VAMPYR: The Genre Film as Experimental Film

VAMPYR: The Genre Film as Experimental Film

2 Episodes

Observations on Film Art No. 34

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s haunting 1932 masterpiece VAMPYR has long occupied a singular place in film history, resting somewhere at the intersection of horror, avant-garde cinema, and waking nightmare. In this episode of Observations on Film Art, Professor David Bordwell explores how Dreyer managed to honor the conventions of horror cinema while at the same time breaking the boundaries of the genre wide open through his experimental use of sound, shadows, and camera movement. In doing so, Dreyer created a mesmerizing, one-of-a-kind work of dreamlike dread that paved the way for generations of innovative independent horror films to come.

Subscribe Share
VAMPYR: The Genre Film as Experimental Film
  • VAMPYR: The Genre Film as Experimental Film

    Episode 1

    Observations on Film Art No. 34

    Carl Theodor Dreyer’s haunting 1932 masterpiece VAMPYR has long occupied a singular place in film history, resting somewhere at the intersection of horror, avant-garde cinema, and waking nightmare. In this episode of Observations on Film Art, Professor David Bordw...

  • Vampyr

    Episode 2

    Directed by Carl Th. Dreyer • 1932 • France, West Germany
    Starring Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel

    With VAMPYR, Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer channeled his genius for creating mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, unsettling imagery into the horror genre. The result—a chilling film...