Winter Sucks 2024: Vampyr (1932)
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer Run Time: 74 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 1932
Starring: Jan Hieronimko, Maurice Schutz, Nicolas de Gunzburg, Rena Mandel, Sybille Schmitz
Country: Germany, France
Language: German with English subtitles
About the film:
With Vampyr (1932), Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer’s brilliance at achieving mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, profoundly unsettling imagery (1928’s The Passion of Joan of Arc and 1943’s Day of Wrath) was for once applied to the horror genre. Yet the result—concerning an occult student assailed by various supernatural haunts and local evildoers in a village outside Paris—is nearly unclassifiable, a host of stunning camera and editing tricks and densely layered sounds creating a mood of dreamlike terror.
With its roiling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema’s great nightmares.
About the filmmaker:
Carl Theodor Dreyer was a Danish director and screenwriter. He worked extensively on silent films—Dreyer began his career by writing subtitles, and went on to direct The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) an intimate drama portraying the trial of Joan of Arc widely recognized for its unique cinematography and ingenious use of close-ups. With Vampyr (1932), his first sound film, Dreyer channeled his genius for creating mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, unsettling imagery into the horror genre.
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