricate detail of a character's feelings without needing the need to overwrought dialogue. 

Vampyr came out at the very early stages of the vampire genre, about a year after the first Hollywood production of Dracula (directed by Tod Browning). While the two films are based in vampire mythology, they are different stories; Vampyr doesn’t actually draw from Bram Stoker's original tale and instead focuses on a female vampire who hasn’t fallen in love with a regular human or wants to buy land in London, but simply wants to cause chaos. Motivations and meanings are buried deep within the surreal images of the film and feel like something not even entirely necessary to enjoying the film. Despite the plot differences, both films stylistically take a lot from the German Expressionism movement, most notably 1922’s Nosferatu, with its focus on shadowy lighting and strange architecture.

While it might be 90 years old, Vampyr has lost almost no cinematic value and remains a thoroughly enjoyable and delightfully creepy horror film with a strong amount of gothic romanticism that you would expect from the genre. Dreyer concocts an incredibly rich tapestry of images that relies on bringing out intense feelings and creating an unnerving atmosphere; rather than creating a confusing narrative, which allows the viewer to simply soak in the vibes that the film offers. Some beautiful imagery is backed by an absolutely fantastic and haunting score which makes this a must see at the cinema for its anniversary showings.

Did you know? The audience booed the film at its premiere in Berlin in 1932, leading Dreyer to cut several scenes from it for subsequent screenings.

Vampyr is showing at Broadway Cinema until Monday 18 July