Vampyr

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Vampyr

Released May 6, 1932

1h 6m

Horror

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

98%

Tomatometer

45 Reviews

82%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

After Allan Gray (Julian West) rents a room near Courtempierre in France, strange events unfold: An elderly man leaves a packet on Gray's table, and shadows that are seemingly alive lead him toward a castle. At a nearby manor, he witnesses the same man being murdered and gradually learns about the curse of the Vampyr. As Gray faces the horrors of the castle, he attempts to save the victim's daughters -- one of whom, Léone (Jan Hieronimko), has fallen ill after mysteriously being bitten.

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Critics Consensus

Full of disorienting visual effects, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr is as theoretically unsettling as it is conceptually disturbing.

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Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

The actual vampire, an elderly woman (Henriette Gérard), is the least interesting part of the film. Which is very European.

Rated: 4/5

May 20, 2022

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Vampyr asks: what is it like to be dead? And answers: indistinguishable from being alive. This film is a unique experience.

Rated: 5/5

May 17, 2022

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

"Vampyr" is perhaps the most effective and most radical Surrealist movie ever made.

Oct 30, 2020

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Josh Larsen

LarsenOnFilm

... turns on a fear of mortality — or worse, being stuck in some in-between place.

Rated: 3/4

Nov 21, 2024

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Ygraine Hackett-Cantabrana

The Geek Show (UK)

Vampyr is an experimental film, being less of a straightforward story and more of a display of Dreyer’s filmmaking prowess.

Jul 9, 2024

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

A dreamlike tale of the supernatural that exchanges the genre’s usual Gothic murk for bright sunlight, rendering its surreal progression of inexplicable events all the more disorienting.

Jan 12, 2024

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Two Guys A

I enjoyed watching that "not-so-silent" silent film! It can indeed be tough to sell early pictures to modern-day viewers, but there's just something about their charm that today's films don't quite hit, isn't there? There's a unique magic to these older films that manages to captivate us in a way that few modern movies can.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/25/24

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Azizkhuja T

Movie is good itself, but little bit too old, probably because it's almost hundred years old. You can watch if you want to, but i can't recommend it.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/28/23

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Dan B

Vampyr is not a good movie. The characters are never properly introduced to the audience and have zero development throughout the entire film. It's confusing, artsy, and boring with no payoff whatsoever. The only parts that are mildly interesting were lifted directly from Dracula. I sincerely regret wasting an hour and 13 minutes of my life on this nonsense.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

10/26/22

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Audience Member

I watched it for free on YouTube (thanks, YT). I think overall it was better than the Bela Lugosi classic, which came out the year before (although I read that Vampyr was completed first.) It has a wonderful vibe, like that of Carnival of Souls, or The Vanishing (the 1988 Dutch version). These two films are also available gratis on YT.)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

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Audience Member

The worst 01 hour: and 06 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

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noel d

If this is the restored version, the original must have been in a very bad state. That said, it's an effective and suitably spooky affair. And is more a silent than a talkie film. It's ahead of its time in terms of camera angles and movement contributing to the mood of the film. It also uses a double exposure effect so that the hero assumes a spectral presence after his exposure to a vampire. I haven't read this anywhere, but I suspect Hitchcock was influenced by this film, as he was by German expressionist cinema generally. Worth your time.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Carl Theodor Dreyer

Director

Julian West

Allan Gray

Henriette Gérard

The Woman from the Cemetery

Jan Hieronimko

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Synopsis

After Allan Gray (Julian West) rents a room near Courtempierre in France, strange events unfold: An elderly man leaves a packet on Gray's table, and shadows that are seemingly alive lead him toward a castle. At a nearby manor, he witnesses the same man being murdered and gradually learns about the curse of the Vampyr. As Gray faces the horrors of the castle, he attempts to save the victim's daughters -- one of whom, Léone (Jan Hieronimko), has fallen ill after mysteriously being bitten.

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Producer: Carl Theodor Dreyer, Julian West
Screenwriter: Sheridan Le Fanu, Christen Jul, Carl Theodor Dreyer
Distributor: General Foreign Sales Corp., Kino Video, Video Yesteryear, Sinister Cinema, Something Weird Video, Image Entertainment Inc.
Production Co: Tobis Filmkunst
Genre: Horror
Original Language: German
Release Date (Theaters): May 6, 1932, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 20, 2017
Runtime: 1h 6m
Sound Mix: Mono

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