Finding new and interesting takes on vampire stories is a pretty tough row to hoe right now. They are among the oldest and most famous monsters of folklore and the lore surrounding them, at least as established in Bram Stoker's Dracula, it feels mostly concrete. It's strange, then, why more films don't explore folklore in a different way, from another part of the world. Adrien Beau's first feature film The Vourdalak he does, exploring the Russian/Slavic vampire legend through his most popular written work. Oh, and it also makes the vampire a creepy puppet. That helps.
The Vourdalak adapts Aleksey K. Tolstoy's 1839 novel, The Vourdalak familywhich predates both Le Fanu's 1873 carmilla and Stoker's 1897 Dracula. Vourdalaks differ from our traditional understanding of vampires. They drink blood, of course, and are undead, but the sun has little or no effect on them, and they tend to eat only with their family members. This aspect is the foundation of the story. It is the breakdown of a family unit in a time and culture that values family, and respect for family elders, above all else.
The film is set in the late 1700s when the French nobleman Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d'Urfe (Kacey Mottet Klein) finds himself stranded in Eastern Europe, looking for a place to spend the night. The Turks had recently attacked the village, but the villager tells the Marquis to seek refuge in the house of an old man named Gorcha. On the way, the Marquis meets Gorcha's daughter Sdenka (Ariane Labed) and immediately falls in love. Unfortunately for him, Sdenka, who desperately wants to leave for a better life, has other things on her mind.
We and the Marquis learn that House Gorcha consists of old Gorcha, Gorcha's three sons—eldest Jegor, Sdenka, and youngest son Piotr—and Jegor's wife and son. Jegor left to meet the Turkish raiders, and returning after a month, he finds that Gorcha himself went out after the Turks. Gorcha told his family that if he did not return in six days, they should assume he is dead. If he returns after the six days, they should assume he is a vourdalak and deny him entry. Jegor finds this absurd and the Marquis finds it peculiar.
However, after assuming the missing Gorcha to be dead, the old man appears at the edge of the forest exactly six days, per minute. He looks like a corpse, clearly little more than a skinned skeleton, but he dominates his children, especially Jegor, so much that they allow him to stay. Are you surprised to learn that it is a vordalak?
Beau makes a couple of really smart choices that set this movie apart from other adaptations. Famosa, Mario Bava's 1963 anthology film Black Sabbath adapts the story with Boris Karloff as Gorcha. Less famous, Giorgio Ferroni's 1972 film Night of the Devils moved the action to the present. But Beau actually transports her further back in time, so that our French nobleman is a white-faced, make-up fool. It is a ridiculous spectacle to us, but it makes it especially ridiculous to the natives who know nothing of French courtiers. He is an outsider.
The other big change, obviously, is that Gorcha himself when we see him is so inhuman, so far down the path of the undead monster, that he's not even a person. Gorcha is a full-sized stick puppet, with Beau providing the voice. It has scenes full of dialogue, in full light, more than enough to make it clear, this is not a man. That's entirely the point! It's easy to look at Boris Karloff and, even with a little makeup on, recognize that he's the man you used to know. It's impossible to look at the thing in this movie and see nothing but grotesqueness. And yet…
The Vourdalak uses its strange visuals to its advantage, heightening a story that will no doubt feel quite familiar to horror fans. In addition to the puppets, we have some dark dream sequences and beautiful and bloody sets. The cast acquits themselves very well, perfectly portraying the gravity of the situation, even amid the unreality of the threat. Klein also manages a compelling protagonist who is both compassionate and sincere, and a ridiculous buffoon who is a rich idiot.
i think so The Vourdalak it does have a downside, it's that nothing is particularly scary. Parts of it, especially later in the story involving feeding Gorcha, should be weirder than it is. Maybe that's not the point, but the aforementioned Italian versions certainly leaned towards a growing creep factor, I don't think The Vourdalak never comes close That's not to say it's a bad movie, and if grotesque is all you're after, this French-language offering has plenty for you. The puppet alone is worth watching the 90 minutes.
The Vourdalak opens exclusively in US theaters on June 28 Oscilloscope Laboratories.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor at Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture dive Laser Focus podcast. You can find yours film and television reviews here. follow him Instagram i Mailbox d.
