Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Vampyr - Der Traum Des Allan Grey (1932) aka Vampyr aka Adventures of David Gray aka Castle Of Doom aka Not Against Flesh aka The Strange Adventure of David Gray aka The Vampire aka Adventures of David Gray aka Vampyr, ou L'etrange Aventure De David Gray

4 / 5 Jan '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Written by: Sheridan Le Fanu, Christen Jul
Actors include: Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel
Genre: Horror, Fantasy
Length: 75 minutes
Banned: Nope




Review:
This is a rather slow and atmospheric film that has many creepy images. Such care seems to have been put into the shadows, scenery and overall detail of the film which I think is what makes it so special. The actual plot is a bit muddled (or I'm a bit stupid, take your pick), but always there is something to appreciate, somewhat surreal I guess. The story (I think) is about a young man who goes to a castle and starts seeing things...scary and strange things. He starts to believe that he's being called to rescue a girl, but whom and why and where? We are made aware that our lead character was often having delusions so it's hard (or at least I found it so) to judge reality from dream. It definitely has some shocking things in the film considering that it was released in 1932 which I applaud. It does also have a whole bunch of reading to do and if you know anything about the legend of Vampires most of it will be redundant (and why do they give you so much time with each page to read...I could have read each 10 times over). It does have a few odd twists on the tale that I'd not heard before which I found interesting. For the most part though I think those interested in art and the history of vampire lore may get more out of this than some, but maybe I'm wrong.

Availability:  On DVD

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