Now showing
Les Vampires (1915) directed by Louis Feuillade
About this film
Lensed in an eerily abandoned Paris in 1915, Louis Feuillade's stark chapterplay LES VAMPIRES is a grim and powerful work which is worlds apart from the later glitz and polish of the golden age serials produced by the American studios. It should be noted that serials were nothing new at this point in time. Formative efforts such as THE PERILS OF PAULINE had already established the appeal of these generally inexpensive actioners, with their bizarre twists and inventive death traps. The emphasis was generally on a resourceful protagonist pitted against an equally inventive and determined fiend -- frequently an unsuspected heir or lawyer out to obtain an undeserved inheritance. LES VAMPIRES did this formula one better, making the menace a vast and largely unsuspected criminal empire which is devouring Paris from inside. With members taken from all classes, the dark society is able to plunder, blackmail and murder without dear of action from the authorities. This continues until their removal of a government investigator brings ambitious reporter Philippe Guerande (Edouard Mathe) into things. Sent to the country to search for details on the official's murder, Philippe plans to combine…
Subjects
dwid hellion; Les Vampires; Louis Feuillade; horror; silent film; edward gorey; paris cinema