Blu-ray, DVD Release: Vampyr

By
Laurence
– October 12, 2017Find Others: Blu-ray, DVD, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , ,

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 3, 2017
Price: DVD $22.98, Blu-ray $25.99
Studio: Criterion

With the 1932 horror film 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 Paris – is nearly unclassifiable. A host of stunning camera and editing tricks and densely layered sounds creates a mood of dreamlike terror. With its roiling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema’s greatest nightmares.

Criterion’s DVD and Blu-ray editions of the foreign language classic include the following:

* High-definition digital transfer of the original German 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 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
* A booklet featuring essays by critics Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, a piece by Koerber on the restoration, and a 1964 interview with producer and actor Nicolas de Gunzburg
* A book featuring Dreyer and Christen Jul’s original screenplay and Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 story “Carmilla,” a source for the film

Buy or Rent Vampyr

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.