Cinema Series

“It is a wonder of the civilized world,” Count Dracula (Gary Oldman), a remnant of an archaic world, remarks to his prey, Mina Harker (Winona Ryder), while in disguise as a gentleman at a cinematograph exhibition in London. To Coppola, this early film technology was inherently mystical: “It’s a form of alchemy, of magic,” Coppola once said of the medium.

The best early vampire movie has no “vampire” in it at all, at least not as we understand them: no fangs, no cape, no magical transformation into a wire-operated bat. Vampyr (1932), an iconic German horror film with a tremendous influence on international arthouse horror, does have a vampire in it, but viewers expecting a monstrous being permanently pitched forward in pursuit of an unsuspecting target will be left disappointed: it’s just some old woman!