Vampir

Vampir is grounded in Serbia and this country side. The pace is slow, and the land is sparse. The film is somewhat silent given the main character doesn't speak Serbian, and no one in the village speaks English.

The main character suddenly arrives in Serbia from London, and he is taking a position to be the caretaker for a cemetery.

But, as he tries to settle in, the main character finds that the village and villagers are odd. Then, he starts experiencing odd disturbing dreams. At this point, the reality of this character starts to be questioned.

Small subtle details can be found that relate to some points in Dracula. These are little hints to show where the story is heading. The main acotr does well in his role as his past unfolds into his present.

This doesn't have the typical shock and gore of a horror vampire film. Instead, it has a steady and quiet sense that overpowers by the end.

I saw this film at Sitges International Film Festival and was pleasantly surprised. This film reminded me of earlier horror classics like Carnival of Souls and especially of contemporary European auteur cinema. This is a different kind of horror film, not a typical vampire horror movie with loud bangs and cheap tricks what we have been used to seeing in recent years.

Vampir takes place in modern times in rural Serbia. We follow the protagonist as he arrives from London to this place and is confronted by local habits, traditions and superstitions.

Tomovic does a great job by telling the story by staying close to the character and showing everything subjectively through the main character's eyes. The lack of subtitles for the Serbian dialogue spoken by the locals enhances the paranoia and fear. The film is very creepy and atmospheric, cinematography and sound design go hand in hand in creating this beautiful yet very haunting picture. The acting throughout is superb as it's very authentic, subtle and naturalistic.

Tomovic as a writer/director succeeds in creating a very Kafkaesque story that has a much deeper meaning than an ordinary vampire movie. It is full of metaphors and has themes of returning as an immigrant child to your ancestor's country and belonging.

Vampir is quite an interesting movie to watch and something a bit different from other films on a low budget range.

This is one of those films that you really feel got everything out of its budget. A bit slow in parts but still interesting to watch with some bits quite intentionally comical.

There is also at least one moment that is very gory and quite difficult to watch, definitely an image that will stay with me for some time.

A basic premise with a great eerie atmosphere. I'd be very interested to see what this director does next. Certainly there is the suggestion there that he can go on to bigger and better things.

This film has some really interesting and promising aspects to it but unfortunately fell just below average for me.

This one was a slow one guys... and I mean slow. Nothing super interesting happens until about 40 minutes in and nothing particularly exciting happens for another 20 minutes after that.

Aesthetically, this was super enjoyable and intriguing and this is what primarily carried the film for me. It had beautiful and atmospheric settings and shots throughout.

There wasn't a ton of dialogue in this, and when there was, it was clunky most of the time. So, I preferred when it was silent or in a foreign language the most.

All in all it just didn't give me enough of a story, and what it did give me was a bit confusing with a lot of unanswered questions. The positives were there, but unfortunately the negatives outweighed. Wouldn't recommend to most unless you're looking for something aesthetically pleasing.

A very promising film with great locations, and a decent story.

However the camerawork is shaky at best, and except for one or two acceptable locations it never shines or manages to pull off anything remotely scary.

Most of the scenes are shot in the daylight which does confuse the overall nature and intent of the film.

There are a plethora of vampire films out there to choose from, but this fails in almost every department which is a real shame.

The main characters performance is so wooden he could've staked the entire village in one sentence.

A shame really as this could've been something special.