Honourable Mention: M (1951)

I looked at the classic Fritz Lang film M (1931), which is by no means a vampire film, because the film was produced whilst the crimes of Peter Kürten, the so called Vampire of Düsseldorf, were in the public mind – it seems likely that the killer of the film was partially based on Kürten, though it was denied. The film dialogue also mentions another serial killer who was dubbed vampire, Fritz Haarmann (not mentioned in this remake).

The original film was stunning and there was an English language version released. It was not, however, planned as a dual language project and Lang never acknowledged the English version – produced in 1932. The film is on the M Blu-Ray, is shortened (90 minutes against 110) and whilst it had some scenes reshot with new actors is mostly a dub. Interestingly Peter Lorre was dubbed by himself – making M (technically) his first English language film. The film immediately hit me with an inherent racism – the children’s song that opens the original shoot of the film about a murderous man in black, sung by the kids in response to the ongoing murders, becomes a song about a murderous “Chinaman” – racially othering the killer. This article is not about that film, however.

David Wayne as Harrow

M was remade and moved to America in 1951 and directed by Joseph Losey. Mostly a faithful rendition we get some differences – such as opening credit scenes where the murderer, Martin W. Harrow (David Wayne), is seen stalking several children. The whistling is still included but it is no longer the Hall of the Mountain King and this murderer takes a trophy – the children’s shoes (which is instrumental in the police learning his identity, the letter to the press is removed from the plot). Very different is the fact that he seems to simply kill them (like the original, we do not actually see a murder) – we get the dialogue that the victims “were neither violated nor outraged” – whereas the suggestion was that the murders in the original film were bloodier. When the local hoods searching for him find him with his last abduction, the M on his coat seems large and is drawn on with billiard chalk rather than transferred across, and he takes that child into the hiding place with him.

struggling for control

This version of M is absolutely competent as a piece of cinema but it lacks the underlying brilliance of the original. That said, David Wayne is very good as Harrow – showing a man conflicted, pushed to commit devastating crimes and struggling to control himself. A scene as he watches a toy trainset, with a young girl by him, is a superb acting scene by him and we see him at another point find a grounded bird, pick it up, be on the verge of destroying it and managing to control the impulse long enough to release it. This is worth seeing, but it can’t escape the shadow of its progenitor.

The imdb page is here.

Interesting Short: Wild Hunt

A short by Nancy Kilpatrick, this sits in the modern world (starting at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival) and follows L, a partially sighted fortune teller who truly head the Second Sight.

As we meet her, she is packing to leave the festival when Vlad, a vampire of the Ţepeş line, comes in and demands a reading. She has been expecting him, we discover, both because she was visited by one of his vampiric relatives early in the festival and because her Grandmother had predicted it.

Vlad tries to bite her but cannot penetrate her skin for mystical reasons, equally he discovers other sorts of penetration are closed to him. She knows that if she gives herself to him, she'll regain her sight but it is not the time – but her fate is to go with this, often brutal, vampire. As the story is from her viewpoint the story uses a brevity of physical description, which is stylistically interesting and handled with aplomb.

The vampires are playing a fratricidal/patricidal game and their society is mired in misogynistic and violent tradition. I loved the idea of luring a rival around sites associated with historical figures Peter Kürten & Fritz Haarmann simply as a way of mocking a supernatural vampire. This showed a twisted humour that really worked and could be expanded on – the story, however, is marvellously enclosed and eschews the need for follow up (whilst opening a vista that could also legitimately be explored).

On Kindle @ Amazon US

On Kindle @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Angst

Director Gerald Kargl is, career wise, probably better known for documentaries but his 1983 film Angst, whilst based on the case of Austrian serial killer Werner Kniesek is most definitely a feature rather than a documentary. Kniesek had been incarcerated twice for attempted murder – in the film his second attempt is described as actual murder – and did go on to commit a triple homicide. In this the psychopath (Erwin Leder), as the primary character is credited, becomes an amalgam of several killers as Kargl looks to enter the killer's mind. The primary dialogue is provided through a first-person narration, by Robert Hunger-Bühler though they are the psychopath’s inner monologue, which includes quotes from other serial killers including Peter Kürten, the “Vampire of Düsseldorf”.

Erwin Leder as the Psychopath

This film sees the psychopath released from prison and he immediately seeks out a new victim to fulfil his fantasies. Having stopped at a café where he considered taking two young women (Claudia Schinko & Beate Jurkowitsch), eventually dismissing the idea due to the public location, he gets a taxi. He then decides to kill the female taxi driver (Renate Kastelik). He takes a lace out of his shoe (to strangle her) but she is suspicious and stops the car. In a panic he runs into woods.

Edith Rosset as the mother

Now, it has to be said that his actions are less precise than his thoughts – to the point of sometimes bungling and ofttimes frantic. In the woods he finds a secluded house and breaks in (smashing a large window). At first the house seems abandoned but then he discovers a wheelchair bound man (Rudolf Götz) with clear learning difficulties. Soon a car arrives, in which are the man’s mother (Edith Rosset, voiced by Josefine Lakatha) and his sister (Silvia Ryder, voiced by Karin Springer) – plus their dachshund.

drinking blood

What ensues is the brutal terrorisation of the family but, as mentioned above, it is frenetic with nothing quite going to plan. What the viewer experiences, however, is made more visceral as the calm narration continues over the action. You will already have correctly assumed that the reason for including this as an honourable mention is due to the use of Kürten quotation – remembering the habit the press has of sensationally naming certain serial killers as vampires. However it is also due to the part of the film where he brutally stabs a victim repeatedly and then drinks her blood from a neck wound – realistically being sick afterwards as the blood acts as an emetic.

the dachshund is a star

The film is not an easy watch but it is both captivating and an astounding piece of cinema. The camera work is astounding, from the sweeping shots of the prison in the opening to the use of extreme close up to convey a claustrophobia, conspiring with Klaus Schulze’s electronic soundtrack. Within that claustrophobic space is the often explosive, always expressive, performance by Erwin Leder. Indeed, the filmmakers even make the dachshund expressive. No it isn’t a vampire film but the blood drinking and unstated use of Peter Kürten make it of genre interest and if you like your films challenging but astounding also then it needs to be watched.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Vamp or Not? Erza: Fear of a faceless God

This was a 2009 film directed by Hugo Fernandez and co-directed by Pablo V. Chirinos. From what I can gather it featured the music of a band called Erza and I found the following on the band/album (fear of a faceless god)/film’s MySpace page, which will explain why I looked at this as a ‘Vamp or Not?’

” ERZA: fear of a faceless god is the portrayal of the real life serial killing spree in long Island, New York, clouded in secrecy by New York authorities. An account of a serial killer whose gruesome acts have been sporadic over 30 years, and never made public. A secret murderous sadist with links to a possible serial killer network shadowed by the image of the Hungarian vampire serial killer Erzsabet Bathory. (Erzsabet is factually documented to being the serial killer with the highest victim count since the recording of known history)...

“The Story…

“Davin Cortez (Adam Henry Garcia) searches for the truth behind his father’s bizarre past, from New York’s unsuspecting Long Island community to a dark decrepit hospital in Hungary. He unveils a debauched world of perverse bliss and sexual terror as depicted in horrid videos found in his father’s submersed lair archives...

Annet Mahendru as Erza/Lisa

“Davin gathers the possibility that his father (Oscar Maldonado & Christopher Loggia) may have been a Long Island serial killer, with a trail of death never discovered or connected by anyone before. He feverishly consumes his life with the sole task of revealing the hidden aspects of his father’s life. He travels to Debrecen, Hungary where his father had associated with an institutionalized disturbed girl named Lisa (Annet Mahendru). The Hospital director Dr. Verenicoff (Mike Irizarry) allows and closely monitors Davin’s meetings and interviews with Lisa...

“Davin finds that the mystery of his father’s past is immersed behind the lips of this hard hearted young girl, a sociopath vampiric vixen nicknamed Erza. A web of manipulation ensues. She goats him into her psyche while simultaneously haunting his sensibilities with aspects of her wretched vice for blood and butchery. ........ ..”

Adam Henry Garcia as Davin

Now, if only the film had been that easy to follow! After an opening that sees a typed thing about ignoring *the voice* and acting normally as a voiceover suggests the opposite, we see Davin finding his father’s secret. Two months later we see him with his daughter (Emendy Rosario) at a park. He explains that he is going away but will be back in two weeks. He meets a man who claims he is a Roma and has a connection with Hungary. He offers to read his palm, uses a scalpel as a pointer and cuts Davin’s hand before he leaves. His only advice was to not go to Hungary.

a toy vampire

We get a brief vampire moment, as he waits for Dr. Verenicoff, when he spots a soft toy Dracula and says to himself “I vant to suck your blood.” This, in truth, wouldn’t have been enough to get an honourable mention. Through the film we get cut scenes to murders carried out by his father, carried out by Lisa/Erza and also scenes of his father auto-erotically self-harming as he masturbates to the scene of Lisa torturing a girl – an act the ultimately causes his accidental death.

wash in blood

Essentially it is torture-porn, inter-spliced with quotes from real world serial killers including Peter Kürten, the Vampire of Düsseldorf. As well as this we get a moment where Lisa/Erza claims she is getting younger – something Dr. Verenicoff agrees with despite telling Davin not to feed into her delusions. We also see her wash her face with blood. But these are throwaways and without the description I reproduced I doubt a Báthory connection would be made by the viewer.

a victim screams

The film itself is unpleasant, poorly shot and confused. In an attempt to be arty, narrative is lost and, ultimately, I was glad I found it on YouTube and hadn’t parted money for it. Is it vamp though? Via the film you’d have to say no, though the description offers more explanation and narrative than any moment within the film. Bathory automatically gets at least an honourable mention and so there is a small amount of genre interest but ultimately the actual film is not vamp.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mentions: Le Vampire de Düsseldorf

This was a Robert Hossein film from 1965 and looked at the case of Peter Kürten (Robert Hossein), the so called Vampire of Düsseldorf. We have previously mentioned Kürten in relation to the masterpiece M, although Lang denied that his film was about a real criminal.

In this case it is and focuses on 1930, at a time when Kürten was already being referred to as vampyr in the press and the end of his criminal career, if you like. This is already taking liberties with the truth as Kürten’s last murder took place in 1929 (he instigated several non-lethal attacks in 1930, though they were probably intended as lethal). However this ties it in with the German political situation in 1930.

The Kürten who is portrayed is actually quite a sad figure. He is quiet, almost old fashioned – to the point that he (and no other character) almost looks like he has walked out of a silent movie. We hear a story of his childhood that suggests he was, on at least one occasion, tortured. He is also very much in love with a girl named Anna (Marie-France Pisier).

She is a cabaret singer, by the posters across the city she is the hottest act there and she rebuffs his overtures at first. The frustration of this seems to be the trigger for his killing of women. Indeed when he actually kills a man it is through jealousy as he went back to Anna’s home. This does not sit well with the historical Kürten or indeed other aspects we see within the film.

The historical Kürten killed men and women, adults and children. During his trial he suggested that he was trying to strike at society, and that whilst he molested his victims it was not his primary reason for killing. However, whilst awaiting execution, he confessed that sexual stimulation was his primary motivation, that the number of stab wounds varied with the length of time it took to reach sexual gratification and blood played a primary role within the gratification.

In the film he does seem to molest one victim, Paula (Annie Anderson), but he also attacks out of jealousy, as I said, and to kill witnesses. There are no child murders in the film and part of his makeup is to taunt the police, personified by Commissaire Momberg (Roger Dutoit). He sends them notes, reveals the locations of victims and even, it appears, suggests where he will strike. The first victim found in the film is discovered because Kürten tells Momberg where she is and he observes her discovery from afar.

I mentioned the German political situation and the film begins with archive footage and discussion of the rise of National Socialism. Indeed in 1930 Hitler started to become a real political force in Germany, gaining some 107 seats in the Reichstag in the September of that year. We see marches for bread and work, we see employment riots and Kürten loose his job. We also see the Sturmabteilung or brownshirts smashing windows of bookshops and burning the books and beating a communist to death.

To me Hossein was making Kürten the representation of the spirit of the age. It was almost as though he was a physical manifestation of the evil of National Socialism. Indeed, at one point Kürten writes a letter to the police, mocking their attempts to catch him and bragging of the murder of an undercover police woman, and hides his missive within the pages of Hitler’s Mein Kampf; hiding evil within evil. The real Kürten claimed he first murdered at the age of five, in 1888/9, and his first provable murder occurred in 1913, years before the rise of Nazism.

Yet the film works well with the direction Hossein took it in and, during these days of recession, it is a stark reminder to the powers that be of the evil that can blossom within society especially when they ignore the base needs of the people to pander to the already all too rich. The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mentions – M (Graphic Novel)

Regular readers will recall that last year I honourably mentioned the Lang film M. The film was allegedly based on the crimes of Peter Kürten, the so called Vampire of Düsseldorf, although Lang himself denied it. Be that as it may, the film became a benchmark for all crime thrillers and is a stunning piece of cinema.

The vampire element might have been so vague as to be almost invisible, a blurred connection to a real life serial killer, but I was glad to be able to bring such a masterpiece of cinema to this blog that I grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

This was a present from a friend, Ian - many thanks to him for it - and it is a graphic novel by Jon J Muth based upon the film (2008 edition, based on comics from 1990). I say based as it is, in some ways, different from the film in minor, but significant, ways. Obviously, being a graphic piece, it does not have the genius use of sound that the film had.

It is not a straight storyboard of the film either. Muth actually photographed each scene and then drew from the pictures, thus composing the frames. As a result he chooses to bring the level of viewing down to a child-eye level giving us more of an impression from the point of view of the victims. Also, Beckert sees his victims after the fact, as it were; they haunt him. We get an iconic image of a child, her throat cut, bleeding, speaking to him, arms outstretched, imploring. This was clearly more psychological than supernatural, incidentally.

However, despite the changes, this is still a recreation, in art, of the movie and lives or dies by the artwork… which is quite simply stunning. This, to me, is a graphic novel benchmark as much as the film is a cinema benchmark. Incidentally I noted that the customer reviews on Amazon UK attacked the book as the DVD was not with it. There is no indication I can find that the DVD was meant to ship with the graphic, indeed the graphic – despite being a beautifully bound hardback – is significantly lower in price than the standard DVD release.

One for the connoisseurs of graphic novels and classic cinema.

Honourable Mentions – M

The 1931 movie by Fritz Lang is barely an honourable mention as, whilst it is alleged that it was based on the crimes of Peter Kürten, the so called Vampire of Düsseldorf, Lang himself denied it. Of course, that denial may have had much to do with how fresh the crimes were in the minds of the population, Kürten was executed on 2 July 1931 and the film’s first release was 11th May of the same year.

Be that as it may, I felt it worthwhile mentioning the film as it is a stunning piece of cinema, starring Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert, the killer in the movie. The film has a definite expressionist element to it but also marks one of the earliest film noir’s and psychological thrillers.

There is the trademark expressionist use of shadow in the film but also some stunning use of sound. The film is a very early talky, but you will find little to no soundtrack. What music appears within the film is actually incidental to the scene. The obvious theme to mention is The Hall of the Mountain King, as whistled by Beckert, that actually leads to his capture.

There is also some stunning use of visual, when the child Elsie Beckmann (Inge Landgut) is killed we see nothing of the crime but we see empty halls, an untouched dinner setting and her balloon, bought by Beckert, floating against pylons. The use of sound here, with the mother calling for her lost child, is wonderfully realised.

The film uses silence also, creating a sense of dissociative paranoia within the film. The film itself follows the attempts to find the child killer both by the police and by the criminal fraternity. Kürten himself was not solely a child killer and whilst we only hear, rather than see, Beckert’s crime of murder we hear nothing within the film that would lead us towards thinking of the character as a vampire styled murderer. Kürten, according to The Crime Library stated that his “chief satisfaction in killing was to catch the blood spurting from a victim's wounds in his mouth and swallow it.”

The film does mention another notorious ‘vampire’ murderer Fritz Haarmann – and we have previously mentioned the film based upon him, Tenderness of the Wolves - as well as cannibalistic murderer Karl Grossmann.

A stunning, disturbing film, not vampiric really but worth a mention on this blog. The imdb page is here.