The Vourdalak

Review by Mark Woodring

The Vourdalak was adapted from a novella (by Aleksei Tolstoy) that predates Bram Stoker’s creation of Dracula by over 50 years, and while I don’t know if Stoker was familiar with this work, I do know that horror fans will be familiar with some of the bones of this story.

And the execution…?

**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**

The Vourdalak - Review
The Vourdalak (Oscilloscope)

91 Minutes, Not Rated

Written by Adrien Beau, Hadrien Bouvier, and Aleksei Tolstoy (story from)

Directed by Adrien Beau

Synopsis:

When the Marquis d’Urfé, a noble emissary of the King of France, is attacked and abandoned in the remote countryside, he finds refuge at an eerie, isolated manor. The resident family, reluctant to take him in, exhibits strange behavior as they await the imminent return of their father, Gorcha.
But what begins simply as strange quickly devolves into a full fledged nightmare when Gorcha returns, seemingly no longer himself…

Well, on the execution, The Vourdalak absolutely delivers the goods.

A traveller in an unsafe land seeks shelter at a place he was told would be safe. The family is odd, but not unfriendly, and he really has no choice but to stay until he can move on.

Playing at first like a twisted take on either The Scarlett Pimpernell or any of the countless “Farmer’s Daughter” tales, The Vourdalak quickly sets that aside and shifts the tone into one of general unease, then drops the hammer and kicks it up into full-blown what-the-hell-am-I-watching? mode.

Honestly, what makes The Vourdalak work for me is the actual Vourdalak. In horror, monster design is essential.

A poor design can ruin an audience’s reaction, while a truly great design can elevate even the simplest of stories into levels otherwise unreachable.

The Vourdalak, in this story being the embodiment of Gorcha, an old man who left to fight a war, is central to our being able to enjoy this movie. While it shares many aspects of the future vampire legend we’ve all grown up on, the Vourdalak doesn’t share the weakness of daylight, which only heightens the sense of disbelief when Gorcha reveals himself.

I hate to spoil that reveal, but I have too, because, frankly, it’s just too damned incredible to believe. But first, a tangent…

…when George Lucas was making The Empire Strikes Back and the decision to portray Yoda with a Puppet/Muppet was made, George knew that he was treading on dangerous ground. if the effect wasn’t believable, if the character wasn’t more than a hunk of felt, then the entire movie would fall apart. He wasn’t wrong about that, so it’s a good thing that it worked.

The Vourdalak had the same type of decision to make: how to portray a creature that looked human enough but was clearly NOT human, but something else?

Nailed it.

Gorcha/the Vourdalak is presented to us as a human-sized puppet, manipulated through a variety of means, depending on the shot they’re using, and it is so clearly not human that the humanity of it’s performance is stunning.

And creepy as all hell.

Had this choice not panned out, or if they had gone with a more conventional choice, such as a human in make-up, this film absolutely suffers for it. It simply isn’t as creepy and/or downright frightening as it is here.

And I loved every second of it. Well, every second after the first few seconds while I was still processing what I was seeing, but by then, I was hooked.

Fan-f*cking-tastic.

I’d rave about that all day, but the rest of the characters are compelling enough on their own as to make this a fully rounded bit of horror/fantasy/drama; the actual, physical Vourdalak is simply the icing on the cake.

Please find this and check it out if you’re a more classical horror fan or if you simply want to see what a practical monster can accomplish in a film. We forget how important it can be for a threat to be real and tangible.

It’s super important, and The Vourdalak embraced that knowledge and ran with it.

The Vourdalak is in theaters and stars Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed, Gregoire Colin, Vassili Schneider, Clair Duburcq, Gabriel Pavie, and Adrien Beau.

And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.

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