“Vampyr” and Other Horror Classics From Criterion For Halloween | TV/Streaming
“Vampyr” is a landmark film for a number of reasons. It was the Danish director’s first sound film and it had to be recorded in German, French, and English simultaneously. Recognizing how difficult this would be, Dreyer uses title cards for a lot of the exposition in “Vampyr,” but it’s the images that make this film timelessly creepy. From the scythe-wielding man on the dock to the dancing shadows that defy logic, “Vampyr” is a dreamlike experience. As Tony Rayns points out on the excellent commentary track, it is a film that lacks basic structural logic—a character who we see upstairs will then be seen going up the stairs—in a way that’s designed to keep viewers confused. Audiences reportedly hated the film when it was first released, but it’s still remarkably powerful because of Dreyer’s emphasis on woozy visuals over simplistic narrative—the “plot” doesn’t even kick in for a half-hour really.
And even then it doesn’t really matter. “Vampyr” is a mood piece, the kind of horror film they don’t really make anymore and barely made then. So much of what’s still entrancing about it is held within its camera tricks—Dreyer’s canted angles, strange perspectives, inhuman shadows, etc.—making it the kind of film that both marvels with its technique and plays with the deeper recesses of your mind as you try to process exactly what you’re seeing.
The supplemental material with the film from Criterion helps understand the film and increase its legacy. Not only are the aforementioned screenplay and short story included but a booklet with detailed essays by Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, a piece on the Koerber restoration of the film, and a 1964 interview with producer and actor Nicolas de Gunzburg. The on-disc material is even better, including not just the commentary by Rayns but a video essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg, a documentary by Jorgen Roos called “Carl Th. Dreyer,” a radio broadcast from 1958 in which Dreyer reads an essay on filmmaking, and an alternate version of the film in which the copious amount of on-screen text is in English (rather than German and subtitled below).
Over the years, Criterion hasn’t exactly chosen a large number of horror films, so when they do add one to the collection, as with “Vampyr,” it’s a momentous occasion for genre nuts. Buy it here.
What are the other Criterion horror releases you should pick up for this year’s Film Twitter Halloween party? Let me suggest a few.
6 GREAT HORROR FILMS IN THE CRITERION COLLECTION
“Carnival of Souls” – One of my favorite films of all time, regardless of genre, is this twisted, unforgettable tale of the undead. After surviving a car accident, a young woman starts seeing ghostly figures everywhere she looks. “Carnival of Souls” is an unforgettable experience, the kind of movie that transcends genre and creeps into your dreams. I wrote more about it here. Buy it here.
