Dreyer's chiaroscuric adaptation of Le Fanu's "Carmilla" follows the harrowing tale of a young man caught up with a dreamlike vampire and her infected family. An early, often astounding horror classic. AKA: "Castle of Doom," "Not Against the Flesh," "The Strange Adventure of David Gray" and "The Vampire."

A stunningly photographed tale of horror, beautifully capturing an aura of fear and otherwordly menace.
A young man stops at an inn, and discovers the village is rife with strange goings-on... murders, sudden illnesses, and weird skulking creatures. Then a doctor asks him to help a desperately sick girl by donating blood, and before long, the weakened wayfarer is lost in hallucinations, imagining himself buried alive... or could it be real?

A silent film.

Also known as: "Vampyr, der Traum des David Gray" and "The Vampire"

DVD Features:

Keep Case
Full Frame 1.19
Audio:
Dolby Digital 1.0 - German
Subtitles - English - Optional
Additional Release Material:
Additional Audio Material - 1958 Radio Broadcast Reading / Filmmaking Essay by
Carl TH. Dreyer, Director
Audio Commentary - Tony Rayns, Film Scholar
Documentary - CARL TH. Dreyer (1966) - Jorgen Roos, Director
Text/Photo Galleries:
Essay - Visual Essay - Casper Tybjerg, Scholar
Additional Products:
Booklet - 1. Essays by Mark Le Fanu, Kim Newman, and Martin Koerber
2. Archival Interview - Nicolas De Gunzburg, Producer
3. Sheridan Le Fanu 1871 Story/Source Film - CARMILLA
DVD-ROM
Screenplay - 1. Original Screenplay - Carl TH. Dreyer and Christen Jul

Distributor Notes: With Vampyr, Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer's brilliance at achieving mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, profoundly unsettling imagery (The Passion of Joan of Arc and Day of Wrath) was for once applied to the horror genre. Yet the result—concerning an occult student assailed by various supernatural haunts and local evildoers in a village outside Paris—is nearly unclassifiable, a host of stunning camera and editing tricks and densely layered sounds creating a mood of dreamlike terror. With its roiling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema's great nightmares.

Source: Criterion Collection

Julian West: Actor/"Vampyr"
Sybille Schmitz: Actress/"The Vampyr"
Maurice Schutz: French Actor/Dreyer's "Joan"
Jan Hieronimko: 
Rena Mandel: 
Henriette Gerard: 
Albert Bras: 
N. Babanini: 
Jan Mora: 

Carl Theodor Dreyer: DANISH DIRECTOR

"VAMPYR remains, three-quarters of a century on, one of the most enigmatic tales of bloodlust ever committed to celluloid."
"One of the greatest vampire movies was as much a surrealist experiment as a horror film." -- Grade: A-