Vampyr (1932)

Gather around children and let me tell you a story. There was once a day when a vampire was a scary thing. A vampire was a supernatural creature that had mysterious supernatural powers that brought terror to the minds of many when they heard about them or saw them in movies. Vampires have not always been the representative of melancholy teenage angst. They were not dreary"woe is me" characters that made little teen girls sigh with visions of love in their strange heads. Here I am going to talk about vampires when they were vampires, creatures of the dark, malevolent beings that haunted entire towns or countries of being attacked, killed, or made to do the vampire's bidding. Here we look at a film called Vampyr (I know, I love the spelling too!), an original production out of Europe, home of some of cinema's greatest impressionistic works of the early twentieth century. Once again I am reminded that vampires were frightening beings that terrorized audiences. Ironically this is a refreshing feeling to watch something where vampires were meant to be honestly scary.

Vampyr was the Dutch filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer's followup to his now timeless masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc. He was inspired by other great vampire and supernatural stories, most of all the collection assembled in a book called In A Glass Darkly by Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu. His fascination with the supernatural inspired him to create this original work. To fund the film he would meet Nicolas de Gunzburg, a man from old money who spent it rather freely and in this case for the sake of art and for the right to act in a motion picture. Gunzburg would co-produce the picture and star under the name Julian West to protect himself and his family.

The story follows a young student of the occult, Allan Gray (Grunzburg, or Julian West, or whatever you want to refer to him as), as he comes across a town terrorized by a mysterious supernatural force. He meets strange people, sees ghostly shadows wondering around the living, and has visions of his own death and other wrong doings by towns people, all leading him to an encounter with and ultimate confrontation with the vampire that had been haunting the village for a great period of time. Dreyer's shadow filled cinematography, which has seen in his previous works is magnificent, despite the poor condition the film lives in today. This would be Dreyer's first sound picture, which he would have trouble with. Ultimately he shot the film silently, sparsely using dialogue which was recorded in post-production and edited in, but mainly telling the story with visuals and with title cards. The film is as dark and mysterious as the town Allan Gray walks into and it all can be attriputed to Dreyer's fine vision and his cast of amateur actors.

If you want to talk about independent films made in the 1930s, this is it. After Dreyer finished The Passion of Joan of Arc, he looked to produce his next film out of the studio system in Europe. Well that was a big mistake in some ways, because the film industry was suffering a bit at that time as sound became the new thing in film and the finest professional quality equipment was found in England far from where Dreyer wanted to go to produce his next feature. This is where Gunzburg came in. Gunzburg wanted to become an actor, upsetting his family over the thought of it being his future instead of staying in the family business, but here was his chance in helping to finance the film in order to play the lead. This was Gunzburg's only film, eventually moving to America and becoming an influential fashion editor for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

The rest of the actors came on the cheap as well, including the actor that played the town doctor in the picture, Dreyer met him on a trip on the metro and was cast in the role. The role of the doctor would be a major one, as he was the character doing the vampire's bidding. In fact the vampire had little to know screen time, making the doctor the major protagonist. The picture was shot on location, adding an ambiance to the settings, as well as saving money from using studio lots. The theme of this production was that it was made very cheaply, if you can't tell. But that would not hinder Dreyer and his vision as he work tirelessly and with the finest equipment to produce the best production he could.

Now you would think that this film would be a real winner. It was a disaster. Distributors found they had a flop on their hands. In Germany, the distributors waited until after Dracula and Frankenstein had opened to release Vampyr, hoping to bank off the growing success of horror pictures, but audiences booed the Vampyr at the German premiere. In Italy people demanded their money back, even started riots because of it. Dreyer wouldn't even show to the premiere in his home town in Denmark, instead having a nervous breakdown. Needless to say the film did not make a profit and it was not a happy time for its filmmaker, later claiming it to be one of his worst films. In time the film has gained praise. Once one gets past the sluggish pace of the picture it is full of great visuals and a enthralling mood. As years have gone by contemporary critics would praise the picture for it style and visuals.

With a mix of some great vampire films in the early twentieth century, either made by or inspired by European impressionism, with Nosferatu, Dracula, and Vampyr, this is where the vampire legend came from. Now we have a generation of movie goers that have known characters from the Twilight series, Interview With a Vampire, True Blood and Buffy the Vampire Slayer making vampires a simple brooding archetype that sadly waters down the classics. With the days of vampires being a creature of mystical influences perhaps in the past, it is important to know that one can view these older films and see that they (the select few) are not campy but rather compelling stories of the supernatural instead of screaming, super-powered handsome men (or boys). Watching this film makes you long for the better days of creative horror films.