DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
Starring Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel, Sybille Schmitz
Release date 25 August 2008

Allan Gray, a young man who finds it difficult to distinguish between reality and fantasy, arrives at a castle where he discovers a vampire is roaming...

Dreyer’s first talkie isn’t a traditional vampire movie in the same way as F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu or Todd Browning’s Dracula. There are no black-clad bloodsuckers here (the main vampire is an old woman who only appears in a couple of brief scenes), and vampirism is more of a plague that inflicts torment on its victims. The horror in Dreyer’s film comes not so much from the vampire itself, but from a phantasmagoria of dancing shadows, giant faces at windows, skeletons and strange night visitors; it’s a world in which reality and dreams are blurred for both its protagonist and the audience.

The picture was a commercial and critical disaster on its first release in 1932, sending Dreyer into a deep depression. He would not return to directing for another 10 years. It is perhaps understandable why audiences didn’t initially take to the film; the story is difficult to piece together, much is left unexplained and there are no real characters to identify with (Gray remains a detached, emotionless figure throughout, and the few lines of dialogue are delivered equally blankly).

Vampyr instead marked Dreyer’s attempt to fashion an art film in direct contrast to the realism of his earlier works, and it shows he was a director unafraid to take risks - “I wanted - if you will – to break a new path for film,” he explained. The film presents an abstract, oddly beautiful world full of unforgettable imagery (most strikingly during a sequence in which we see through Gray’s eyes as he's nailed inside a coffin) and a sinister atmosphere heightened by Dreyer's use of curious foggy lighting effects and creeping shadows.

The DVD is part of Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series, and as usual they’ve done an excellent job. You get two worthwhile commentaries (one by film historian Tony Rayns and one by Guillermo Del Toro), a comprehensive documentary on the film’s creation (featuring archive footage of the serious-faced Dryer) and another on the mysterious lead actor Julian West (aka Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, who financed the movie in exchange for starring in it). It also comes with a detailed 41-page booklet that provides background to the movie. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
A strange and beguiling slice of horror history.

Click here to buy Vampyr at Forbidden Planet (forbiddenplanet.com)