Adrien Beau’s “The Vourdalak” reminds me of the 60s British horror I grew up watching at the drive-in. I can picture it on a double bill with “The Gorgon” or “Night Creatures.” Shot on Super 16mm, enhancing the grainy texture and vibrant reds that saturate each blood-soaked frame, the film tells the story of a French nobleman (Kacey Mottet-Klein) who encounters a vampire after being attacked and stranded in the woods. The colorful characters we meet in the 18th-century story pale in comparison to the life-size marionette that plays the undead bloodsucker, recalling an era when animatronic puppets ruled horror.
Adapted from the 1839 Gothic novella “The Family of the Vourdalak” by A.K. Tolstoy, which predates Bram Stoker’s classic by half a century, the story begins on a stormy night as the Marquis d’Urfé (Mottet-Klein), bangs on the door of a rural home. “Open up, for the love of God!” he demands after being attacked by bandits who killed his escort and stole his horse. The villager refuses to open the door, but he offers directions to the home of old man Gorcha, who can help with provisions and a horse.
The Marquis first encounters cross-dressing Piotr (Vassili Schneider), son of Gorcha, and his beautiful sister Sdenka (Ariane Labed), who wanders about the countryside singing as if she’s one of Tevye’s daughters in “Fiddler on the Roof.” When they arrive at Gorcha’s manor, we meet the rest of the family: elder brother Jegor (Grégoire Colin), his wife Anja (Claire Duburcq), and their young son Vlad (Gabriel Pavie).
Who’s missing? Old man Gorcha, who, in Jegor’s absence, took off in his frail condition to fight the Turks. “How could you let him go?” asks the elder son. Sdenka poetically delivers a monologue specifying the old man’s last wishes. Do not let him in if he returns, as he will be “an accursed Vourdalak,” which means vampire in Balkan and Slavic folklore.
When the bloodsucking patriarch finally shows up, it’s in the form of a life-size marionette resembling a cross between Nosferatu and a skeleton, voiced by the director, Beau. It’s a jarring visual, frightening yet comical. The special effects are reminiscent of make-up artist Nick Maley’s animatronics in 1985’s space vampire film “Lifeforce.”
As the Marquis, seldom without his powdered face and wig, recoils from every little noise in the film, he keeps his distance from Gorcha the Vourdalak while Jegor pretends there is nothing wrong with his old man. Piotr is busy making wooden stakes as a precaution while Sdenka wrestles with taking her life. The Marquis wants to take her with him back to court so she can experience the world.
At times, “The Vourdalak” walks a fine line between farce and horror, but it takes itself seriously. I applaud the filmmakers for the nostalgic use of puppetry, enhanced by the grainy 16mm aesthetic. Some of the best horror films were shot on the celluloid format including “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Evil Dead.”
Remember the scene in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” where Jack makes out with the woman in Room 237? That scene goes from 0 to 100 in an instant. Now imagine that scene with a life-size marionette. What’s not to love?
(3 stars)
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