Vampyr | Rotten Tomatoes (2025)

Audience Reviews

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 2.5/5 Stars • Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/25/24 Full Review 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 3.5/5 Stars • Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/28/23 Full Review 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 0.5/5 Stars • Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 10/26/22 Full Review matthew d Creepy imagery and refined filmmaking in early cinema.Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer's black and white horror fantasy film Vampyr (1932) is pretty interesting. Dreyer's direction is all fog and shadows with a really moody atmosphere. I loved his visual direction. It's interesting that Dreyer only uses voices and sounds sparingly because sound had been around for years at that point in film history.I must be honest and say that I prefer F.W. Murnau's vampire horror picture Nosferatu, Dreyer finds a compelling strangeness to his vampire film Vampyr. I did not entirely understand the story from writers Carl Theodor Drey, Sheridan Le Fanu, and Christen Jul, but it's all fascinating visual storytelling. There's many implied things that happen that don't really make sense what is literally happening, but the dark imagery is cool. The use of shadows and screams are fun.Tonka Taldy's editing is hazy with a dreamy style of cutting that fades each scene into the next. The unique skillfulness of editing an out of body experience visual by fading a half shadow image of our hero is pretty cool. I did find Vampyr pretty slow for a movie that's only 74 minutes long as dread seeps in and suspense builds. Cinematographers Rudolph Maté and Louis Née had a very modern style of camera pans and sweeps. The beautiful imagery is especially engaging because of their camera movements.Nicolas de Gunzburg is so eerie and looks as confused as I did watching Vampyr as he experiences strange encounter after encounter. All of the supporting cast are creepy and weird. Hermann Warm's art direction uses shadows, blood, and scythes to scare you with haunting imagery. I'm sure old audiences at the time were freaked out by Vampyr's dark fantasy imagery that brings black and white horror into reality. César Silvagni's set decoration makes every room look desolate and sad.Composer Wolfgang Zeller's score is magnificent, haunting, and triumphant with a romantic drama to it. I think Zeller's music is what makes Vampyr so timeless as it's really wonderful and mystifying. Sound designers Paul Falkenberg and Hans Bittman add in a few screams and lines of dialogue that echo out into the ether. I think it's pretty interesting that Dreyer only wanted a few select noises or phrases for Vampyr, despite sound already being invented in film.In all, Vampyr is a mind bending way to tell a story about vampires with carefully moody visuals. Rated 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review 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 4/5 Stars • Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review robert p A great and well deserved Criterion edition about vampires across the ages, makes this movie worthy of *4 & 1/2* stars review!!!! Rated 4.5/5 Stars • Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Vampyr

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