Vampyr has been retrospectively hailed as a pinnacle moment in horror cinema history and with Eureka Entertainment’s new 2K release celebrating the film’s 90th anniversary, it is easy to see why. Vampyr, released in the same year as Universal’s Dracula, was Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s first sound film. After meeting fellow Danish writer Christian Jul in England, the pair went on to create Vampyr, a vampire story influenced largely by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu’s collection of stories In A Glass Darkly.
Starring Nicola de Gunzberg (who also funded the film), Vampyr tells the story of Allan Gray (Gunzberg), an occult student as he travels to a village in France that is plagued by a local vampire legend. Whilst resting in his room, Gray is visited by a man who entrusts him with a book that must only be opened when he dies. After this experience, Gray is compelled to follow shadows to an old manor in which he witnesses the murder of the book-giver. After learning from the man’s oldest daughter that her younger sister Léone is gravely ill, Gray soon realises that she has been affected by a vampire. Through a dream sequence, Gray discovers the identity of the vampire and the murderer of the old man.
a must-have collector’s item for not only the horror genre and vampire enthusiasts but also for those interested in the cultural impact that historical works of cinema have had in the world of film.
Vampyr is an experimental film, being less of a straightforward story and more of a display of Dreyer’s filmmaking prowess. The film visually has a dreamlike quality, apparently created by Dreyer asking the cameraman to film through a piece of gauze that caused a washed out and fuzzy image. Drawing on influences from the German surrealist film movement from the Weimar era, Vampyr constantly teeters between sleep states and waking, relying heavily on its use of light and dark and shadows to depict an unsettling and uncanny nightmarish atmosphere. It becomes very clear that Vampyr is an important part of gothic horror cinematic history, with its influence flowing through the veins of filmmakers such as Tim Burton and Guillermo Del Toro (who also does an audio commentary on the blu-rays features).
The extras on the release are pure cinephile fodder. With an in-depth video essay on Dreyer’s influences for Vampyr by scholar Casper Tybjerg, an interview with Kim Newman about the film’s place within vampire cinema tradition, a mini-documentary on the director himself and a video interview with cultural historian David Huckvale on the score of Vampyr and its adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s work, the limited edition blu-ray features make this release a must-have collector’s item for not only the horror genre and vampire enthusiasts but also for those interested in the cultural impact that historical works of cinema have had in the world of film.
VAMPYR IS OUT ON LIMITED EDITION MASTERS OF CINEMA BLU-RAY
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