Coming from the land of the cognac and baguettes, and directed by Adrien Beau we get to talk today about “The Vourdalak”, a french film that brings new life (no pun intended) to the classic tale “The Family of The Vourdalak”, and in you are in the United States, you will have a chance to see it on theaters starting June the 28th

In this new adaption, we meet Marquis Jaques Antoine Saturnin D’urfé, a French diplomat lost in the far country side, but for the sake of the review from now on, we will just call him D’urfé.

We quickly find out that the guy was attacked by some Turk bandits and not only did the barbarians kill D’urfé’s guards, they took his horses, valuables, and made fun of his facial make up. Maybe they didn’t get the whole ghost face trend that was all the rave in the french socialite in those days. But at least they let him escape with his clothes and his life, so I guess they cant be that bad, right?

After meeting with a hermit who could not care less about a lost emissary of the french crown, D’urfe is pointed to seek help from an old man called Gorcha. According to the hermit, he can provide the poor devil some shelter and the resources to go back to the French Court. However, he is warned to run like hell all through the night, because being robbed could be the least of his worries in those woods.

Are we talking about wolves that would happily make meal of D’urfe, or something more sinister?

Well, we gotta keep watching to find out.

The next morning D’urfé manages to get to Mr. Gorcha’s Manor, but only after having two very peculiar encounters with some members of the family that lives there. His request for help is again put aside when Jegor, the eldest son of the family, returns home after hunting the Turks for several days with some neighbors from the village. Jegor lets D’urfé know that there’s no horses available for him at the moment due the raids of the bandits. However, he will make sure he is presented to his father Gorcha. Unfortunately, that’s when Jegor and D’urfé are told, by the rest of the family, that Mr. Gorcha has been absent for some days after he decided to take his trusty rusty musket and also go hunting the Turk gang. And nobody has seen him since.

However, before leaving, Gorcha warned his family to wait for his return for just 6 days and if he has not return by then, chances are that he bought the farm and died in battle. HOWEVER! If he were to return AFTER the 6^th day, he should not be allowed back into the house, no matter how much he demanded or begged, because he would then not be their father, but a horrible Vourdalak.

For those that are not familiar with the term, and are too lazy to google it, a Vourdalak is a type of vampire or otherwise ghoulish being that comes back from the dead with intentions to dine on the blood of the members of its family. Some people think this is due to the fact that a family bond makes the blood to be rich in fiber and low in cholesterol, but I am sure that if this story were set in modern times, the Vourdalak would immediately suffer from high blood pressure, diabetes and many more health issues… but lucky for him, this story is set way before the fast food era. That being said, a Vourdalak and a vampire are not necessarily identical, therefore their lore, weakness, and such might be kinda different.

As long no one sparkles when the sun shines on them, it’s all good.

Back to the story.

Still wondering where their father is, the family decides to have a meal in the front yard (because why the hell not?), and their fears grows bigger when they hear the bells from the town announcing that in that moment 6 full days have passed. It is right there when the problems for the family arise (literally), because just after that, Jegor finds his father laying in the ground mere feet from them, barely breathing and clearly in pain.

Was he there the whole time? Is this sudden appearance an omen for tragedy? Is this movie reflecting on how we neglect our elders and we just notice them when they are gone? Those are all good questions, but Jegor has no time to ponder such philosophy, since he is just excited to see his father back… well, sort of. Without thinking twice, he carries Gorcha to the table with rest of the family, much to their dismay. Not because they were already counting the money from the inheritance they could have receive later on, but because they understand that something way more sinister may fall on them.

Old Gorcha proudly presents his family a trophy: the head of the Alibek; The Turk leader that escaped Jegor and his neighbors. But, besides the eldest brother, the family does not feel like celebrating, since they suspect that the person sitting now at the head of the table, might not be the same man that left the house days before.

And that as far I want to go, because I believe you need to see the rest for yourself.

If you haven’t read the original tale “The Family of The Vourdalak”, written, according to Saint Google, waaaaay back in 1839, by Aleksey Tolstoy, but somehow all of this feels somewhat familiar, it could be because you are a person of culture and have seen “Black sabbath”; An anthology film directed by Mario Bava where one of the segments brings the Vourdalak tale to life. The original story was also adapted in “The Night of the Devils” a film by Giorgio Ferroni, and there is even a Spanish TV show from the 70s that brought to the screen the tale of the Vourdalak, but I will talk about that show in another time. Oh yes, you bet I will.

I think is good to mention that although “Dracula” is a more popular book about a creature that comes from beyond the grave to feast on human blood, “The Family of The Vourdalak” was written about half century before Bram Stoker’s book was published, (I was not there, so I can not verify it, but lets assume it’s true!).

For now, let me tackle this new version that you will be able to see in American theaters starting June 28^th, and honestly, I recommend you to do so. Not only because we need to support independent horror films, but also because this is one of the good ones.

Let me start by saying that I liked this movie a lot, it has good atmosphere, and delivers a very nice Gothic tale that I would even include in the Folk horror section, and good news! This film just runs for 90 minutes and the director makes good use of all of them, not following the trend of lasting more than two hours just to look “Elevated”.

Although I will admit that the first 10-15 minutes might require some patience from the casual viewer, I felt this slow set up was needed, because it lets you know more about Sdenka and Piort, the other two siblings in the family, which will be important later on. Especially when we start to learn about the superstitions and legends that are common in their lands, hence their reaction to the return of the old Gorcha.

As the movie goes deeper in the plot, you can appreciate more the silence; the unspoken tension and the dread that is building up among all the members of the family, not to mention that there are a couple of scenes that made me jump in my seat, and this was done without the use of those dumb predictable jump scares that are just annoying and not scary at all.

(You know that I mean, that old technique of turning the volume all the way down or create a total silence in the scene, just to seconds later blast the speakers at full power). This has become a plague in recent horror films, so I implore you future Filmmakers.. STOP this stupid trend. It’s not scary, it’s annoying.

But I digress…

“The Vourdalak” does a great job balancing the tension, the horror and the folklore, but I think another great aspect was the drama. I loved how you can understand both sides of the conflict when the family starts to divide due not being sure if Old Gorcha is still human or not, and how this will bring them awful consequences at the end.

Now, I got to mention something that I believe will divide the audience: If you haven’t seen the trailer, I am tempted to tell to stay that way. But if you have seen it, you know that there is a creature in the film. So light spoilers ahead… warning… I guess?

The creators decided to use a puppet for the creature I mentioned earlier, and the design might be disconnect some people from the film. Since I am a big fan of practical effects and Puppetry, I felt it was a good decision in my opinion. It gives the creature a more disturbing, physical, and unnatural appearance that maybe a real actor could not do without suffering a very serious eating disorder, (no offense to Dough Jones or Javier Botet, because I love their work!) The creature’s appearance, combined with the voice of the director Adrien Beau, made the creature work great for me, even when it is shown in the light of day.

Again, if it doesn’t sparkle.. it’s all good.

Contrary of what it might seems, there is some gore in this film, and I loved that anyone, and I mean ANYONE could become a victim. (Have fun betting who survives at the end!) There are also some scenes that will leave you wondering what the hell did just happen, but I would recommend to keep an open mind. This is horror, and horror is art… and it tends to push envelopes. Pay attention to those dream sequences and to the sound effects, they are key to understand what is going on in several scenes. And now that I mentioned the sounds effect, let me tell you, that is another big reason why you should see this in the movie theater, and not on a laptop or, even worse, a cell phone while doing the laundry..

As I mentioned before, the film was directed by Adrien Beau, he has some short films made previously and this directorial debut made me interested in checking them out.

The script was co-written by Beau and Hadrien Bovier

The cast, that by the way I think did a very good job, includes the talent of Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed, Grégoire Colin, Vassili Schneider, Claire Duburcq, Gabriel Pavie, Erwan Ribard

and the director himself Adrien Beau, providing the voice for Gorcha.

Again, I recommend you to see this film when it gets released in American theaters on Friday June 28^th specially if you like twisted Gothic tales, vampires, or just want to support good independent films, things are grim in the world of cinema, and we need more of this stories to be told on this big screen.