May 31, 2014

Vampyr

Saw Vampyr, a film by Carl Dreyer. It's largely a special-effects extravaganza, although 1930s technology, so mainly camera tricks are used. That said, the camera tricks are great. There's a cool sequence where shadows of people and objects don't match up. A baby's skeleton in a doctor's office seems to have black shadowy wings. Very cool. We follow a bewildered protagonist as he makes his way (seemingly at random) to an old manor where the father of the family living there promptly dies. His daughter is suffering from some strange malady (can you guess what it is?) and much morbid spookiness abounds.

The film is a bit slow. It has sound, but also title-cards and is definitely still in a silent-era mindset. However, the freedom of the camera is amazing. It tilts and whirls about, disorienting and weird. Ghostly dissolves and double-exposures are used to great effect. Several times iconic little images show up, such as an early moment when a farmer carrying a scythe rings for the ferryman to take him across the river. Interesting and scary in a dated, Edgar Allen Poe-ish way. Incidentally, the main character looks an awful lot like Lovecraft.

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