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Summary: Atrocious Handling of a Fascinating Film
Review: The film is one of the great ones, but I can only echo the horrified comments of previous reviewers on the poor print quality, appalling use of almost-unreadable subtitles, and the astonishingly poor framing of the picture. Criterion, come to the rescue, please!
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Summary: A video to study.
Review: the long shadows. the sharp hedges and the few words
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Summary: It will leave you feeling bewildered!
Review: There are few 72 minute movies that have as much impact as Vampyr DVD~ Julian West. The directors use of sounds and different lighting throughout the movie is something that is rarely seen in today's movie where everything has to be explained to the audience. The scary aspect of the movie is not what one can see but what one thinks one sees; for instance in one of the early scenes the hero is confused since he, i.e., the main actor, hears children and dogs. When he later asks the person present, he gets the answer that there are neither children nor dogs in this building. The main, actor, whose name I have unfortunately forgottn, does a commenablke job and he uses his facial expressions very well to convey a mood of utter dispair. The ending was also well done and it did not seem hokey or tacked on as in many movies that have been done lately. This is a definite classic that one should watch; however, if one has a faint heart or is not a fan of subtle horror movies( that are actually scary, rather then simply blood, gore and guts, i.e, Friday the 13 th); then one should watch something else.
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Summary: Vital contribution to early film.
Review: This film is truly outstanding. It's possible to even go so far as to call 'Vampyr' the last in the line of German cinema expressionist movies; evidence to suggest the influences of 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' and 'Nosferatu' certainly abounds throughout. First things first; the film has no tangible plot to follow except that the storyline is loosely strung on a young man's attempt to fight vampirism in a small (Danish?) town. While the lack of plot sounds bad in the abstract, there is so much strength in the movie's other attributes that the issue of story structure soon fades in the viewer's mind. Imagery provides 'Vampyr' with its rasion d'etre. One haunting, shadowy image segues into the next to make for a horror experience that's far subtler than what Universal Studios was starting to crank out at the time of this film's release. Director Carl Dreyer apparently shot some of the scenes through gauze to enhance the ghost-like wispiness of the sequences. The effect is utterly magical. Combine that with kinks like reverse filming (man 'digging' the grave), an eerie cello/clarinet-led score as well as a virtually absent dialogue and you've got a film that addresses horror on a high level. It's important to understand this as you watch, although the scenes are consistently textured enough to remind you that you're trapped in a black and white nightmare experience for the entire duration of the picture. The film seems to become more ethereal every minute and by the time the vampiric crone is done away with, the viewer has been through too harrowing an affair to be able to see how a semi-happy ending can make those feelings of disquiet ebb away. It must be said that it took guts to produce this film. 'Vampyr' breaks many conventions, including its [by then] out of fashion clinging to the techniques and dogma of silent cinema when everyone else was rushing forward to flourish in the new glory of sound. But Dreyer's film is also revolutionary against the conventions of film-making in general. Even Weine's 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' didn't dare to be so progressive as to do away with a storyline (its one is very complex, in fact). What results is a work as bizarre in form as Dali's 'Un Chien Andalou' and yet coherent and accessible through its ability to convey fear in a language higher than the banal or everyday. Thankfully, the print was transferred extremely well onto videotape by Timeless Video. It's just unfortunate that the DVD has apparently failed so miserably in that department. Old films need to be treated with a great deal more respect by DVD and video companies. 'Metropolis' has suffered just as badly if not more at the hands of insensitive corporate butchery. It's just too bad that there aren't many video companies headed by people who genuinely care about the nature of their bread and butter. The consequences are very sad indeed: these are classic movies, not toys. Put it this way; would you just pick up a 70 year-old pensioner and throw him any old way onto a......... .........maybe that's a bad analogy but you get the idea. Hopefully, so will they.
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Summary: A GREAT film! But a BAD print!
Review: This is a great film, but sadly an awful print has been used as the master copy, and makes the viewing of this classic horror film, a real nightmare. PLEASE CRITERION, BUY THE RIGHTS TO THIS FILM AND FIX IT UP!
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Summary: Poor transfer to DVD
Review: This is a great film, one of the most spectral and haunting of all vampire movies. Admittedly, the available prints have been spotty at best. There was a restoration back in the late '60 that took the best footage from a German print and an English language dub print. Truly that effort did justice to Rudolph Matte's imaginative photography. Sadly, this is not that print. By far it's the worst transfer to DVD I've seen yet. The subtitles take up the lower half of the image, and they are gothic German letters on a black masked background! Who's guilty for that? It's become clear that old classics like this are getting rushed into release with little regard for quality, so buyer beware. With a hack job like this out in the market it'll be a long time (if ever) till we see a beautifully restored version of Carl Dreyer's masterpiece on DVD. If you're looking for quality check out Criterion's release of Dreyer's "Passion of Joan of Arc". It's a model of what can be accomplished on the restoration of an old film. With Richard Einhorn's score "The Passion of Joan of Arc" is as fresh and alive as any movie currently in theaters.
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Summary: Gooseflesh for the connoisseur
Review: This is one of the movies where you get really frightened without actually knowing why. There is no gore (exept perhaps when the old doctor gets suffocated by tons of grain), but a lot of sinister images. Actually, if I hadn't read what the plot of the film is, I wouldn't have known, still, I felt very frightened by its whispering, shady, sinister images.
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Summary: Different than the rest
Review: This Kino/Image DVD is the same edition they previously released to laser and VHS and to date it's the best-looking print out there. Also included is a terrific Ladislaw Sarewicks short "The Mascot" AKA "The Devil's Ball". This is one of my favorite horror films, it's truly stands alone as one of the most serious and artful films of the genre. Those who dismiss it as boring are dragging around too many preconceptions of what vampire/horror film should be rather than surrendering to it's unearthly and dream-like atmosphere. My only gripe is the clunky way this print was subtitled. If it were restored today they would probably come up with a more clever way of replacing the Danish titles with English ones.
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Summary: hypotically beautiful film, atmospheric and ominous
Review: this movie is pure gustave moreau and pure surrealism! west's character watching himself being taken to the grave is, for some odd reason, absolutely terrifying, and although the movie becomes a little slow paced at times, this only adds to it's subtlety and admirable disdain for meaningless action. this is a horror film for real horror film fans, not sickos out to see gore and blood. even if the story is a little trite and utterly conventional as far as the vampire legend goes, buy it for the haunting and absolutely stunning imagery. there are scenes in this little gem that will stick out in your mind a long time after you view it.
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Summary: A Haunting & Lyrical Nightmare
Review: VAMPYR is a very hypnotic horror film. It may seem slow going & somewhat incoherent, but let the atmosphere of the movie wash over the viewer. This movie should be savored for its chilling atmosphere. A variation of Sheridan Le Fanu's CARMILLA, VAMPYR is about mood, atmosphere, shadows, & light. The sounds & the dialogue seem muffled, but that's what adds to the chilling atmosphere. Like watching a virtual lyrical nightmare, VAMPYR is a nightmarish classic.
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