Celluloid expressionist Carl Theodor Dreyer’s indelible interpretation of the vampire mythos is haunting, ethereal and unforgettable. In Dreyer’s cinematic tone poem, Allan Grey, a student of the occult, is led to a mysterious old castle by shadows – whereupon he encounters an intense and unfathomable evil. Dreyer worked best when putting his characters through intense personal crises, and his portrait of Allan Grey’s trauma and despair is a perfectly realised dissection of the human psyche under incredible duress. Dreyer loved to work with non-actors, casting his producer, renowned Russian bon vivant Nicolas de Gunzburg (under the pseudonym Julian West) as Grey. Dreyer’s film – inspired not by Bram Stoker, but by J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s earlier In A Glass Darkly – is more about the concept of vampirism. With disorienting visuals and a perfectly realised sense of dread, Vampyr is a spellbinding treat.

Rory Bonass, JDIFF