The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

The Phantom Carriage (1921)
07:59 Apr 17 2023
Times Read: 110

The Phantom Carriage (Swedish: Körkarlen, literally "The Wagoner") is a 1921 Swedish silent film directed by and starring Victor Sjöström, based on the 1912 novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! (Körkarlen) by Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. In the film, Sjöström plays a drunkard named David Holm who, on the night of New Year's Eve, is compelled by the ghostly driver of Death's carriage to reflect on his past mistakes. Alongside Sjöström, the film's cast includes Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg, and Astrid Holm.

The Phantom Carriage was released in Scandinavia on New Year's Day 1921. The following year, Metro Pictures Corporation re-edited and released the film in the United States under the title The Stroke of Midnight; it was known as Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! in the United Kingdom.

The Phantom Carriage is notable for its special effects, its innovative narrative structure with flashbacks within flashbacks, and for having been a major influence on the works of Ingmar Bergman. It has been characterized as belonging to several genres—it has been called a morality tale, a melodrama, a fantasy film, and a horror film. It is sometimes considered one of the first horror films due to its atmosphere and its impact on later entries in the genre. The film is generally considered to be one of the central works in the history of Swedish cinema.

Les vampires (1915)
09:31 Apr 10 2023
Times Read: 131

Les Vampires (known in English as The Vampires) is a 1915 and 1916 French silent crime serial written and directed by Louis Feuillade. Set in Paris, it stars Édouard Mathé, Musidora and Marcel Lévesque. The plot, complicated and often inconsistent, revolves around a flamboyant band of Parisian criminals, The Vampires (not the mythological beings suggested), and their implacable enemy, the journalist Philippe Guérande (Eduard Mathé) . The series consists of ten episodes, which vary greatly in length. At approximately 7 hours long, it is considered one of the longest films ever made.

The VAMPIRES, masters in the art of disguise - they usually wear black hoods and leotards to commit their crimes - are led by four "Great Vampires" who die successively and are faithfully served by the vampire Irma Vep (whose name is an anagram of vampire). Irma constitutes the heart and soul not only of the band, but also of the film. Embodied with voluptuous vitality by Musidora, who thanks to it became a star. Her charisma subverts the theme of good versus evil and contributes to the amoral tone of the film, reinforced by the fact that the good guys use unscrupulous methods just as often as the bad guys, as well as by the ferocious slaughter of the Vampires at the end of the story.

As in detective stories and haunted house stories, The Vampires creates a world of immovable-looking bourgeois order while undermining it. The thick walls and floors of castles and hotels are riddled with false doors and secret panels. Huge chimneys serve as escape routes for assassins and thieves, who scamper over Paris rooftops and scurry up and down pipes like monkeys. Cab drivers often carry stowaways on the roof and open trap doors for fugitives to access secret hideaways. At one point, the hero leans out of the window of his apartment, located on the top floor of the building, and at that very instant a noose is passed around his neck, he is pulled and thrown into the street, stuffed into a large basket and deposited in a cab in less time than it takes to say "lrma Vep!".

To reinforce this atmosphere of whimsical stability, the plot is built around a series of implausible surprises, involving deceptive appearances on both sides of the law: "dead" characters who come back to life, pillars of society (a priest, a judge, a policeman) who turn out to be Vampires, and Vampires who are law enforcement agents infiltrating the gang. What is fundamental to the evolution of the thriller, and what makes it a pioneer of the form, is Feuillade's ability to create, on a vast and imaginative scale, a dual world, solid and dreamlike, known and unknown at once.

Only lovers left alive
12:07 Apr 03 2023
Times Read: 150




"Only Lovers left alive" is a wonderful vampire film directed by Jim Jarmusch (2013) and starring, among others, by Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston.

The plot is truely original. Adam and Eve are two vampires in love after centuries of living and progressing together. For unexplained reasons, in the 21st century they live apart: Eve in Tangier and Adam in Detroit. Both have reached that vampiric maturity that leads them to have a life dedicated to Arts, studing and... surviving, in a world where zombies (that's how they call humans, which, by the way, I love) spoil the planet, pollute the water and, therefore, have their human blood impoverished by all kinds of toxins and other chemicals. It is, partly, because of this that Adam is going into depression so, despite the difficulties of night plane flights, Eve travels to Detroit. There they will join Ava, Eve's sister, who lives in Los Angeles.

In my opinion, and as a rule, all vampire stories should be considered as "gothic" in a tribute to one of the "flagships" of gothic literature: the vampire.

Otherwise, to be honest, this film lacks almost all the elements of gothicness that are required of a novel to be classified as "gothic": for instance, the lack of "uncanny", that feeling of creepiness that should provoke any self-respecting gothic work. The film we are discussing does not contain it: there is no mysterious, terrifying or disturbing element. If a label was necessary, we would say it is a "drama-fiction" film in which vampires have been chosen instead of rock singers or environmental activists.

Let me be clear: I think the film is wonderful. It is original, beautifully acted and has an aesthetic that envelops you from the first moment. What's more: it is one of those films that could serve as inspiration for those of us who pretend to be vampyros (with a "y", sic) in everyday life.

But, and at the risk of being repetitive, this blog is about "gothic literature", for better or for worse. And believe me when I tell you that I think it's a good movie, but if I call it "gothic" it is only as recognition and respect for "academic" gothic literature.