Vampyr - The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

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 about a student of the occult who encounters supernatural haunts and local evildoers in a village outside of Paris—is nearly unclassifiable. A host of stunning camera and editing tricks and densely layered sounds create a mood of dreamlike terror. With its roiling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema’s great nightmares.

• Denmark
• 73 minutes
• Black & White
• 1.19:1
• German
• Spine #437
• 1932

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

- High-definition digital transfer of the original German-language version of the film from the 1998 restoration by Martin Koerber and the Cineteca di Bologna, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Alternate version with English text
- Audio commentary from 2008 featuring film scholar Tony Rayns
- Carl Th. Dreyer, a 1966 documentary by Jørgen Roos chronicling Dreyer’s career
- Video essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer’s influences in creating Vampyr
- Radio broadcast from 1958 of Dreyer reading an essay about filmmaking
- PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Le Fanu and an essay by Kim Newman; a piece by Koerber on the restoration; a 1964 interview with producer and actor Nicolas de Gunzburg; Dreyer and Christen Jul’s original screenplay and Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 story “Carmilla,” a source for the film

*Cover by Michael Boland