Reconsidering Vampyr (dir. Carl Dreyer, 1932)

A strange coincidence occurred in my viewing habits this spooky season. I had the opportunity to see FW Murnau’s Nosferatu screened with live orchestral accompaniment and then the next day on Criterion Channel, scrolling through the late David Bordwell’s video series Observations on Film Art, I came across an episode on Vampyr, Danish director Carl Dreyer’s take on the vampire mythos. All this prompted me to rewatch Vampyr, which I had not seen in about ten years. A critical and commercial disaster on its original release in 1932, Vampyr has since become a beloved arthouse classic that stands apart from other horror movies of its time. When one thinks of horror from the 1930s, one thinks of the gothic glamor of Universal’s productions. Even other studios making horror took quite a bit from the Universal playbook: Island of Lost Souls, the Frederic March Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, White Zombie, Svengali, and The Mystery of the Wax Museum are distinct in some ways from the Universal…