5/5 FUNDAMENTAL HORROR IS WHERE FEAR DWELLS
  by Robin Simmons (Palm Springs area, CA United States)
"VAMPYR" (1932)

None other than Alfred Hitchcock deemed Carl Theodor Dryer's "Vampyr" the "only film worth watching - twice!"

The first sound film by one founding architects of cinema itself, delivers a palpable, sensual experience that few works of film can match. Director Dryer is a hypnotist and the film will put you in a waking dream that scratches blood from the skin of the supernatural.

This strangely layered film is about the journey of a man named Allan Gray who is drawn to a countryside inn by ghostly forces. Allan gray is played convincingly by "Julien West," who in real life was the secretive Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg! At the inn, Gray becomes involved with the family that lives there and the ghosts and demons that also seem to be part of the family. But it's Grays attraction to the sexually charged virgin daughter Giselle that seals his fate and final his confrontation with the ultimate vampyr - Death itself. Interestingly, Giselle is played by the "great, accursed Sybelle Schmitz," whose real life was as interesting as her screen personas.

The final moments of asphyxiation in the blasphemed bodies of the horrific bat-men have probably had more influence on horror cinema than any other.
Long out of circulation in an acceptable transfer, Criterion's recently restored digital edition make this truly terrifying landmark film new again. (Not rated, full frame, 75 minutes)

5/5 Beautiful Atmospheric Vampire
  by Alberto M. Barral (new york)
This is a beautiful film and it's all in the creation of the atmosphere: The boatman with the sickle, the small hotel with dreary pictures, the wide-eyed, suited visitor that will be our protagonist, the shots of the park/forest....
This movie makes the objects participate too and in that respect the aesthetic is thoroughly Surreal and not Gothic. This work is very much in tune with the work of Max Ernst and Magritte, and most of all, Delvaux.
The plot is simple and the suspense is well maintained. The movie works, becaquse very much like "Nosferatu" it suggests so much more than is visible at any point in the scenes. In that respect particularly it stands at the opposite end of the spectrum from the later, cheaper Dracula movies that have tons of blood and gore. Here a few drops suggest an entire calamity
Although there is sound it is so seldomly and sparely used it is really more like a silent film. The camera works in a way that we believe to be exploring with the visitor, so we are totally involved in the plot, which ends up, surprisingly, having a happy ending.

5/5 A valuable set, for a very intriguing film - an essential contribution to film history
  by Nathan Andersen (Florida)
A young man, fascinated by the occult, arrives at a small village where his dreams of the supernatural become a nightmare that threatens to destroy him. Drawing upon the worldwide fascination with legends of vampires that existed even in the 1930s, Dreyer set out to make a popular film, and brought his unique sensibilities to bear on a melodramatic subject. Completing his film in the wake of Murnau's Nosferatu and just before Tod Browning's much more straightforward Dracula, Dreyer produced images and effects that remain powerful and compelling today. A reaper, crossing the river. Shadows that dance. The point of view from a coffin. Dreyer manages to create and sustain an atmosphere of dread throughout, that nevertheless cannot mute the astonishment at the subtlety of his inventions.

Criterion's release of Vampyr has everything you could want. There is the German version of the film, with English subtitles, all meticulously restored and looking quite impressive. Additionally, there is an English version of the film, for which the intertitles have all been redone digitally into English - though the dialogue is still in German with subtitles. The commentary, by Tony Rayns, is quite useful - drawing special attention to the way that Dreyer constructs multiple and fragmented points of view in the film. The second disc holds a very intriguing documentary on Dreyer, which complements the more personal documentary ("Carl Th. Dreyer - My Metier") included with the Dreyer set, and an informative video essay on the history and background of Dreyer's take on vampires. Finally, the set includes the entire screenplay, written in a descriptive form that seems closer to a novel, with only the indented dialogue to remind that it served as a screenplay. Highly recommended for vampire enthusiasts and lovers of inventive cinema.

4/5 Epic Brilliance : One of the Top Three Vampire Films of All Time
  by Cabir Davis
"Vampyr" is virtually unknown even in this day and age (and Criterions' hideous price-tag will not do this title any favors in the sales department either), and it is ironic that despite being made between the late 1920s and early 1930s, this remains more than just an art-house artifact - this is a full blown horror film, relying on cinematography and minimal dialogue to create an air of myth and suspense.

One could argue that the Danish director plunged into his Scandinavian folklore roots to draft some of the more chilling segments of this film. To be fair, it does not travel down the 'Dracula' route, though the storylines do merge every so often. The lead actor is filmed as though in some sort of hallucinatory trance, and the entire film, from beginning to end, is bathed in unnaturally brilliant light - seriously, every frame could be a postcard (to Transylvania perhaps), but its all very beautiful, gorgeously pictured, and one wonders if much of these camera-shots were intentionally done that way.

If you are looking for a comparison to this, be surprised with my recommendation - the closest film to this is "Shadow of the Vampire", an obscure vampire film from a decade ago starring Willem Dafoe in his best film role (this film is still unknown, despite being widely available in all formats). The same atmosphere of doom and gloom permeate both films, and while "Vampyr" does not harbor any dramatic effects or script like the classic "Dracula" starring Keanu Reeves & Winona Ryder, it is very much a rare and unique animal all its' own.

Criterions' transfer is bewildering because despite the obvious clean-up of source material, the print is decidedly old and haggard in places. I guess theres only so much they could clean up. The packaging however, makes up for it. Get this if you are interested in a different sort of vampire film, one that is almost trance-like and all atmosphere. Its not very commercial in any sense of the word, and its' experimental overtones may be a bit 'boring' for modern film viewers, but if you at all enjoy artistic cinema with a penchant for classic horror, this is exactly the kind of film you should purchase. I saw this years ago and still can't forget it.

Four and a Half Stars.

5/5 Dreyer's masterpiece of horror....
  by Grigory's Girl (NYC)
This is a rare horror film that doesn't bludgeon you, but unsettles you. I like what Dreyer said about the effect he was trying to achieve....

"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 achieve in Vampyr.".

Dreyer achieves this effect masterly. The film is an eerie dream. There really is no logic to it. It is comprised of ethereal, many unexplained images, and the look of the film is unique and special. The look was achieved when on the first day of shooting. The cameraman and Dreyer were looking at the footage, and they discovered a light leak in the camera. This brought great distraught to the cameraman, but Dreyer liked the look of the footage, so they shot the rest of the film that way. There is little dialogue, mostly muffled sounds, which makes the film even stranger and more unsettling. The most famous shot is the best one in the film. It's when the Baron (played by Julian West) dreams that he is dead, and we see a funeral from his point of view in a coffin. It's one of the weirdest, most unforgettable scenes ever in a horror film, and even to this day it's still remarkable.

Dreyer was primarily known as a spiritual director, directing such films as Passion of Joan of Arc, Day of Wrath, and his best film, Ordet. Directing a horror film was unusual for him, but he was such a great artist that he could pull it off. Unfortunately, Vampyr bombed at the box office, and Dreyer didn't direct again until 11 years later. Regardless of its box office performance, Vampyr is still a startling film, one that really is scary and incredibly memorable.