Movie Review: Vampyr (1932)

Vampyr (1932) directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer based on In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan le Fanue

Allan (Julian West) comes to a small town outside Paris. He's interested in the occult and some very strange things happen there, though he's not as happy about it as you would think. At an inn, he is met by an old man (Maurice Schutz) who has two daughters at his nearby home. He's worried about one who has been very sick and leaves a packet with Allan to be opened if he dies. Of course, he dies and Allan reads the book inside the packet which describes vampire lore and activity, some bits of which eerily mirror what is happening in the town. Allan comes into conflict with the titular creature and its minions, but barely has enough strength to fight back when he has to give a blood transfusion to one of the daughters.

The story is intriguing and Dreyer's direction is very surreal and otherworldly. There's fog and shadows, lots of shadows. Reality seems to be slipping away from the characters. The film is a "talkie" but it is more like a silent film. Long stretches have no dialogue and a lot of exposition is given in images of pages from the book, like the silent films' title cards. 

Mildly recommended--you need a taste for the surreal and the silent film vibe to get along with this one. I like those both but I wasn't wowed by them or by this film.