Movielogr

Rating: 2.5 stars

All movies seen on 10/19/2011

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Vampyr (1932)

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer

Horror

Most recently watched by sensoria, zombiefreak, sleestakk

Overview

A student of the occult encounters supernatural haunts and local evildoers in a village outside of Paris.

Rated NR | Length 73 minutes

Actors

Julian West | Maurice Schutz | Rena Mandel | Sybille Schmitz | Jan Hieronimko | Henriette Gérard | Albert Bras | N. Babanini | Jane Mora | Georges Boidin

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

I really knew nothing about VAMPYR other than that it was an early vampire film, but I ended up both impressed and confused.

The film is mostly silent, at times oddly directed, and so very, very German, and as such it was hard to figure out what was happening in some scenes; several times I had to backtrack and rewatch.

Director Carl Theodor Dryer does a great job of setting the mood, as well as tossing in some very cool early special effects, such as the shadows that move on their own and a ghost effect. The washed-out fuzzy and hazy cinemaphotography sets the mood nicely, but at times presents serious actor identification problems for the longer shots.

If Dryer had used a few more title cards in the second half of the film, or put together a few more transition shots, it would have helped the flow of film greatly. But, I also admire Dryer’s stark, straight-ahead direction, too, so it’s rather a mixed-bag.

Now that I know what’s going on, I’d see it again to pick up the details.

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