Dundead: The Vourdalak

Here is a potent slice of European gothic strangeness; a period vampiric fable which may tide over anyone who is eagerly anticipating Robert Egger’s new Nosferatu remake until that film arrives at the end of the year.

Based on an 1839 (pre-Dracula) novella by Russian writer A K Tolstoy, this debut feature by French director Adrien Beau (who also voices the titular Vourdalak in gravel-thick tones) follows a foppish and entitled French marquis (Kacey Mottet Klein) who becomes lost in a picturesque forest. Here, he meets a strange family who offer him food, and who are awaiting the return of their patriarch. Atmospherically shot in appropriately soft and dreamlike 16mm, the film calls to mind the arthouse folktales of filmmakers like Werner Herzog (not least his own 1979 take on Nosferatu) and the fairytales of the Brothers Grimm. Adding to the film’s European pedigree is a strong performance by Ariane Labed, star of Attenberg and Alps – early films by Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos, to whom she is also married and with whose films The Vourdalak shares some blackly comic DNA. 

With show-stopping practical effects used to bring its vampire to life, there is something refreshingly old-school about The Vourdalak. It is a simple tale, with considerable bite (as in those early fairytales, no-one here is safe), a very dark streak of humour and plenty of atmosphere.