Vampyr - Criterion Collection Reviews

• One of the best vampire movies ever gets the Criterion treatment. (Criterion features below) The Book Included is Over 200pages

  
  By AN8M401S8Y6DA on 2008-04-23
  Director Carl Th. Dreyer's ( The Passion of Joan of Arc (Criterion Collection Spine #62)) 1932 film Vampyr is as relevant a silent film (even though there is some talking) as the recent movie Once is a musical. Meaning, in Once when they bust out into song, they're actually musicians so it makes sense and when there are words on the screen in Vampyr it's because a book about vampires is being read. It works. The film plays like a black and white photograph come to life. It is filled with eerie dreamlike atmosphere and scares that hold up even now. This possibly could be the scariest vampire film rivaling Nosferatu, notably the part when one of the daughters goes from terrified about losing her sole to an evil smile. Even though it is made a decade after F.W. Murnau's classic Nosferatu (The Ultimate Two-Disc Edition) and one year after Browning's Dracula (75th Anniversary Edition) (Universal Legacy Series) this could still be the first movie about vampires.
  In Nosferatu and Dracula the story tells of a specific vampire and in Vampyr it is about vampires in general. Vampires here are shadows we see not a guy without a shadow (very effective and eerie). They are people who have done wrong while living and are not at rest. They are companions of Satan and have minions working for them that could look like anyone. You can see how many countless vampire movies this has influenced, none of which come close to this masterpiece. I found the concept of the ending reminded me of Guillermo Del Toro's great Pan's Labyrinth [Blu-ray] but I won't go into detail.
  If your familiar with Criterion or any of their horror releases this should be great and the original dvd could use improving. I've listed the Criterion features below from their website. Another reviewer did the same but I usually like to include features in my reviews as well.
  
  CRITERION DVD FEATURES (DIRECTLY OFF CRITERIONCO'S WEBSITE)
  Special Features
  
  * - SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
  * - New, restored high-definition digital transfer of the 1998 film restoration by Martin Koerber and the Cineteca di Bologna
  * - Optional all-new English-text version of the film
  * - Audio commentary featuring film scholar Tony Rayns
  * - Carl Th. Dreyer (1966), a documentary by Jörgen Roos chronicling Dreyer's career
  * - Visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer's influences in creating Vampyr
  * - A 1958 radio broadcast of Dreyer reading an essay about filmmaking
  * - New and improved English subtitle translation
  * - PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, Martin Koerber on the restoration, and an archival interview with producer and star Nicolas de Gunzburg, as well as a book featuring Dreyer and Christen Jul's original screenplay and Sheridan Le Fanu 1871 story "Carmilla," a source for the film
  
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  Film Info
  1932
  75 minutes
  Black & White
  1.19:1
  Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
  Not Anamorphic
  German
  
  

• A human soul in fear of Death cried out

  
  By A1D2C0WDCSHUWZ on 2008-04-29
  The rat-toothed Nosferatu and the charming Transylvanian Count are the best known examples of early vampire movies, mostly because there weren't very many others at the time.
  
  But more often than not, "Vampyr" gets passed over when you talk about early vampire movies -- and that's a shame. Carl Th. Dreyer's masterpiece (loosely based on the works of J. Sheridan Le Fanu) is a straightforward little story wrapped in a hazy cocoon of dreamlike imagery and haunting direction. From the very beginning, this movie clings to you like a spiderweb.
  
  Occult student Allan Gray is staying at a hotel in the French countryside. But after being woken by a strange old man's cryptic warning, he finds that the inn is swarming with eerie supernatural happenings, including shadows that move independently. After he departs, a strange old man lets an ancient crone out of a closet.
  
  And when Allan arrives at a nearby chateau, he finds that the owner has been murdered, and his daughter Leone is suffering from mysterious wounds. After the girl is rescued from a strange old crone, she begins acting predatory toward her sister Gisele -- and the weird old doctor says that only a transfusion will save her. But the doctor is in league with the vampire -- and is working to destroy Leone...
  
  "Vampyr" has a pretty simple storyline, loosely based on a couple of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's short stories (including the classic "Carmilla"). But it's not the plot that makes this movie a classic -- it's the powerful, ghostly visuals that permeate it. And the beautiful real-life settings (the inn, chateau and church) don't hurt the atmosphere of it all.
  
  In many ways, "Vampyr" is like a silent movie -- the characters are quiet, text cards intersperse the scenes, and several minutes are taken up by printed text from the "History of Vampires" book. In addition to this, the visuals are so powerful that it's almost a shock when one of the characters actually speaks out loud. Even then, nobody says anything unless it's actually necessary.
  
  Dreyer films this movie as if it were a choreographed dream, letting the camera drift through ornate rooms and hazy hills. And he often fixed on striking images -- pale feverish faces, still windvanes, cloudy skies, scythes, and the movement of shadows on walls and the ground. And there are some spectacularly creepy moments, such as when Leone starts baring her teeth gleefully at Gisele, or Allan watching the view from inside a coffin.
  
  And he steeps the entire movie in dreamlike effects -- hazy countrysides, skeletons, floating girls, and shadows that can dance and move independently. These strange effects are done almost effortlessly, adding to the feeling that you're surrounded by the unreal. Dreyer even puts a note of humor in from time to time, such as the dancing shadows with their little folk band.
  
  Julian West (aka Nicolas de Gunzburg) does a pretty solid job as our unflappable hero, although I question how his suit remains pristine all through the movie -- and he does a glorious job in that bizarre dream sequence. Sybille Schmitz has a small part, but is wonderfully feral as she starts to turn vampiric, and Henriette Gérard is unspeakably creepy as the ancient, stone-faced vampire who wants other people to suffer as well.
  
  Criterion is apparently giving "Vampyr" the treatment it sorely needs, cleaning up the prints in an effort to restore the clarity. It's also got new subtitles, loads of information about Dreyer, his filmmaking and the creation of "Vampyr," articles about it, the screenplay and one of Le Fanu's short stories. Nice to see this underrated little movie is getting the attention is deserves.
  
  Carl Th. Dreyer's "Vampyr" is a rarity among vampire movies -- all haunting images and ghostly, subtle horror, with excellent acting and exquisite directions. It's a cinematic classic that should not be overlooked.
  
  

• Vital contribution to early film.

  
  By A1UI2N2LBGVKC7 on 2000-03-13
  This film is truly outstanding. It's possible to even go so far as to call 'Vampyr' the last in the line of German cinema expressionist movies; evidence to suggest the influences of 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' and 'Nosferatu' certainly abounds throughout.

  First things first; the film has no tangible plot to follow except that the storyline is loosely strung on a young man's attempt to fight vampirism in a small (Danish?) town. While the lack of plot sounds bad in the abstract, there is so much strength in the movie's other attributes that the issue of story structure soon fades in the viewer's mind. Imagery provides 'Vampyr' with its rasion d'etre. One haunting, shadowy image segues into the next to make for a horror experience that's far subtler than what Universal Studios was starting to crank out at the time of this film's release. Director Carl Dreyer apparently shot some of the scenes through gauze to enhance the ghost-like wispiness of the sequences.

  The effect is utterly magical. Combine that with kinks like reverse filming (man 'digging' the grave), an eerie cello/clarinet-led score as well as a virtually absent dialogue and you've got a film that addresses horror on a high level.

  It's important to understand this as you watch, although the scenes are consistently textured enough to remind you that you're trapped in a black and white nightmare experience for the entire duration of the picture. The film seems to become more ethereal every minute and by the time the vampiric crone is done away with, the viewer has been through too harrowing an affair to be able to see how a semi-happy ending can make those feelings of disquiet ebb away. It must be said that it took guts to produce this film. 'Vampyr' breaks many conventions, including its [by then] out of fashion clinging to the techniques and dogma of silent cinema when everyone else was rushing forward to flourish in the new glory of sound. But Dreyer's film is also revolutionary against the conventions of film-making in general. Even Weine's 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' didn't dare to be so progressive as to do away with a storyline (its one is very complex, in fact). What results is a work as bizarre in form as Dali's 'Un Chien Andalou' and yet coherent and accessible through its ability to convey fear in a language higher than the banal or everyday.

  Thankfully, the print was transferred extremely well onto videotape by Timeless Video. It's just unfortunate that the DVD has apparently failed so miserably in that department. Old films need to be treated with a great deal more respect by DVD and video companies. 'Metropolis' has suffered just as badly if not more at the hands of insensitive corporate butchery. It's just too bad that there aren't many video companies headed by people who genuinely care about the nature of their bread and butter. The consequences are very sad indeed: these are classic movies, not toys. Put it this way; would you just pick up a 70 year-old pensioner and throw him any old way onto a......... .........maybe that's a bad analogy but you get the idea. Hopefully, so will they.
  
  

• new high-definition digital transfer

  
  By A2U3A5OLSFNQZ9 on 2008-04-21
  This Criterion release of Vampyr is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.19:1, a European format that is narrower than a 1.33:1 image.. This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35 mm fine-grain master positive which removed thousands of instances of debris and scratches from the negative.
  Criterion also tells us the DVD was encoded at the highest-possible bit rate for the quantity of material included.
  This edition includes a wealth of extras including:* Audio commentary featuring film scholar Tony Rayns
  * a documentary by Jörgen Roos chronicling Dreyer's career
  * Visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg ( commentary on "Mikael" by Eureka video) on Dreyer's influences in creating Vampyr
  * A 1958 radio broadcast of Dreyer reading an essay on filmmaking
  * New and improved English subtitle translation
  * PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, Martin Koerber on the restoration, and an archival interview with producer and star Nicolas de Gunzburg, as well as a book featuring Dreyer and Christen Jul's original screenplay and Sheridan Le Fanu 1871 story "Carmilla," a source for the film.
  Film made 1932
  Duration 75 minutes
  Black & White
  The DVD cover has a beautiful black and white photograph.
  
  

• Germanic ideal of a vampire's bloodlust- UNDEAD UNDEAD UNDEAD

  
  By A3MHGA6BJJ7P27 on 2008-05-24
  This cinematic piece of visual poetry defies easy catagorizing. Is it a vampire film? Oh, sure, but if you merely desire a little bit(e) from the traditional DRACULA story, you will soon find yourself disappointed. It could be argued, that most of this film, is a sleepwalker's hazy recollections in the morning, or a hallucination by a skitzoid young man, instead of a surreal odyssey into the damnation of the living dead, doomed to drink blood to remain young. This main protagonist, Herr von GRAY, is a sensitive man, given to the study of occult books, fantasizing about vampires, ghosts and death. He arrives at a small, poor country Inn, and that's when all surreal HELL breaks out. The director, DREYER, was famous in the French avant guarde film world, such as it was back then, for his previous film "THE PASSSION OF JOAN OF ARC" from 1927. OH, and guess who designed the sets, and was the art director for VAMPYR? None other than Herman Warm, who designed sets for CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, an undeniable masterpiece of German pre-WWII "Bauhaus" influenced set design. If just WARM were involved in this film, as art director, it would still be well worth seeing. Oddly enough, the director chose to work with mostly non-actors, for the authenticity. He did use two actual actors. The lead was an actor, a wealthy German Baron who also co-produced, and financed the film. He plays the lead man, GRAY, who entering the Inn, finds that he has entered a world of nightmares. He looks out the window, and sees a man with a scythe going on a boat. ITS THE SPECTOR OF DEATH ITSELF. Next, a man's shadow walks down the stairs outside the Inn, and sits down on a bench. Then, a man also walks up to the bench, sits down, and we realize that the SHADOW BELONGS TO THE MAN WHO JUST SAT NEXT TO IT. Then, they leave together, with the shadow reconnected to the man. SO, a land of SHADOWS is brought into vivid existence, thru clever technical effects. Another oddity to the film, is a near total lack of dialouge. That helps the film, but having a lot of back story to read as pages flash up on the scene, one wonders why it was not given to some kind of voice over. No doubt the presence of very little dialogue throughout the film, only lends to that uneasy, dreamlike quality. Often, one is tempted to see this as a silent film, but of course, there is SOME talking going on here and there. Next a woman is seen having her blood sucked from her body. We end up reading a book with GRAY about Vampires, and the local legend of an Evil woman who turned the whole town into vampires, before she was stopped. Extreme close-ups of the bizarre gothic wood cuts in the book, and then, a long shot thru a bookcase with a human skull once more visually brings in the leitmotif of death, and the German romantic ideal of death. Next, we have some screens of a man seen pitching hay, but the film is running backwards. Apparently, in this dream nightmare world, time and action can move backwards. All parameters of logic are ignored, and the nightmare advanced on the viewer. Then its dark, and we are moving around outside, in dense, impenetrable fog, searching for the master vampire's grave, so they can be killed while she sleeps. This part of the film had been overexposed from light leaking into a faulty camera, but the director liked the foggy, washed out effect it gave the print, so he used it for all the outdoor shots. Yes, deliberate filming in the "lo-fi" esthetic...I loved it. So, the film goes on like this, with one part of a nightmare leading to another. One of the women in the Inn, who was bitten by the vampire, needs blood. One of the GREATEST turn arounds on the typical vampire film occurs here. Instead of your Van Helsing doctor who gives us the medical/metaphysical information to defeat the vampire, we have instead a doctor who assists the vampire in finding suitable victums. So, the duplicitious doctor bleeds Gray, in order to help save the dying young woman's life, who is really a transforming vampire, needing her first blood meal, at Gray's expense. However, this puts him into some kind of psychic link with the vampire, that nearly kills him. Next, we see Gray sitting down, and his image splits, with a transparent doubleganger image, or his dream-spirit, going off and wandering around the inn, and the local town. By this time, even tho I have watched the movie at least three times, I start to lose the thread of whatever logic or daytime sanity I use the plot for. In fact, I can only imagine that the surrealist film Le Chien d'Andelou influenced the Director, with the non logic of the images in relation to the movement of the film, and the unexpected, nauseating horror of some of the scenes. (Gray's bloodletting was especially creapy, mostly because of the crudeness of the hypo used to get blood. )That leads me to the most bizarre, unsettling image from the entire film. In the end, the evil Doctor who was in cahoots with the head vampire is killed. He runs, or is chased, into an old mill, filled with an impossible amount of gears and strange machinery. He flees into a cage-like chamber, that looks like an elevator shaft. He becomes locked in this fenced in little area, when the waterwheel starts up the gears, and flour from above starts to fall down upon the evil doctor. At first, he is covered with flour, and he looks like a ghost. Then, the flour slowly fills up around him, until he's buried alive far above his head in flour. Again, i can't figure out how they shot some of the last images, because it DOES look like the doctor is buried. As the images become more threatening, more surreal and disturbing, as the film unfolds, the best is saved for last. The buried alive scene, is a visual crescendo of the macabre. That image seems to unlock a very primal fear of death, for those of us who are buried whole. Premature burial is the probible basis of some of the horror surrounding the idea of the dead living..or being alive in your own tomb. So the cinematic images of death, and blood, and ghosts, disembodied souls, vampirism as a deadly disease, and premature burial just leaves you unable to shake what seems to be a nightmare. Our subconscious wakes and screams, and you try to piece the frightening images into some semblence of linear logic. But that negates the dark beauty of this film. This film belongs to the realm of night, and nightmares, of frightening, ambiguous images that function as a cinematic memento morti . Anyway, I highly recommend this film. This new print far improves on the older DVD edition of the film by "Blackhawk film". They mastered off a badly damaged print, with punched out words appearing during the film's transistion between reels, and a soundtrack which was so faint and fuzzy, you might as well have been listening to a silent film. Naturally, they fixed those horrible gothic lettered subtitles, which took up a third of the scene as well. The Blackwater edition does give you a little extra, to compensate for their poor print they used to master from. It's a little piece of stop animation filmed in 1934 by a Pole, called The Mascot. Altho you wont have that, you will have what is (besides Murnau's original NOSFERATU, and Leghosli's DRACULA), one of the greatest meditations on Death, and the vampire legend, ever filmed. I'm glad Critilion restored the film, and gave it the full deluxe treatment. A word of advice, however--this film seems to grow on you. It might sink its teeth into you the first night you watch it, but it needs to feed on your subconscious, drop by drop. After you spend a few more nights watching the film, slowly absorbing the morbid imagery, you will be hooked. Only then will the film, as all great works of art, transform you into something new. (Let's hope its a better informed cinema fan, and not a....creature of the bad pun. That would be a hellish fate.)
  
  
• Poetry While Paint Dries
  By ACIBQ6BQ6AWEV on 2008-08-26
  Danish film maker Carl Dryer (1889-1968) is considered among Europe's finest directors, the creator of innovative 1928 THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC and the legendary VAMPYR--but some cinematic legends are best left recalled instead of revisited, and such is the case with the latter film. Produced in 1930, released in 1932, and very loosely based on the novella CARMILLA by Sheridan LeFanu, VAMPYR does indeed have moments of great poety, but on the whole the film is akin to watching paint dry.
  
  The plot of VAMPYR is trivial, the tale of a young man who stumbles into a mysterious estate where one of two sisters is under vampiric attack. The appeal of the film is actually in Dyer's truly remarkable cinematic ideas, ideas that are often described as surrealistic in execution. Shadows move independently of those who cast them--or exist without any source at all. Fog and mist drift strangely through the landscapes. A skull moves of its own accord. And most spectacularly, the young man experiences an out-of-body vision in which he foresees that he himself will fall prey to the vampire unless he can destroy it.
  
  These moments are memorable indeed and there is no doubt the film is visually stunning. Unfortunately, it is also very, very, very slow. In theory, this slowness exists to intensify the poetry of the images and a crawling sense of horror; in actual fact, however, I found it simply slow, and that the extremely languid pace undercut both poetry and horror to a very significant degree. Fans of the film--and it has many--will no doubt curse me as a Philistine and declare VAMPYR is too fine to be appreciated by the likes of me.
  
  As in most instances, the Criterion Collection edition offers a group of interesting bonuses. It is worth noting, however, that the film itself is not in pristine condition (it never has been); even so, this is easily the best print in circulation. Recommended for hardcore cinephiles, but most others should give it a miss.
  
  GFT, Amazon Reviewer
  
  
• Original Special Effects
  By AW7BIYHXUIZ62 on 2006-03-17
  I see that some other reviewers have been kind of tough on this film. If this film had been produced in 2005, it's probably still worth 3 stars, but this thing is almost 75 years old. It clearly showcases some cutting edge stuff for the period. The director had never seen Bride of Frankenstein, Return of the Mummy, Bram Stoker's Dracuala, et al. I, for one, do not consider this film a "hack job" because of visible shutter flash or occasional sprocket jumps. So if you want to watch an antique film that plays like the latest Steven Speilberg project ---- well, it ain't gonna happen here. I think this piece HAS been restored as well as it's going to be. Having said all that, now on to the film.
  
  It's a vampire story. Or in Danish, a vampyr story. Traveler visits creepy inn. Ghouls in residence. I needn't go into more detail about the general plot, right? But don't expect the Hollywood sterotyped stuff of long liplocks to the neck, or some suave guy morphing into a bat.
  
  Notably, there were some special effects that blew me away, considering the era. They were very effective and some I have not seen duplicated elsewhere. There is a clever and well done effect of shadows moving independently of their source, some very creepy dancing shadows on the lawn, a ghost effect apparently created through use of double exposure and very well executed, and a totally creepy corpse-eye view out of the coffin on the way to the cemetary. The main vampire is a female that looks like a real ghoul, and a very credible job is done of time-lapsing her into a skeleton.
  
  Essentially, this is a silent film. What audible voice there is, is muffled and in Danish. There are quite a few German subtitles and the version I watched had a few English entries. The story is a little disjointed, but the atmosphere is pleasingly creepy and the film is a time capsule of sorts. The early production techniques, and the clothing, furniture, farm implements. EVERYBODY is carrying around a candle (because when this was filmed that's what the actors all did at home anyway).
  
  For the guys, there's even the 1932 Danish version of a hottie that's not too bad. And I found the lack of exagerrated makeup and physical inflection to be superior to the clownish over-acted stuff that Hollywood was putting out during that era. I doubt it will frighten you, but it is a good period piece to take a look at.
  
  
• Atmospheric Horror At Its Best.
  By A3QIW6ULPIPM2V on 2008-08-05
  Carl Theodor Dreyer's VAMPYR has long been one of my favorite early horror films but until just a few years ago it was impossible to see it in a decent print. The old Image DVD had the best picture quality but was marred by black box subtitles in Gothic script. Still it was the best there was until now. This new Criterion transfer is not only the best so far it will probably be the best from now on as I can't see anyone else wanting to redo it. It's not everyone's idea of a horror film especially today when poetry and atmosphere are not high on the list of priorities for most horror movies (or most movies in general). The film was not a success in 1932 causing the director to abandon filmmaking for 11 years although it quickly developed a cult following.
  
  The scenario inspired by Irish Huguenot writer Sheridan Le Fanu's novella CARMILLA and influenced by F.W. Murnau's NOSFERATU is probably the closest cinematic equivalent of a dream captured on film. It certainly influenced Cocteau's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST which was 14 years later. The film is actually more of a nightmare as it follows a young protagonist through village inns and country estates on the trail of a female vampire who against conventional tradition is old and wizened rather than young and beautiful. Strange things happen. Shadows have a life of their own, the hero watches himself from above as he is buried alive, and it contains one of the strangest death scenes ever filmed which was borrowed from D.W. Griffith's A CORNER IN WHEAT. The entire film was designed to be pale with lots of fog and scenes shot through gauze over the camera lens. It was photographed by Rudolph Mate' who had done Dreyer's previous film THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC. Once seen it cannot be forgotten. Like most vivid dreams you remember it whether you want to or not.
  
  This new transfer of the German version (there were French and English ones as well) looks as good as any restoration I have ever seen and the cleaning up of Wolfgang Zeller's music score, so essential to the overall mood, is nothing less than astonishing. Like most Criterion releases it comes with a plethora of extras including the original shooting script and a complete copy of Le Fanu's story CARMILLA so that you can see how much they varied from it. There is alao a second disc containing deleted scenes, a detailed analysis of the film and a radio interview with the director. Yes it's expensive and no it's not for everyone but if you appreciate cinema as poetry and are seduced by black and white images than this is the movie for you. Be advised though that Dreyer shot this film as a silent and added the music and effects later. There is less than 10 minutes worth of dialogue overall and no one says more than a few words each time they speak.
  
  
• Haunting despite snap, crackle, pop
  By A2UUWETDYA2EKV on 2001-09-23
  Slow pans, suffused lighting, sparse dialogue, and indelible imagery, elevate this vampire movie, a complete opposite to the bloody neck-biters of Hammer Films Inc. It's not a movie for everyone. Too slow for some, too actionless for others, Vampyr does carry the stamp of a master, Carl Dreyer. The overall effect is to unnerve rather than frighten. Images collect rather than jolt, passing through to the subconscious where the film lingers long after a last flickering frame. Not a ghost movie, the effect is nevertheless ghostly and dreamlike, with daylight apparitions gliding through some nightless nether nether world. A counterpart perhaps closest in effect is 1962's Carnival of Lost Souls, minus adagio pacing.
  
  My videocassette purchase is obviously a copy of the unrestored original. Titles remain in Danish, with the surreal bits of dialogue untranslated into English, (only pages from text appearing on screen are translated). The sound track crackles and pops with age, all of which might scare off the Sensurround viewer. But for me, the effect was heigtened by these infirmirties of age, rather like finding an old arcane manuscript in original form. Despite the film's vintage, Dreyer's remains a sure hand at the helm, with a rare and delicate sensibility that coheres. All in all, Vampyr may well be a work of genius, and a discovery for modern viewers. But unless you have a taste for the unrestored, stay away from videocassette.
  
  
• A Haunting & Lyrical Nightmare
  By ALNF2JWN3URSH on 2002-02-16
  VAMPYR is a very hypnotic horror film. It may seem slow going & somewhat incoherent, but let the atmosphere of the movie wash over the viewer. This movie should be savored for its chilling atmosphere. A variation of Sheridan Le Fanu's CARMILLA, VAMPYR is about mood, atmosphere, shadows, & light. The sounds & the dialogue seem muffled, but that's what adds to the chilling atmosphere. Like watching a virtual lyrical nightmare, VAMPYR is a nightmarish classic.
  
  
• YES!!!
  By A3QZNLIMSM9RCQ on 2008-06-05
  I just about jumped out of my chair when I saw that Vampyr was getting the Criterion treatment. I love this film and own the first dvd pressing of it which is alright so I can only imagine seeing it get the care that is deserves. Already put my pre-order in and am counting down the days.
  
  Update: I just got the dvd today and it's brilliant! The box and packaging is beautiful. The transfer far exceeds that quality of the first release on dvd. I just finished watching it about an hour ago and will be watching again as soon as I finish typing this update. Well worth it and one of my favorite Criterion releases.
  
  
• This is why DVD's were created
  By A2OZBJ58CML9OS on 2008-07-24
  Just when I think Criterion has forgotten us fans of horror & sci-fi, here they come with this incredible deluxe treatment of one of the all-time greats. Carl Dreyer's VAMPYR may have been overshadowed by Murnau's NOSFERATU and Tod Browning's DRACULA (and rightfully so, in many ways), but it's still one of the greatest examples of film-as-nightmare ever made.
  
  For those who may have missed it, VAMPYR loosely (VERY loosely...more on that in a minute) adapts the Victorian-era horror tale "Carmilla," which featured a pair of scheming female vampires. But the film only uses bits of the novella to flesh-out its nightmare vision. The film's minimal plot concerns a man, Alan Gray, who is studying the occult. In a village outside of Paris, he stumbles upon a mystery steeped in the supernatural. A host of increasingly bizarre images assail Gray (and the viewer), culminating in one of the most memorable nightmare sequences ever put on film.
  
  VAMPYR, especially for the first-time viewer, can be a difficult film to embrace. Dialogue is kept to a minimum, and when it does occur, is often puzzling. The narrative is disjointed, resulting in sometimes abrupt cuts and images which don't seem to fit. Most disconcerting is a shot of a gravedigger which has been reversed, or the shadow of a solider which seeks to rejoin its host. All these scenes and many more give the film its nightmare logic, which is all the more memorable for what it DOESN'T show.
  
  For all their technical wizardry, I've almost always found Criterion Collection discs left me wanting more in the way of supplemental materials. Well, with VAMPYR. . .all is forgiven! Disc 2 offers a fascinating "visual essay" which recounts director Carl Dreyer's influences that helped shaped the film. There's also a 1966 documentary on Dreyer himself, covering his first silent films up to his final effort in 1964. There's some great archival footage of Francois Truffaut and others offering their insight into the director and his films. Back on Disc 1, you'll find a rather droll audio commentary by British film scholar Tony Rayns. While his observations do occasionally help make some of Dreyer's creative intentions more clear, Rayns spends too much time engaged in idle speculation over such trivia as the proper pronunciation of "Carmilla" author Sheridan Le Fanu's name.
  
  As if that wasn't enough, VAMPYR also includes a nice full-sized book that contains not only the original screenplay, but the entire text of "Carmilla." Reading them back-to-back, one can easily see how Dreyer was influenced but not really guided by the original story. Lastly, a booklet includes additional essays about the film and its resoration.
  
  Simply put, anyone interested in classic horror, or the history of early sound films MUST have this terrific set in their collection. Criterion is to be commended for pulling out all the stops and crafting what I'm sure will prove to be a treasured archive of an often-overlooked piece of film history.
  
  
  
  
  
• KINO VHS PRINT SOURCE/IMAGE DVD PRINT SOURCE - THE SAME
  By A2NFTFQYW8GXIQ on 2005-02-16
  I find it odd that almost all the reviews on this page for Kino's VHS of VAMPYR are reviews of Image's DVD of VAMPYR. Can no one out there read?????
  
  The identical source print is used by both Kino for their VHS release (they have no plans to release a DVD version in the near future) and Image for their DVD release. And the print is a very poor one indeed.
  
  Aside from the intended softness of some of the images, the print is many generations removed from an original 35 nitrate source - Kino misleads on its cover and says it is a 35 mm archive print source. If this is a true statement, and I doubt it, it's the worst 35 mm source material I've ever seen. There are scratches, sprocket hole jumps, great fuzziness.
  
  Face the fact though - it's all we have. Criterion was unable to find a print good enough to even attempt to restore, thus its promise in 2000 to release a DVD of the title had to be reneged upon. Criterion, and up until this instance, Kino, does not settle for less than pristine, crystal clear prints for its releases. This is the first time KINO has disappointed me in quality.
  
  All the quality quibbling aside, buy either of these to view the film - just know what you're buying. I think it's shameful that both Kino and Image charge the amount of money they do for this poor transfer. If it were a $5.98 special with warnings, it would be justified.
  
  
• A Vampire Classic.
  By A3D9VXSUDX8J36 on 2008-05-11
  "Imagine we are sitting in an ordinary room. Suddenly we are told that there is a corpse behind the door. In an instant, the room we are sitting in is completely altered: everything in it has taken on another level; the light, the atmosphere have changed, though they are physically the same. This is because we have changed. This is the effect I want to get"--Carl Theodor Dreyer.
  
  One of the greatest filmmakers in cinema, Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer is known for his meticulous eye for detail and artistic idiosyncrasies. He made his first classic film in 1928, The Passion of Joan of Arc, a film drawn directly from the transcripts of Joan's trial. He then went on to make Vampyr ("Vampyr-Der Traum des Allan Grey") in 1932. Both films were financial failures.
  
  Based on J. Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novella, Carmilla, Vampyr is ultimately a French-German meditation on fear. Originally shot as a silent film (the dialogue was added later in English, French and German), Vampyr is short on dialogue, thin on plot, but rich in weird atmosphere (which is reason enough to experience this superb, nightmare-like film). It tells the story of a young traveler, Allan Gray (Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, using the stage name Julian West), who does his best to protect two sisters, anaemic Leone (Sybille Schmitz) and Gisele (Rena Mandel), from a vampire. He becomes obsessed with vampires, with his own burial, with skulking, shadowy creatures, and with the blood lust on Leone's face after she seemingly falls under a vampire's spell. (Spoiler Alert: I say "seemingly" because by the end of the film, Vampyr is not so much about about a vampire as a batty old dead woman named Marguerite Chopin (Henriette Gérard).) Despite the fact that Dreyer's film lacks an actual vampire (at least in the traditional sense), many critics have called it the greatest vampire film ever made. (At the risk of sparking a debate, when it comes to classic vampire movies, I will always prefer both F.W. Murnau's German silent classic, Nosferatu, and Werner Herzog's later remake Nosferatu: The Vampyre/Phantom Der Nacht.)
  
  This film has a history of poor-quality American and British versions, often shown on late-night TV. The new Criterion double-disc edition of Vampyr features the original German version in a high-definition digital transfer from the 1998 restoration by Martin Koerber and the Cineteca di Bologna; a newly credited alternate version with English text; audio commentary featuring film scholar Tony Rayns; "Carl Th. Dreyer (1966)," a documentary by Jørgen Roos chronicling Dreyer's career; a visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer's influences in creating Vampyr; a radio broadcast from 1958 of Dreyer reading an essay about filmmaking; and a booklet featuring new essays by Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, Koerber on the restoration, and a 1964 interview with producer and star Nicolas de Gunzburg, as well as a book featuring Dreyer and Christen Jul's original screenplay and Sheridan Le Fanu 1872 story "Carmilla," a source for the film.
  
  G. Merritt
  
  
• hypotically beautiful film, atmospheric and ominous
  By A2HW33PQSRHLNO on 2001-11-14
  this movie is pure gustave moreau and pure surrealism! west's character watching himself being taken to the grave is, for some odd reason, absolutely terrifying, and although the movie becomes a little slow paced at times, this only adds to it's subtlety and admirable disdain for meaningless action. this is a horror film for real horror film fans, not sickos out to see gore and blood. even if the story is a little trite and utterly conventional as far as the vampire legend goes, buy it for the haunting and absolutely stunning imagery. there are scenes in this little gem that will stick out in your mind a long time after you view it.
  
  
• Replace your DVD from Image
  By A37I9E4U4IZ3CH on 2008-07-23
  It's time to replace your Image copy of VAMPYR with this stunning new release from Criterion. My preordered copy actually arrived on the day of release, even with the free shipping option (thanks, Amazon!), and I watched the feature last night.
  
  While the version from Image is not unwatchable, the improvement that Criterion offers is major. The image is still quite soft, but has been thoroughly cleaned up. And the print they used either did not have all of those "punch holes" that the Image disc has, or they did an excellent job of filling them in. The sound is also very much improved. And gone are the ugly black rectangles containing the subtitles in an Old English-style font; the subtitles can be turned on and off, and they are in the typical kind of easy-to-read sans serif font you find on most DVDs.
  
  The Criterion release includes two versions of the film: one with the intertitles and book text insert shots in German, the other with intertitles and book text insert shots in English. Both have the dialogue in German, so subtitles are still needed when viewing the English text version (unless you're fluent in German, of course). Dreyer reportedly made the film in English, French, and German versions (and also in Danish?--in one of the DVDs, can't remember which, the father writes his note on the wrapped-up book in Danish). Sadly, the original English version of the film is no longer extant, at least not in a condition that is watchable.
  
  I have not yet delved into the supplemental materials, but they seem to be substantial. The packaging is exquisite, and very appropriate to the feature. The heavy paper slipcase holds a fold-out DVD case (illustrated with images from the film) containing the two discs and a thick booklet with several interesting articles. Also in the slipcase is a paperbound book containing an English translation of the original screenplay and the original story "Carmilla" by J. Sheridan le Fanu.
  
  
• The room has changed because we have.
  By A1BA908PHVT7Q7 on 2008-08-20
  I received the criterion edition of Vampyr in the mail today. I am extremely pleased with it. For me it may be the DVD release of the year. Have always loved Carl Dreyer, & this film in particular. Finally seeing a properly restored edition (the previous Image entertainment release was hideous, although better than nothing, & superior to my former VHS release of the film) on a two disc release with commentary, & the entire screenplay available as well as the original source short stories in a literal paperback book (as opposed to a DVD booklet) is a treat indeed.
  
  For more release details see attached customer images above. If you don't know about the film itself, see it's write-up in Amos Vogel's Film As A Subversive Art, hear what Dreyer himself has to say about his aims in Carl Th. Dreyer - My Metier, or Google it.
  
  
• A Visual Nightmare!! Wonderful To Look At!
  By on 1998-12-08
  It has a dreamy, surreal structure. It seems as if there is no structure at all to this story. Very, very loosely-based on "Carmilla," this free-form adaptation contains countless memorable images, including the dancing shadows, Julian West's character watching his own funeral, and a skull that "watches" people. Play this one at the next Halloween party. Very creepy.
  
  
• Morbidly beautiful
  By on 1999-03-14
  Impossibly, hauntingly lovely horror film. A movie of images, not story. For example: the shadows of people waltzing on the wall; the hero lying in a coffin with a glass window, watching helplessly as he is buried alive; the wicked doctor, assistant to the vampire, being killed slowly in an avalanche of flour in an old mill. I was foolish enough to try to describe this film, and have failed miserably! Still, I hope that any lover of cinema will give this old, almost-forgotten near-silent movie a chance. The time spent won't be regretted as lost.
  
  
• Package doesn�t really match the movie
  By A2Z7TU96G2WB9B on 2002-03-08
  When I picked up "Vampyr," I thought of all the commentary I have read about the film. I read the back of the package and was a little dismayed that the ending was given right there. Don't worry, the package is wrong, so the ending is not spoiled. And, that is not the only thing that is not right.

  First, the movie does have subtitles, but they are not in English. When the hero is reading a book, you see a Germanic or Dutch gothic script, then a translation in English will appear. This covers the whole screen so I would not say it was subtitled. When you do see the subtitles, they are not in German or English. From reading another review, I am inclined to believe it is in Dutch.

  There is some classic vampire folklore in the movie, not just what we learn from "Dracula." Don't be dismayed, the vampire, or vampyr, is still a malevolent being. It is interesting to see the other attributes given to these creatures in different cultures.

  In regard to quality, I find it is a great film. Since it was originally filmed in 1931, the video was taken from the original film. Because of this, there is quite a bit of distortion and hissing (sometimes sounding like a helicopter in the distance or a trawling motor). This distortion can make the actual words and music sound faint. Although this may look like a silent film, it is not. You just have to listen for it. I think it adds to the eerie effect rather than detracts from it. Think of it like reading an ancient book that has the feel and smell of antiquity.

  Carl Dreyer is experimental in his camera tricks. Remember that he is not making errors. He is using these tricks to help add to the ambience. For instance, take a close look at the shadow of the guy shoveling. That is all I will say there.

  If you are a vampire or horror enthusiast, this is a must see. If your idea of horror is the typical "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie, then you may want to give this a skip. It is nice to see where other horror directors got their ideas though.
  
  

• A classic film, restored
  By AI0OAQ6E2O8VF on 2008-08-23
  This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.
  
  Vampyr, is a film directed Carl Theodor Dreyer and based on "Carmilla" by J. Sheridan LeFanu. The film itself has many special effects which were impressive at the time of its release.
  
  The plot is kind of undescribable, but mainly about a vampire haunting a village. It is very dark, and has some scenes in it which were intense for its time.
  
  This release is spliced from various prints of the film, as the original negative was lost.
  
  The special features are also nice and includes the original novella, "Carmilla" and a copy of the film's screenplay.
  
  Disc one contains a new ediion with English text and audio commentary by Tony Rayns.
  
  Disc two contains a 1966 documentary on Dreyer, a visual essay by Casper Tybjerg about the influences of the film, and a 1958 radio broadcast by Dreyer.
  
  This is a unique film that is a classic.
  
  
• Vampyr
  By A34OHQ5DY7K106 on 2008-08-27
  This is a review of the Criterion Vampyr release. I will not review the film itself, but just a few comments on the quality. I have no other version of Vampyr to compare, but generally speaking this version is only so-so in terms of quality (as compared to, say, a 1930 hollywood film). It is all in soft focus, which seems to be unavoidable, and the outdoor scenes are very soft focus indeed, but apparently intentionally. All of this is fine, and the overall effect is good and creepy. However, the entire film is running at too fast a speed. For the most part, the characters themselves are moving slowly so the fast speed isn't too apparent or intrusive, but any scene involving energetic motion is far, far too fast- simply jogging, walking quickly, or the brief scuffle between the doctor and Mr Gray are almost comically too fast. I know some directors undercranked the camera for certain effects, but this entire film is transferred at too fast a speed. An amazing mistake for Criterion. Also, the outdoor scenes seem not to have been restored at all, with a LOT of flicker, inclusions and scratches in nearly all of those scenes. So, do not expect the sort of miraculous restoration that Nosferatu got in the Kino Ultimate Edition. From what I've read, this Criterion Vampyr is a major upgrade from what was previously avaiable, but it certainly could have been better than this.
  
  
• AT LAST ! ! !
  By A31E4CJ125XR9S on 2008-08-29
  After eons of settling for one blury dupe-of-a-dupe after another, we finally have been presented with a decent print. Such Joy! The transfer is by far the best I've ever seen (I prefer the "English Text" version--included with this awesome set). The EXTRA's are a mindf***---wow! Just listen to that man talk! Brilliant, unaffected, enlightening etc. Thank you CRITERION! A joyous occasion. (Must take this opportunity to commend their magnificent restoration of NOSFERATU--it, too, is to die over...)
  
  
• A painterly film
  By A2KGEAB10O7JJB on 2001-11-05
  What astounds me about early and silent films is the frequent painterliness of the images you see on film. The imagery of Symbolist painting seems especially conspicuous. It seems obvious, for example, that Pastrone's -Cabiria- and D. W. Griffith's -Intolerance- bathed deep in the influence of Gustave Moreau. Griffith's good girls seem sometimes to have stepped out of the canvases of Puvis de Chavannes or Burne-Jones.

  This is a Scandinavian vampire film. Where else would you look for visual references, than early Edvard Munch? This is what jumps out at me in this film. In the scenes with the vampire-contaminated girl on her sickbed, Dreyer seems to be wanting to recreate Munch's -The Sick Girl- and -Spring-. The sister [?] in the castle seems to have been made up to look like a somewhat scrawny version of Inger Munch, the painter's sister, who modelled over and over again throughout the paintings.

  Of course, expressionist movies and expressionist paintings naturally go along hand in hand. This movie is somewhat hard to watch at times; the pacing is definitely odd and disorienting. On the version I have, the subtitles are done in large black-letter script. Fortunately, they do not often appear, and unlike the text insets are mostly irrelevant to what is going on. This is basically a silent film with a soundtrack added. The soundtrack cuts out at times.

  Not for everybody, but not awful, either.
  
  

• A Dream of Death Captured on Film
  By A1GHO6BR5J0NHX on 2008-09-30
  Criterion has done a magnificent job in the production of this handsome, hefty, lovely-to-hold DVD package literally packed with all-sorts-of goodies. You get two DVDs in a gothic three-fold holder and the screenplay and short story that influenced the film in a neat little volume. The DVDs and their slipcase and the book are neatly contained in a further casing that is chillingly evocative in its design. This is the perfect gift for the imminent Halloween - and watching this film is a perfect way to kick off the start of October.
  
  This movie was released in 1932, shot a few years prior. There are, of course, no CGI effects (thank God!). There are no grotesque makeups and over-the-top transformations as in many recent vampire/horror films. There aren't gallons - or even cupfulls of blood - and yet this film...this film is perhaps the most uncanny, weirdest, chilling "horror" movie ever made. Not because it is shock scarey, no, but because it is silently scarey. It is shadows-in-sunshine scarey. It is downright creepy! One of the best examples of what I'm talking about is an all-of-twenty second or so scene of ghost shadows dancing on a wall to weird music and a weird shadowy band that - in twenty-some seconds mind you - does more to haunt a man's soul than the entire "The Shining" by Kubrick with its own lavish many-peopled ghost party in the Gold Room (which I love!) or the Dance of the Dead in the classic "Carnival of Souls" (which I love also). It is truly amazing that with no CGI or big budget or latex makeup applications to simulate monsters and ghouls, this movie - and this one scene in particular - can unnerve and haunt and stay with you, long after you've watched the film's economical 73 minutes. What did the great director Dreyer have that makes this film so powerful? A rich and poetic Imagination! Visual and aesthetic Brilliance! Knowing how to edit in order to unnerve the viewer. And there is so much packed into these hallucinatory 73 minutes: the potent image early on of the bellringer with the scythe, the river before him, his back to us...and a face we can only imagine and DO NOT want to see! A disembodied shadow seating itself beside it's owner. Another shadow shovelling in reverse motion that is absolutely inexplicable and therefore bone-chilling. A woman's face slowly becoming overtaken by evil that is scarier than anything I've seen done with makeup or special effects: her rolled up eyes and malevolent smile are precursor's to the first shot of Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in the aforementioned "The Shining" when we first know he is going mad. The crazy doctor in the ground-breaking film is also a dead-on precursor of Jack MacGowran's eccentric Professor Ambrosius in Polanski's "The Fearless Vampire Killers" (which I also love). The vampire in the film is totally against type - and thereby more fearful than those with dripping fangs and blood-shot eyes in later-day films. The much-commented upon sequence wherein our hero is being buried alive is likewise alone worth the price of admission. I could go on and on with the influences this film initiated in horror films down the years, but it is best to check it out for yourself. It puts Tod Browning's "Dracula" to shame, actually, despite the great Bela Lugosi (whom I love). No, this is not even so much a film as a dream/nightmare caught on film. It is perhaps as close to the world of the Dead as we, the viewers, might dare get...without crossing over ourselves! Yet! Strange, surreal, sublime: it must be seen to be believed.
  
  
• A restored Vampyr
  By A2ACKLRWXLFZ8Z on 2008-09-30
  Carl Dreyer is a film-maker's film-maker. His films resonate, and are imbued not just with striking images, mise-en-scene and editing choices, but with a numinous nexus of meaning. I'll watch a Dreyer film, and in the course of the days and weeks to come, a moment or moments from the film: a notion, a face, a dramatic epiphany, (or all these things), will return to haunt me. Fortunately it's not usually a spooky haunting, but an artistic one: the mastery of Dreyer as a cineaste strikes notes which always resound in this viewer's soul.
  
  Oddly enough, in the case of Vampyr it is a spooky haunting. Sort of. As the wonderful supplemental features in this Criterion edition of Vampyr make clear, Dreyer wanted to make a "popular" (or at least commercially successful) film after the financial disaster of The Passion of Joan of Arc. Vampires had made at least a modest bite into the popular culture of the 1920s: Nosferatu, London After Midnight and the stage production of Dracula with Bela Lugosi all exploited the public interest in the undead. Dreyer had his subject.
  
  I won't repeat the story of the production tribulations of Vampyr, where Dreyer worked both as a producer and director. Suffice it to say that Vampyr was also a commercial flop. Dreyer had a nervous breakdown and checked himself into the Joan of Arc Sanatarium to recover. He didn't make another film for about another 10 years. As for the film: the original negative for Vampyr no longer exists. The soundtrack, especially in those early days of European sound-film making is horrible. When I first saw this movie long ago back in college, I was entirely put off. The sound sucked, the acting seemed stilted and the print looked
  fuzzy, scratchy and just plain terrible. Worse still, it just wasn't scary.
  
  It's still not scary. But it's eerie, and this eeriness is worth consideration. Criterion has cleaned up the movie's sound, and, to the best extent possible, restored the image. Vampyr was a low-budget production and, though it looks antique to us, it was deliberately set in contemporary times. Dreyer found an abandoned factory for the scene where the vampire calls an abrupt halt to the fleeting shadows dancing across the walls during a witches' ball.
  These scenes feature startlingly modern compositions, evocative lighting and a fluidly gliding use of camera by Dreyer's gifted cinematographer Rudolph Mate. The musical score has been cleaned up as well, and contributes much to the disconsolate mood of the piece. I won't analyze the plot of the film, (loosely based on Sheridan Le Fanu's short novel "Carmilla") or the character relationships, whose opacity seems as much a characteristic of Dreyer's approach as of his largely non-professional cast's shortcomings as actors. The reason why Vampyr is worth watching is because this film succeeds astonishingly in conveying the surreal, illogical yet poetically thematic experience of dreams and nightmares. The episodes here don't link at all well in terms of narrative structure. However, the quality of light in one sequence (the boat caught in the fog) visually evokes the cascading flour in the mill sequence with which it's intercut. The parallel cutting suggests there may be a meaning linking the two sequences, but there is no overt narrative or even character link. We're left with the soft slow clouds of fog, the briskly tumbling suffocating clouds of flour, and the knowledge that the characters in these parallel scenes are lost. It's a dreamlike, poetic moment, evoked beautifully by cinematic means. Vampyr is the film poetry of unquiet dreams, and worth a visitation. (The special features of this fine two-disk set include interesting critical analyses, a wonderful short feature about the production of Vampyr, a filmed interview with Dreyer, and--- in a supplemental booklet--- the shooting script and a reprint of Le Fanu's "Carmilla." Film school in a coffin-box without the school! Enough to make any self-respecting movie vampire drool!)
  
  
• A video to study.
  By on 1999-04-09
  the long shadows. the sharp hedges and the few words
  
  
• A Great Transfer Of A Great Classic Horror
  By A2ZOORVKXYOGHQ on 2008-08-28
  For anyone interested on the history of horror, this film is a must. Carl Dreyer has a unique style of storytelling and filming that stands apart from all other filmmakers. I have other transfers of this film, but the Criterion version is the best. A viewer will notice some spots and blotches left on the film. Criterion does not clean it up completely. From reading the write-ups of previous Criterion transfers I own, I gather the reason they do this is to preserve the version in a state that would be very similar to how it would have looked in the theatres when it was released. They would not have been pristine. The technology was not advanced enough and, in this case, a viewer in the early 30s would have noticed some spots and blotches still left on the film. I hope this write-up was helpful and I hope you enjoy this film as much as I do.
  
  
• This I considered a rip off
  By ABO2XVD5P7NJ6 on 2008-08-31
  This movie was terrible and I didn't think that it lived up to the hype advertised. It was so bad I returned it and requested my money back. Picture was awful, sound was terrible and definitely not worth the money I spent.
  
  
• Great
  By A3SFO2GSP5CVSM on 2008-09-30
  The Criterion Collection will shortly be releasing a two disk version of the 1932 black and white classic horror film by Carl Theodor Dreyer, Vampyr. I first watched this film about twenty years ago, on a VHS release, and, unlike many others, immediately recognized it as a supernal piece of cinema. Then, I did not have the critical knowledge to discern why, but I do now, and will explicate. This film was the first sound film released by the Danish filmmaker, and perhaps the last film in the vein of silent German Expressionism. That stated, it is a very different form of vampire film from the then contemporaneous Dracula, made by Tod Browning, for Universal Studios in America, as well the earlier explicitly Expressionistic take on the film, 1922's Nosferatu, by F.W. Murnau. While the two other horror films have risen to the stature of iconographic symbols of evil and fear (as well a bit of hokum, with the passing of decades), Vampyr has not; although it still retains a creepiness that, to modern eyes, makes it a more unsettling experience than the two other films, great as they are.
  
  The primary reason for this has not to do with blood and gore, nor even with mood, mis-en-scene, or the like, but with the fact that Dreyer and cinematographer Rudolph Maté do not merely make the viewer observe what is going on, but also feel it, by using narrative and filmic devices that elicit empathy from the viewer, by emotional and intellectual means. As example, characters are frequently entering the frame from odd angles- sometimes they seemingly walk around the back of the camera; other times the camera pans to a place, to make the viewer believe a character will enter, only to have the character enter the frame from where the camera just left. Also, there are dolly shots (and reverse ones) where the point of view morphs from the presumably subjective to the demonstrably objective, as the character whose point of view we presume we are seeing then includes said character. At other times, two differing points of view are used. Then there are the more manifest devices- the use of shadows that seem detachable from their material casters, or those that seem to have an ability to act upon the material (a shadow that seemingly murders a man), or images that have no logical place in the narrative, yet whose appearance enhances it greatly in a Keatsian Negatively Capable way (a shadow that seems to not be digging a grave, but filling one up, as dirt seems to flow into its shovel at its apex, or odd characters who grimace and stare at the camera, but whose presence and/or import to the tale are never explained). The film's hero, too, is often seen glaring through things- windows, openings, holes- to see the world framed in a way different from reality. Yet, we also see him framed obversely through the frames; thus we empathize with him, even as we realize the limits he may not, just as the viewer is limited by what is in the frame. Also, some of the later outdoor scenes were filmed through filters which give the film a blanched quality that Dreyer strove for- to give a more shroudy appearance (rather than merely foggy), yet which lends the film a dreamy quality that visually is unmatched, even by many later film advances in obfuscation via special effects. Dreyer famously remarked that he was more interested in mood than story for this film, yet, his transcendent use of mood becomes the story, even as we are drawn to it not by its moodiness, but the engendered psychological empathy that Dreyer's visuals impose on us. Dreyer's thesis was this: `Imagine we are sitting in an ordinary room. Suddenly we are told that there is a corpse behind the door. In an instant, the room we are sitting in is completely altered: everything in it has taken on another level; the light, the atmosphere have changed, though they are physically the same. This is because we have changed....This is the effect I want to get.' And he succeeds. In another scene, a room darkens as a door opens, because the source of light is blocked. Little touches like this, which play against the infused logic of reality, help Dreyer displace the expected into the unexpected, where real fear dwells; and this is only accentuated by the fact that the film was one of the first to be shot entirely on real world locations, not in a studio.... Vampyr is one of the few early sound or silent films (indeed, it almost seems to occupy an artistic place all its own, midway between the two forms of film) that still works as well as it did upon its release because, unlike Dracula or Nosferatu, its horror was never based in the `reality' of the day, rather the never-changing reality of the human psyche. It could be dreamt by someone today, a century ago, or five hundred years from now. Its disjunctions and contradictions are the real seed of its horror, not monsters nor that which goes bump in the darkness. In a sense, this film gave birth to the sort of `adult horror' that the RKO pictures of Val Lewton exploited a decade later, rather than the more puerile horror that came after the first few classic monster flicks put out by Universal in the 1930s. Dreyer relies on subversions of the ordinary to create horror, not blood and gore, which only produce shock and disgust. Yet, the film also acted as a precursor (by two to three decades) to films that sought psychological depth from characters and tales that did not rely on plot driven action. For these, and reasons too many to enumerate, it is a film that has rightly earned the appellation classic, as well as great film. Perhaps, some day, Criterion will release a DVD set that, like Orson Welles' Mr. Arkadin, will incorporate elements from both the German and French versions of the film (as well as rumored Danish scenes and intertitles) to construct a `Definitive' version of Vampyr. But, until then, The Criterion Collection version of this film (based upon a 1998 reconstruction of the German version of the film) is the best place to start.
  
  

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