Since I always loved those early, black & white classics like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", "Golem" and particularly "Nosferatu" I thought this sounds just like something right up my alley. It was, but be warned: it takes some time to actually adjust to director's hallucinatory style and initially everything seemed very strange, until curiosity got the best of me and second time around I got completely drawn into it.
"Vampyr" must be one of the oddest, therefore amongst most unforgettable movies I have ever seen. I am not completely sure was Carl Theodor Dreyer actually capable of doing standard cinema-as-entertainment work and I even have impression he couldn't care less, since he appears to have been one of those rare cinematic birds, real artists with a vision, equivalent of brilliant scientist who refuses to be bothered with such mundane things as money, finances and budget. Here for example, everything is so highly stylised that it only vaguely resembles real life - yes, there are houses, people and some kind of story but it all takes second place to Dreyer's imagination where he decidedly creates eerie and sinister atmosphere. All the way trough, I was acutely aware that this is just an stupid, empty room with tattered furniture and a bookshelf, nothing to be afraid of but still it felt like some heavy, oppressive nightmare, with people moving very slowly and saying strange things. "Why is doctor coming always in the evenings?" I felt as nurse Ratched is coming to get me any moment.
In addition to Dreyer being a director who could make your bathroom look like the most sinister place in the world, he is apparently also capable of doing magic with actors, many of them here being non-professionals collected randomly. Even the main actor was not really an actor, but aristocrat who financed the project (sort of cinematic Ludwig of Bavaria) and for this, largely wooden turn, he achieved immortality although he probably wasn't aware of it as the movie ended up being lost masterpiece and far from mainstream success. It languished in obscurity, known only to movie buffs but it has such a genuine power that it deserves any praise you could think of. While it starts slowly, "Vampyr" gradually catches on later and once you are hooked, you just can't stop watching it - it has a heavy, creepy quality and unfolds trough fogs and filters, with some stunning and genuinely unforgettable images that will probably end up in my dreams. Horror as a piece of art.
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