Vampyr doesn't play like a horror, or even a suspense film, though there are a few scenes of each. Instead it is a mystery, with information gradually given to the audience. The plot follows an aimless young man, a devotee of the occult, who visits an inn where numerous odd people are about.
There is little talking as Dreyer is a visual story teller. Vampyr is the kind of film where dialogue like "the wounds have almost healed" and "why does the doctor only come at night" are given without explanation. We make sense of what is going on as he starts to piece together what is happening and who is causing it. Dreyer effectively establishes a mood by use of shadows of objects and people. The leading actor remains a cipher; if this was a book, it would be entirely in the passive voice. Things happen to the characters; they don't initiate actions (which on initial viewing seem unrelated).
The film picks up when a man leaves a book in a room- "to be opened after my death." He is killed and the book is about vampires. Vampire mythology was less well known to audiences than now, and while a Hollywood film would have used dialogue to explain, Dreyer relies on exposition pages from the book.
Dreyer frequently shows actions by shadows cast by the characters we already know. This fits with the film's style of indirection with plot by inference rather than by direct narrative. The film is filled with memorable images: a skull turning to watch; a shadow walking over to join its subject sitting in repose; point-of-view filming from inside a glass-topped coffin as the lid is nailed down and then carried out to the churchyard for burial.
The story goes that the first few days of filming was damaged by a light leak in the camera, but Dreyer liked the effect so much that he had the rest of the film photographed to match. As a result, the image quality on this picture has never been as pristine as a film from the 1932 could look. Rudolph Mate was one of the finest cinematographers in Europe, and we can be sure that the photography looks exactly as Dreyer wanted it- the sense of a dimly remembered dream. Amidst the fogginess, shots of machinery in a mill are as sharp as a tack.
Of special note is that the horror is created, in large part, by suggestion rather than a heavy sledgehammer approach, In the most famous sequence of the film, the man d...
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...0 years ago. The film is not so horrific as it is lyrically creepy. There are so many famous images from "Vampyr" which are found in most film history books. I've seen many stills from this film and found that the movie is still full of other images which are just as striking as the famous shot of the vampire looking into the hero's coffin during a nightmare. The camera is rarely if ever stationary. There are many tracking shots which must have been an influence on Scorsese. People enter and leave the shot which may travel from outside and through several rooms of the house. All of this makes the movie fly by as there is little or no static in the movie.
"Vampyr" challenges the conventions of movie making. It also challenges the viewer. The small indie film maker would do well to get this film and study it frame by frame. Many lessons on how to stretch the boundaries of the artform are on display. It is ironic that nearly 70 years later, not many filmmakers have achieved what Dreyer did with primitive technology. "Vampyr" is a groundbreaking work of art which should be on everyone's must see list.
Works Cited:
me, I. Belly busting. (London: 1994.)
Many films, and sometimes film genres, are dismissed as being part of the cinema of escapism. This assumes that in times of particular social or economic hardship (often on a national or international level), people go to movies for the sole purpose of “getting away from it all.” While some films may follow this overall trend, it is important to note that it cannot be a generalization made for all films. During the Weimar era in Germany, the nation was in the midst of a national struggle on many fronts. As a people, Germans attempted to deal with their past (the problems during World War I as well as the consequences of their loss) and move toward the future (finding a solution for their economic struggles and defining themselves culturally and socially). This period saw a resurgence of the horror genre, this time adapted to the new medium of film. However, the way horror was portrayed via film is the interesting part: it drew specifically on the struggles of the nation to instill horror. This is an exact reversal of the idea of cinematic escapism, since many Weimar era horror films used relatable struggles in order to both entertain and terrify (in this case, existing concurrently as well as dependently on each other). One of the clearest examples of this is through the film Nosferatu, a cinematic retelling of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula directed by F.W. Murnau. The budding horror genre of the Weimar era, as exemplified by Nosferatu, succeeded because it drew parallels to the German people’s collective post-World War I mindset, including references to the terrible nature of the war itself and the fearful prospect of how to move forward.
The article Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King distinguishes why we truly do crave horror movies. Stephen King goes into depth on the many reasons on why we, as humans, find horror movies intriguing and how we all have some sort of insanity within us. He does this by using different rhetorical techniques and appealing to the audience through ways such as experience, emotion and logic. Apart from that he also relates a numerous amount of aspects on why we crave horror movies to our lives. Throughout this essay I will be evaluating the authors arguments and points on why society finds horror movies so desirable and captivating.
One way the filmmakers did this is with the on location shots of rubble in many scenes. The characters in these shots are carefully placed to make the rubble stand out behind them. Lighting is carefully placed to illuminate the rubble and make it stand out. However, the carefully planned cinematography also plays into the overall meaning of the film and not just how it looks. The lighting, for example, influences our feelings for certain characters. Susan Wallner is always filmed in light. This is a drastic difference from how we see Hans Mertens. Hans is usually filmed with low light and is very dim. This helps show that Susan is optimistic, while Hans is pessimistic. Another way lighting is used in this film is to create shadows. Shadows are very prevalent in the last sequence of the film. Hans has confronted Bruckner and as the camera cuts back and forth to each of them we see Hans shadow keeps growing bigger and bigger behind Bruckner. We can interpret that as the shadowing is growing bigger so his Bruckner’s fear, because the dialogue coming from Bruckner is getting faster and we can also hear the fear. There are many times in the film where close ups are used to make the storyline more dramatic. One scene that comes to mind that makes use of quick cuts and close ups is in the end of the film: Susan ran in, stopping Hans from killing Bruckner. At this point we
A noticeable difference in the way movies have changed over the years is evident when comparing and contrasting two films of different eras which belong to the same genre and contain the same subject matter. Two vampire movies, Dracula and Bram Stoker's Dracula, present an interesting example of this type of study.
The type of shots has an important role in the understanding of Joan’s victimization. Medium close-ups and close-ups are used through out the film, creating a scary intimacy between Joan and the judges. In The Passion of Joan of Arc, Dreyer uses close-ups to show that Joan is struggling against forces much larger than herself. “Dreyer uses strange and distorted medium shots, emphasizing the aesthetic tension between a frightened and disoriented Joan, and of her cruel and mocking tormentors. ” This distortion creates pity and fear in the viewer. Also, the close-ups make us fully focus on the story and Joan’s emotion since the set, props or anything else that could appear in a long shot cannot distract the viewer. In addition, Dreyer shot torture instruments with a close-up. By giving us the chance to see the instruments closely, we become fearful and feel sympathy for Joan. Again, this emphasise, the clergy’s
A blood-curdling horror movie has to tell a story while incorporating specific aspects that make it into the terrifying film that attracts an audience to the theaters. Using darkness, suspense, jump scares, and horrific background music, directors are able to create a movie that scares everyone. In the soon to be released film Leatherface, all of these aspects are addressed and play an important role in how scary it will be. The trailer for the upcoming thriller/horror movie, Leatherface is successful in capturing the audience’s attention by the way it uses color, camera angles, and sound effects to create a suspenseful feeling while raising intriguing questions that will persuade people to watch the film.
As of late, society has stolen the traditional idea of a vampire. These undead creatures are manipulated in countless genres and media, ranging from comedic reliefs and complex villains to sparkly heartthrobs. Songs, video games, movies, books, and TV shows all are guilty of this. Movies in particular have done the most with vampires, and clearly show their evolution in society’s eyes. In the earliest movies such as Nosferatu; directed by F. W. Murnau, and Dracula; directed by Todd Browning and Karl Freund, vampires are used as devices of horror. They are meant to be unhuman and terrifying. As time passes, they become portrayed in sympathetic lights and with more human traits. Emotions such as love, guilt, and fear were added to vampire vocabulary,
Suspense is a 1913 film that portrays the story of a tramp intruding into a family’s home, where a mother takes care of her child while her husband is away. The plot is a common one that had been used previous times before the film’s release, such as in The Lonely Villa (1909). However, through taking advantage of the single frame shot, the filmmakers were able to create a masterful aesthetic of two separate stories that turn a basic plot into a complex story. The film created an inventive way of illustrating stories within cinema by allowing the audience the chance to consume more narrative in less time within just one take.
The genre of horror films is one that is vast and continually growing. So many different elements have been known to appear in horror films that it is often times difficult to define what is explicitly a horror film and what is not. Due to this ambiguous definition of horror the genre is often times divided into subgenres. Each subgenre of horror has a more readily identifiable list of classifications that make it easier to cast a film to a subgenre, rather than the entire horror genre. One such subgenre that is particularly interesting is that of the stalker film. The stalker film can be categorized as a member of the horror genre in two ways. First, the stalker film can be identified within the horror genre due to its connection with the easily recognizable subgenre of horror, the slasher film. Though many elements of the stalker film differ from those of the slasher film, the use of non-mechanical weapons and obvious sexual plot points can be used to categorize the stalker film as a subgenre of the slasher film. Secondly, the stalker film can be considered a member of the horror genre using Robin Wood’s discussion regarding horror as that which society represses. The films Fatal Attraction, The Fan, and The Crush will be discussed in support of this argument. (Need some connector sentence here to finish out the intro)
In recent decades, many have argued that the line between realism and fiction in cinematic endeavours has become increasingly blurred. It has not been until recently that the world has truly been exposed to this completely innovative cinematic style, which has captivated audiences with its new approach to filmmaking. This new cinematic style was first introduced in Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick’s The Blair Witch Project. Here I will focus on breaking down the various levels of realism within The Blair Witch Project, in order to convey why it had such a monumental impact on the cinematic world, while still remaining a popular and modern horror film to today’s audiences. In order to achieve this I will pay particular attention to the style of filming, the clever marketing campaign and the combination of fact and fiction, which helped captivate even the most, experienced of cinemagoers.
Just about everyone can voice their opinions on a film that viewed as we all do after leaving the theatre. It may be found to be useful when a friend or individual is interested in seeing the film themselves. However, I believe the only way that you could understand a film is by analyzing the film beyond the average person. When one begins to analyze they begin to develop an understanding of the film and may grow to love the film. The director Hitchcock is a fairly well known director. He has directed many different films from Vertigo to Psycho that are found to be popular with the viewers. In this paper I am going to analyze certain elements that spoke out to me during the film. Those elements that spoke to me the most during the film was the lighting techniques, camera movement, and symbols.
The link between expressionism and horror quickly became a dominant feature in many films and continues to be prominent in contemporary films mainly due to the German expressionist masterpiece Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari. Wiene’s 1920 Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari utilized a distinctive creepiness and the uncanny throughout the film that became one the most distinctive features of externalising inner mental and emotional states of protagonists through various expressionist methods. Its revolutionary and innovative new art was heavily influenced by the German state and its populace in conjunction with their experience of war; Caligari took a clear cue from what was happening in Germany at the time. It was this film that set cinematic conventions that still apply today, heavily influencing the later Hollywood film noir genre as well as the psychological thrillers that has lead several film audiences to engage with a film, its character, its plot and anticipate its outcome, only to question whether the entire movie was a dream, a story of a crazy man, or an elaborate role play. This concept of the familiar and the strange, the reality, the illusion and the dream developed in Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari, is once again present in Scorsese’s 2010 film Shutter Island. It is laced with influences from different films of the film noir and horror genre, and many themes that are directly linked to Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari shot 90 years prior.
A girl runs frantically through the woods trying to escape an axe-wielding villain. The defenseless victim suddenly trips and collapses to the ground. The villain laughs wickedly as he lifts the axe above his head. The girl releases a final scream as the weapon quickly ends her life, causing the audience to go silent as they watch the villain drag away the lifeless body. Death, blood, guts, suspense, screaming, and terror are just a few things to expect when watching a modern-day horror film.
... It takes place over a two hundred year span, showing how a vampire remains hidden. It displays how humans are viewed from a vampire’s eyes and how vampires view each other. This series was such a phenomenon because it is from the vampire’s point of view and shows all of the good and bad things about being a vampire. It also exhibits how a vampire feels about living for eternity.
The major issue that runs through the film that I am going to discuss in this chapter is that there are elements of the gothic, grotesque and me...