#the family of the vourdalak

[see-arcane]

I want to see a story where Dracula realizes he might need some lieutenants/generals in his take over Britain/the world plan and so he invites every notable 19th century vampire to his castle in an attempt to convince them of the idea, even the ones that should be dead at this point. Also maybe even begrudgingly his schoolyard rivial turned asshole neighbor that stole his style, Orlok.

Meanwhile poor Jonathan is stuck in the corner while this all ensues.

Jonathan trapped in Vampire Hell with Dracula and the Weird Sisters: Dangerous. Peak supernatural gothic dread. Iconic and ominous.

Jonathan roped into playing secretary for the Vampire Takeover Planning Committee because saying no is not an option: Objectively hilarious

Picturing him there taking his little notes while Dracula pitches world conquest plans in just barely veiled language--("Yes, he knows. He knows I know this. We're just playing vampire reveal chicken at this point and I don't want to lose, just roll with it.")--about property, assets, 'livestock,' et cetera, all the while swallowing back a screaming fit and trying not to make eye contact with Dracula's weird colleague who keeps trying to lamprey-suction himself onto the shaving cut.

Meanwhile, Ruthven, Clarimonde, Carmilla, and assorted vourdalaks are just constantly interrupting Dracula's pitch to ask if they can't have. You know. Some refreshments. (Long look at Jonathan)

Dracula: "If you get a taste of him before I do, I will give all of you the Dolingen treatment. My castle is half a ruin anyway, I will bring thunderbolts through the roof for this, do not test me. That includes you, Orlok."

(Orlok has not been listening to a single word. Jonathan is being dragged off by rats.)

((Varney saw the name 'Dracula' on the invite and immediately burned it on instinct.))

[fourorfivemovements]

Films Watched in 2024: 89. Le Vourdalak/The Vourdalak (2023) - Dir. Adrien Beau

[contentabnormal]

Boris Karloff as Gorca in the third & final segment of Black Sabbath

Watercolors on Paper, 8.5" x 11", 2024

By Josh Ryals

[stheresya]

Aleksey Tolstoy's short story The Family of the Vourdalak offers the most sinister and my absolute favorite take on the vampire myth so far. In this story the vourdalak works as the slavic version of the vampire, but what differentiates it from its most known bloodsucking peers is that when a vourdalak comes back to life they seek primarily the blood of the people they used to love in their previous life. And I find that so fascinating because in early vampire stories like Dracula we see that a vampire retains their human memories but lose all human attachment to them and care only about feeding on anything alive, while the vourdalak is a vampire whose feelings of love gets twisted into one of hunger. You loved those people in life, you shall consume them in death because you loved them life.

[drawinggoose]

Does anyone here knows the novella Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Tolstoy? Because it seems I just found another adaptation besides Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath.

[libraryleopard]

Listen, this is very important. If you liked Nosferatu (2024) dir. Robert Eggers you must go to your nearest search engine and look up The Vourdalak dir. Adrien Beau. It is of the UTMOST important that you watch this film if you liked Nosferatu. It’s about a French courtier who is robbed while traveling through Eastern Europe and must seek refuge with a local peasant family whose patriarch is transformed into a vampire who can only feed on his loved ones. It has everything you need in gothic cinema—a French dandy experiencing the Horrors, people running around in billowing nightgowns at night, a vampire played by a puppet that is genuinely sinister and represents the repressive forces of the patriarchy, Ariane Labed covered in blood, the most horrifying sucking noises known to mankind. We must not forget The Vourdalak!

[collinsportmaine]

Vampire Identification Guide

The Vourdalak is French film is based on a Russia novella that predates Bram Stoker’s Dracula by 58 years. It tells the tell of a family waiting for Gorcha (their patriarch) to return from fighting the Turks. Before leaving he warned them, if he returned after 6 day - do not let him enter the house. But he returns on the 7th day!

Vourdalaks are from Balkan and Slavic folklore - vampires that return from the grave to feed on their family, decimating their bloodline and feasting on the blood of all those they hold dear.

A unique element of this French film is the Gorcha is depicted as a life size puppet, voiced by the director Adrien Beau.

[sam-keeper]

The Vourdalak (2023)

The metatextual commentary on the horror genre looms large when people talk about Funny Games (1997), and understandably so. It doesn't take long after the first literal wink to the camera for meta stuff to take over, and for the commentary on horror fans to get pointed. But I was struck, while watching, by a different aspect of the film: politeness and middle class social convention setting traps as diabolical as any Jigsaw ever designed. The characters sleepwalk their way into their gruesome torturous deaths in part through politeness and forbearance. indeed the serial killing duo that torments them seem almost like an infection spread from one household to the next via the same social niceties, polite introductions transmitting them from one group to the next.

So: The Vourdalak.

The titular monster in The Vourdalak is a puppet, and an almost muppet-esque one at that. Like, we're not talking near-naturalistic animatronics here, we're talking a puppet that can flare his eyes open, and open and close his mouth, and otherwise acts through the body language artistry of puppeteers. It's incredible to look at, and totally not even remotely a little bit believable as a person. And yet, the entire family that Ambassador from the King of France Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d’Urfe encounters in the wilderness of (maybe) Serbia seems paralyzed by the apparition of the household's patriarch. Despite the man's own firm warning not to trust whatever comes back from the woods wearing his guise, they sit this grotesque, obviously dead puppet down at the table, offer it food, and force the family closeted transsexual to shoot the family dog at its behest, all while Jacques Antoine Saturnin d'Urfe sits there in his poncy white makeup and blush and wig all but looking right at the camera helplessly. It's horrific, and also completely ludicrous.

The absurdity of it is part of what makes it horrible: even though everyone involved (except perhaps the drunken, pathologically devoted son Jegor) can see something has gone catastrophically wrong with grandfather Gorcha, their filial duties render them powerless to halt what's happening. They're also profoundly vulnerable: Piotr is at minimum a cross dresser, Anja is cowed by her husband Jegor and must look after her young son Vlad, and Sdenka is trapped in a futureless morass after the murder of the stranger who promised to take her away from the village. Also, the village has been seemingly wiped out by bandits, making the Vourdalak's presentation of the bandit leader's head impressive but pointless, and rendering the cast profoundly isolated.

Even Jacques Antoine Saturnin d'Urfe is hampered by being just the wettest protagonist. The man is a floppy noodle in period accurate caked on makeup. Wildly out of his element, he summons periodically the gumption to chase after Sdenka (she responds by nearly tricking him into falling off a cliff) but otherwise just minces about rather aimlessly, too out of his depth and paralyzed by social convention to put up much resistance to the blood sucking revenant. I didn't hate him, mind--part of the humor and horror of the story comes from watching this high society guy bumble around in the 18th century equivalent of a backwoods hick horror film. It's clear he wants to do the right thing, and shows the Vourdalak's prospective victims sympathy alien both to the monster and to Jegor. He just happens to be about as effectual and plausible an opponent to the undead as a peacock dipped in a particularly muddy puddle.

This year we also watched the 2001 French adventure horror period film Brotherhood of the Wolf, and it's interesting that for all its attempts to feel contemporary to 2001, it mostly feels… very contemporary to 2001, if you get me. I mean, credit where it's due, it CLEARLY inspired a significant part of the look of Bloodborne, but in trying for a modern glitz it winds up embodying not just a bunch of aesthetics (ZOOMS! FAST CUTS! THE MATRIX JUST CAME OUT EVERYBODY LET'S SPEED UP AND SLOW DOWN THE ACTION SCENES!) that are very locked into their time, but a bunch of tropes that feel similarly dated (the Wise Native American Sidekick, the love interest menaced by a disfigured and incestuous brother, sssssome sort of position on the French Revolution that's kind of hard to figure out?).

The Vourdalak, in embracing an already "outmoded" form of puppetry, and cleaving closer to the alien high class aesthetics of the 18th century that Brotherhood replaces with their more hip take, feels like it's destined to age a bit better. The strength of the fable helps. When in one of the most truly wretched scenes of the film the Vourdalak picks up a shotgun and blasts a hole in poor Piotr's skull, it feels discordant that this gothic horror should be wielding modern weaponry. But it also feels perversely fitting: the patriarch simply makes use of whatever tools are at his disposal to keep the family disciplined. The Vourdalak is said to prey first on its closest loved ones. Jacques Antoine Saturnin d'Urfe does such a good job of being a polite guest who doesn't make waves that the Vourdalak can't help but see him as one of the family. I don't expect this narrative of being sucked (hah) into complicity losing its bite anytime soon.

[hms-no-fun]

Any movies you've seen recently that you liked?

every year since the pandemic my friends and i have organized a discord stream where we watch one horror movie every single day for all of october. i've watched 29 movies as a part of that so far, not including however many i've watched in my free time. so, yeah, i've seen a lot of movies recently and i've liked a lot of them (because i generally like most movies).

the two big standout highlights have to be The Pied Piper and The Vourdalak. the first is a Czech stop motion film with no spoken dialogue doing the pied piper myth through the lens of greed and avarice.

The Vourdalak meanwhile is a french adaptation of a rural vampire myth where the titular vourdalak is portrayed by a human-sized marionette. the effect is uncanny and awesome and unlike anything i've seen since jan svankmajer's Faust. also it's shot on 16mm film with ancient lenses so it looks like a movie from the 70s that just got dug up out of nowhere. it's about how the traditional family unit with its traditional gender roles are a tool of social repression and violence. and when i say gender roles i mean there's a trans woman. instantly an s-tier favorite that i expect to come back to often in the years to come.

[mayhemchicken-varneyposting]

If the author had carried on with the ancestor attacking the youngest girl of his own family, it appears like the storyline would then follow old tropes of vampirism being a family affair. (Which is also why it's been argued vampires are (also) about cycles of abuse and/or intergenerational trauma.) In many stories, vampires target their own household, or beloveds. For instance, Gorcha leads a serbian vampire family in La Famille du Vourdalak and they kill everyone except those they love, Bruhilda drinks her husband's children, in La Dame Pâle it's a struggle between a vampire and his brother and the woman they both love in their castle... I'm sure you know this already but I just thought of the what if.

If the author had stuck with this idea up through the later revelations about the Bannerworth's father, the story could have had some FASCINATING themes...Alas.

Interestingly, much later on, the idea of vampires preying on their loved ones is referenced, in a line that feels slightly meta:

"Why, what need you care? those who know about vampires say that there are two sorts, one sort always attacks its own relations as was, and nobody else, and the other always selects the most charming young girls, and nobody else, and if they can't get either, they starve to death, waste away and die, for they take no food or drink of any sort, unless they are downright forced."

By this point in the story, Varney is very firmly a vampire of the second sort, patterning himself as a less evil Ruthven sort of character. (The character speaking this line, incidentally, is heavily implied to have learned this information from Varney himself. It's unclear why Varney would have told him this.)

It is unclear where Clarimonde, a vampire who preys on sad twink priests, fits into this dichotomy.

[see-arcane]

Who are your top five vampires?

Only five?

Dracula (of the book, not films, Dracula) - I know, I know, predictable. But he's as much my favorite villain as he is my favorite bloodsucker. I love hating this undead bat bastard :3

Clarimonde (of "Clarimonde") - My beloved Parisian party queen who just wanted a lil hedonism and a few drops of blood from her crush.

The entire family/village of the Vourdalaks ("The Family of the Vourdalak") - Aka, 'The Extra Weird Corpsey Vampires Who Can't Be Staked to Death, Fixate on Turning Loved Ones, and Slaughter Everyone Else.' They're so fun :3

Carmilla (of "Carmilla") - I respect any and every tragic lens-version of the character. Wholeheartedly. But my favorite version is Actual Serial Killer Vampire Lesbian Who Wants to Eat This Specific Girl in More Way Than One.

Miriam and John Blaylock, Sarah Roberts (of The Hunger 1983) - Not only are there bisexual antics about, plus Bauhaus performing in the goth club cage, but the lot of them present a version of vampirism which I think is the single most horrifying version of undeath I have ever seen on film. Vampires can always be made sexy or scary. It takes real work to make being a vampire scary, and this version goes well beyond Stoker's original writing.

[vickyvicarious]

For the Dracula daily ask game:

🩸BLOOD What is your favourite Dracula adaptation?

🧛‍♀️VAMPIRE Which book do you think Dracula fans should read next?

✍️WRITING HAND If you could change one thing about Dracula, what would it be?

🩸- I've actually seen very few. I'm not a big movie person, and most of what I've heard hasn't motivated me to hunt those down. I did have a blast watching The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula (or The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires), which is emphatically not any kind of direct adaptation but is still really fun. It's a martial arts movie from the 70s involving lots of kung fu, Chinese vampires, Dracula vs Van Helsing, some evil body swapping if I recall correctly... Anyways, it's not really a relevant answer here. I've heard very good things about the Michael Pink ballet and intend to watch it soon. I've also read and enjoyed The Route of Ice and Salt which is a book about the Captain of the Demeter.

🧛‍♀️- There's a lot of classic vampire or gothic novels that I think readers would enjoy if they haven't read them already! Carmilla, The Vampyre, The Family of the Vourdalak, Wake Not the Dead, and The Horla are some old vampire(esque in the last one) tales I would definitely recommend. I would also suggest branching out to other types of classic monsters or detective fiction.

✍️- I would like to not have the one group of Evil People Who Help Dracula racism. Just removing the slurs wouldn't solve that, and I'm not sure how to keep all plot elements the same while still avoiding villainizing them - the most minor change would be keeping the plot largely the same but making it clear somehow that they are being coerced/threatened into aiding him much like various other characters are at the start. All the other infuriating moments at least tie in to the themes of the work a lot better, but in addition to being racist, this also just contradicts the general theme of all the people we see wanting, at core, to help one another or just do their jobs.

[bloodsuckingviolet]

🎃Ultimate October Reading List👻

I compiled a list of 20+ of my favorite spooky reads, the creepiest, darkest paranormal stories and novels that are perfect to read when October comes around. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments or reblogs!

-Gwen🦇

The Banshee's Warning by Charlotte Riddell (haunting banshee)

The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe (black cats, supernatural)

The Case of the Leannabh Sidhe by Margery Lawrence (changelings, evil fairies)

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (classic ghost tropes; considered to be the very first gothic novel)

Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu (lesbian vampyres...need I say more?)

A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family by Sheridan le Fanu (haunted, eroding castle, jilted wife)

A Dead Man of Varley Grange by Anonymous (cursed cottage)

The Dead Sexton by Sheridan le Fanu (mysterious corpse thief)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (THEE vampyre, superstitions)

Dobrev (young clairvoyants, succubus, written by yours truly!)

The Family of a Vourdalak by Aleksey Tolstoy (vampyre, recently adapted into a fantastically weird French film)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (creation, horrors of life)

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (supernatural, erotic)

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (paranormal, curses)

Hugues, the Wer-wolf by Sutherland Menzies (OG werewolf story)

In the Closed Room by Frances Hodgson Burnett (ghosts, mysterious closed door)

Laura Silver Bell by Sheridan le Fanu (evil fairies, witchcraft)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (ghosts, autumn vibes)

The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis (cruel and dark, such an insane read!)

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs (supernatural, death)

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (gothic romance, castles, supernatural)

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (ghost, romance)

The Sandman by E.T.A. Hoffmann (dark fairy tale elements, obsession)

The Shadow of a Shade by Tom Hood (haunted portrait)

The Story of Medhans Lea by E. and H. Heron (haunted house, men getting scared, lol)

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (murder, good vs. evil)

Tales of Terror from the Black Ship by Chris Priestley (underrated horror author!)

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth by Christ Priestley (eerie and disturbing short stories)

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe (guilt, murder)

The Tomb of Sarah by Frederick Loring (cursed tomb)

The Trod by Algernon Blackwood (evil fairies)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (ghosts)

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley (first of a great ghostly, gruesome trilogy)

The Vampyre by John Polidori (one of the OG vamp tales; seductive, evil vampyre torments a young man and his sister)

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (even creepier than the movie)

[sloshed-cinema]

Le Vourdalak (2023)

Who would win in a fight, elderly Boris Karloff or a puppet? Adrien Beau’s take on the Aleksey Tolstoy novella follows the same path as the central chapter in the Mario Bava anthology film Black Sabbath, recounting the tale of a French nobleman encountering a family preyed upon by the ghastly vourdalak, their own father returned from the grave to drink their blood. But this French adaptation makes an interesting creative choice: this undead iteration of the patriarch Gorcha isn’t a man but rather a puppet. The gaunt, emaciated figure of this elderly man features skeletal fingers and a face ravaged by time, milky eyes and exposed teeth fluctuating between rage and a sort of extreme exhaustion. This gives an even more frightening presence to the creature, its movements stilted and frail, yet threatening nonetheless. Gorcha’s family all react differently to the return of their not-father, from Jegor’s drunken denial to Anja’s grief-stricken apathy to Sdenka and Piotr’s fear and mistrust. The visiting Marquis d’Urfé is out of sorts here, confused by both the landscape and local customs. As with the likes of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, vampirism is presented as a clash between the cultural sensibilities of Western and Eastern Europe. But here, d’Urfé is abroad, a Frenchman visiting Serbia. Wars and ethnic clashes haunt the periphery, from battles between the locals and invading Turks, to the perhaps unwanted presence of the Frenchman in this area. Where Dracula is presented as an Other invading British polite society, here the vourdalak’s proclivity for the blood of loved ones speaks to annihilation from within. This is borne out of trauma and a blind adherence to patriarchal structure even when it’s completely apparent that said patriarch is making terrible decisions.

D’Urfé himself is almost comically inept at dealing with any of the problems he encounters during his trials and tribulations confronting the vourdalak Gorcha. Powdered and polite, he doesn’t know how to navigate his strange surroundings. Attempting to help the young child Vlad who is being lured by the vampiric creature, the Frenchman just ends up getting bitch-slapped by a puppet and knocked unconscious. He manages, by some strange stroke of luck, to kill the vourdalak (only after engaging in some fucking and sucking), but unlike the novella, he succumbs to his wounds. Despite all of the experiences of the court, he’s ill equipped to face such evils.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'Gorcha'.

d'Urfé introduces himself to someone.

Someone makes the Sign of the Cross.

A type of family member is named (ie: father, mother, etc).

BIG DRINK

A dream sequence ends.

Chewing noises are heard.

[fearsmagazine]

THE VOURDALAK - Review

DISTRIBUTOR: Oscilloscope Laboratories

SYNOPSIS: In a remote countryside, the Marquis d'Urfé, a noble emissary of the King of France, is ambushed and forsaken. Seeking shelter, he stumbles upon an isolated manor with an eerie atmosphere. The family, hesitant to offer hospitality, displays peculiar behavior as they anxiously await the imminent return of their patriarch, Gorcha. However, what initially appears as mere oddity swiftly escalates into a full-blown nightmare when Gorcha returns, bearing a haunting transformation that raises questions about his true nature.

Based on “La Famille du Vourdalak" by Aleksei K. Tolstoy, THE VOURDALAK, predates Bram Stoker’s “Dracula" by over half a century.

REVIEW: In Mario Bava's 1963 film "Black Sabbath," starring screen legend Boris Karloff, the "I Wurdalak" segment draws inspiration from the same story that forms the premise of THE VOURDALAK. Surprisingly, the story originated in Russian and wasn't translated into French until approximately seven decades later. It's noteworthy to mention that the word "vourdalak," derived from Slavic and Balkan folklore, may have initially referred to werewolves before becoming associated with vampires.

Filmmaker Adrien Beau brings Tolstoy's story to life, incorporating many of its elements with some contemporary flair. While it diverges from the original prose, Beau compresses time and incorporates several of Tolstoy's themes, creating a rich tapestry of folklore, superstition, patriarchy, and elements of 1900 French polite society and Serbian culture. Reminiscent of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories, the tale follows a noble emissary who seeks help and is given an ominous warning as he is sent out into the forest and told not to stray off the road. Outside his comfort zone, the nobleman confronts his beliefs and becomes a victim of his own desire. Beau remains faithful to Tolstoy's tale until the climax, where he introduces contemporary vampire themes through the Marquis d'Urfé's challenge. The dialogue and interactions authentically feel period.

In this film, the production values may be simplistic, but the costumes, particularly the Marquis d'Urfé's hair and makeup, effectively establish the period of the story. The actors' movements and the structure of the dialogue further contribute to the period atmosphere. Despite being shot in color, the framing and editing techniques evoke the classic monster movies of the 1930s and 1940s.

Adrien Beau's puppet design stands out, reminiscent of Max Schreck with a touch of zombie. The combination of the performance and Beau's voicing of the character creates a chilling effect..

The cinematography is both beautiful and breathtaking, creating a distinct atmosphere, especially during the daylight sequence and even more effective at night.

Martin Le Nouvel and Maïa Xifaras' score blends period-sounding movements with an effective genre score, enhancing the atmosphere, emotions, and performances of the characters.

The captivating ensemble cast elevates this film to a must-watch. Kacey Mottet Klein portrays the Marquis, a character resembling a 19th-century Ash. He has some panache, but his bumbling nature and occasional off-putting actions result in him being a less likable character. Ultimately, he brings a sense of integrity to the role that makes it memorable. Ariane Labed's performance as Sdenka exudes charm and aloofness, as she adds an exotic allure to the character. It is understandable why the Marquis falls under her spell. Grégoire Colin and Claire Duburcq effectively portray a couple governed by societal expectations and rules of civility. Their interactions with the Gorcha highlight their acting brilliance. Despite realizing that they are making poor choices, they are unable to deviate due to the patriarch's influence and the necessity to respect his wishes. The exceptional performances of the cast alone make this film worthy of multiple viewings.

Adrien Beau’sTHE VOURDALAK, his feature film debut, has a raw cinematic feel that seems inspired by the essence of the classic black-&-white monster movies and the sensuality of the Warhol Dracula and Frankenstein films, without all the sex and gore of those films. The cinematic experience is a blend of a talented filmmaker and an excellent cast that make THE VOURDALAK a delightfully bizarre, gripping and shockingly refreshing film. THE VOURDALAK has all the fright stuff to render it an instant cult classic.

CAST: Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed, Gregoire Colin, Vassili Schneider, Claire Duburcq & Adrien Beau. CREW: Director/Screenplay/Creator of the Vourdalak Puppet - Adrien Beau; Screenplay - Hadrien Bouvier; Producers - Judith Lou Lévy, Lola Pacchioni & Marco Pacchioni; Cinematography - David Chizallet; Score - Martin Le Nouvel & Maïa Xifaras; Editor - Alan Jobart; Set Designer - Thibault Pinto; Costume Designer - Anne Blanchard; Prosthetic Makeup Artist - Franck Limon-Duparcmeur; Visual Effects Artist - Fredrik Monteil. OFFICIAL: N.A. FACEBOOK: N.A. TWITTER: N.A. TRAILER: https://youtu.be/twv0lLTfze4?si=136SpjpWiCAwCTKq RELEASE DATE: In theaters June 28th, 2024

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay), or 👎 (Dislike)

Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

SUMMARY: Lost in a hostile forest, the Marquis d'Urfé, a noble emissary of the King of France, finds refuge in the home of a strange family.