Decade Dialogues: Pre-1960

This is a long, perilous journey that we have begun.  So, we thought it would be a neat idea to occasionally stop and reflect on where we’ve been and how far we’ve come.  What you are about to read is a discussion of our intentionally short period clump of 1930-1959.  After setting up several questions to tackle, we entered into our thoughtful discussion to directly sound off to each other and do some discussion of the period as a whole.  And if you read something that you don’t agree with, feel free to chime in.

Vampyr (1932) – Review 2

Grade: C+

"To Be Opened Upon My Death"

Quite by accident, we chose to review Vampyr (1932) first, as we had originally decided on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). However, our inability to properly read dates correctly proved fruitful, as Vampyr provided an excellent starting point.  While I am no expert on silent film, nor have I viewed the list of ‘essentials’ that various teachers / movie sites list, I would argue that Vampyr represents the best and the worst characteristics that silent film has to offer.  As Warden Walker stated, there are some terrific moments, and some of genuine horror to be held within this film that I don’t believe would be possible with contemporary cinema.  Conversely, there are some moments that are excruciatingly difficult to comprehend what is going on, and there are some rough edits going on throughout the film.

Vampyr (1932) – Review 1

Grade: C+

We chose to begin with Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr for a couple of reasons.  The first of which was that we wanted to start with something that neither of us had ever seen before, and Vampyr was a film that had caught my eye some time ago.  It also made a good jumping on point because it comes out of the German silent horror tradition and allowed us to look at early vampire horror without going back to Nosferatu (1922) or the Hollywood Dracula (1931).

And I felt that what this film really does well is establish why vampires are frightening.  Usually, vampires are frightening because they are monsters who must kill and are nearly impossible to stop; here, vampires represent something more sinister.