Across the Forest – review

Directors: Justin Blair & Matthew Vincent

Release date: 2009

Contains spoilers

It is easy to forget, as we indulge in film after film and novel after novel centred on the vampire, that in the past these creatures were a very real nightmare to many people and even easier to forget that to some they still are.

Of course the vampire of tradition is a very different creature to the vampire built from the imagination of filmmakers and novelists – but the vampire we watch owes its existence to its folklore cousin.

Bram Stoker, using the voice of Jonathon Harker, commented on Transylvania in Dracula, suggesting that “every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting.” Over a century after Stoker published those words Justin Blair and Matthew Vincent created this documentary and I make no apology for quoting from a literary source that, frankly, has no place in the resultant film.

The documentary looks at the actual beliefs and superstitions of the people of Transylvania. Unlike many documentaries it forgoes dramatic reconstructions, bar a few beautifully realised illustrative plates, and eschews prescriptive interpretations. Instead the camera captures the heart of these traditions by having Transylvanian men and women tell the stories in their own words. We hear of strigoï – akin to the vampire we know – of vârcolac and pricolici – akin to werewolves – and of mama or fata Pădurii – a forest spirit.

Some of the tales seem like fairytales handed down from generation to generation. Others come from friends of friends. Others still are claimed as their own stories. We hear from a woman whose neighbour was, as she describes it, strange – the sort of person who would walk in the snow with no shoes. The neighbour died and the woman’s husband was digging the grave (as was custom) as she prepared the funeral food. A younger cousin came to her and claimed he had seen the neighbour walking in the barn. Her animals were becoming distressed and she realised the neighbour was strigoï. She then knew she had to hammer a nail through the corpse’s heart to stop it wandering. She improvised with a needle and log and, as the deed was done, the corpse’s mouth twisted and sneered but she was then bound to the grave.

Many of the tales have very familiar elements. We are told of a woman who knew how to deal with strigoï. She would discover the strigoï's graves by riding on a horse over the graves past midnight. She would take grave dirt and cast a spell on it before throwing it in the Mureş river. The spell would say that the strigoï could only return when they had gathered every granule of dirt.

The camcorder recording is perhaps, by nature of the equipment, not as sharp as it could have been with more expensive cameras. However it offers a closeness to the subject, helping us be drawn in to the stories we are told. The music includes songs by locals and pieces by Justin Blair and is truly haunting. The style of filmmaking allows us to hear what these people have to say and was filmed with a palpable level of respect. Ultimately it allows us to make our own mind up with regards their tales. This is essential viewing for the student of vampire lore and folklorists alike. You can discover more about the project and order the DVD from the film’s website (EDIT: the link ia apparently dead, please try the Facebook page). 8.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.