Fantastic Film Fest 2024 Review - The Vourdalak
Images courtesy of Original Spin.
Don’t hate me for not knowing how to be free.
Like any self-respecting gothic story, Adrien Beau’s French-language film Le Vourdalak sets the tone immediately by having the film open on a dark and stormy night. Here we meet our Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d’Urfe (Kacey Mottet Klein) a powdered-up diplomatic envoy of the King of France, stranded somewhere in the Balkans after being attacked by bandits, resulting in the murder of his escort and loss of all his possessions. He soon finds himself welcomed by the family of Old Gorcha, who is missing himself, having left 6 days earlier to avenge his family by hunting down the Turkish leader who destroyed their village. However, before doing so, warned his family that should he not be back before 6pm on the 6th day that they should accept that their father is gone and all that will be left in his place is an ‘accursed Vourdalak.’ Only the eerie Sdenka (Ariane Labed) and her non-conforming brother Piotr (Vassili Schneider) take his warning seriously, setting themselves up against dutiful eldest son Jegor (Grégoire Colin), determined to take charge of his family, whilst refusing to listen to ‘old wives tales’. And when Gorcha (voiced by Adrien Beau himself) returns as a decrepit skeleton of his former self, a minute after 6pm, it’s this blind loyalty from Jegor that allows the horrors to unfold.
Le Vourdalak is director Adrien Beau’s 91-minute feature-length film debut, having worked previously as a designer and visual artist. This appreciation for artistry shines through as Le Vourdalak is an absolute delight for the senses. The decision to film in Super 16mm only adds to the gothic elements, utilising its blurry nature to build upon the dark fairy tale nature of the plot, with the gentle overlaying haze of the camera making it seem like you’re experiencing the nightmare yourself. All of this is further complemented by an original score from Martin Le Nouvel and Maia Xifaras, drawing upon traditional slavic music with folk instruments.
The film is loosely based on Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy’s 1839 gothic novella La Famille du Vourdalak (The Family of Vourdalak). Beau draws upon the tale of the Vourdalak to tell a new story with modern commentary, creating a horrific dissection of patriarchal family roles and familial love, shown through Gorcha’s self-proclaimed adoration for his family, and simultaneous need to control them. The Vourdalak itself was Tolstoy’s twist on the traditional Slavic vampire, 50 years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula sensationalised him into a symbol of the repressed upper class. The film stays firm in this traditional folk imagery: there’s no sparkling bodies, or an alluring chalice filled to the brim with red here,instead we get the grotesque sucking of blood-soaked shrouds coupled with an unsettling skeletal-looking puppet.
The use of an animatronic puppet for the Vourdalak was a peculiar choice, especially in the modern CGI-drenched world of horror features. As admirable as the craftsmanship is, it’s one of the the only parts of the film audiences might struggle to engage with. The puppet resembled a homemade arts and crafts project, making it jarring against the rest of the film’s ethereal visual style. I’m still unsure whether this was a deliberate ploy from Beau to unnerve the audience and to divide the Vourdalak from the rest of the family, or a mere consequence of the low budget. Rest assured, the acting by the rest of the cast is phenomenal and more than makes up for the questionable puppet prop.Labed in particular shines as the heartbroken Sdenka, desperately trying to save her family as she goes against the two stubborn family patriarchs, a vast improvement to the Sdenka of the novella who only existed as a pretty girl for the Marquis to project his own obsessions upon.
So if decapitated heads, Tumblr-edit-worthy quotations about the human condition, traditional Slavic folklore, and harrowing cinematography are your thing, then look no further than Le Vourdoulak.
4 out of 5 blood drenched stakes.
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The Vourdalak is screened as part of Fantastic Film Festival Australia 2024. The festival ran from the 17th of April to the 10th of May, check out the festival website for more info here.