A midnight visit from the Vampyr

Surprise! It’s midnight on Halloween. You thought my week o’ public domain horror films was over with Night of the Living Dead. You were wrong.

Director Carl Dreyer directed one of the great films of all time, The Passion of Joan of Arc, which I once called “a blessing to the world of cinema.” Four years later he would direct Vampyr, a ghostly, ostentatious, bold, experimental film. It’s dark and slow and brooding and moody and forgoes an engrossing story in exchange for an engrossing atmosphere. Twilight this ain’t.

Happy midnight. Enjoy the film. (I’ve changed the embedded video to links so this page loads faster):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Read more about Vampyr here. The best edition to purchase — restored, gorgeous, much better than these videos — is this one.

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