The Vourdalak (Le Vourdalak)

What is very striking is for much of this film the Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d'Urfé played by Kacey Mottet Klein (d’Urfé from now on) keeps on his electric blue coat, his aristocratic wig and white-face pack. It strikes to set him apart from the family that take him in when his coach and retinue are attacked.

But then he oddly blends in with the patriarch Gorcha (Adrien Beau, also co-writer with Hadrien Bouvier and director) and his bone-hued appearance later in the film.

Plot wise there’s not much going on once d’Urfe has ensconced himself with the family. He only wants a horse so he can get on his way.

He gets caught up with a feud that elder brother Jegor (Grégoire Colin) is mixed up in that must be resolved by Gorcha who leaves an ominous note before he goes off to battle: If Gorcha doesn’t return, then he’s dead. But if he does return after six days, after 6pm he will be a Vourdalak – a sort of vampire that preys on family.

The rest of the family are Jegor’s wife Anja (Claire Duburcq), their son Vlad (Gabriel Pave), and his siblings Piotr (Vassili Schneider), and Sdenka (Ariane Labed) whom d’Urfré falls for.

Gorcha does return and here the film drifts from its gothic routes and ventures into the absurd. That is primarily because of the appearance of Gorcha elegantly voiced by Beau.

There is no attempt to disguise the ludicrousness of Gorcha, his mannerisms, and features are a grotesque blend of Nosferatu and grandpa Sawyer. Yet he holds the family and d’Urfé in awe and fear, with no respect for them.

The film is strangely compelling even if it doesn’t quite hang together as the black comedy its touted as. There are comic asides in conversations or when d’Urfé demonstrates the weird dances favoured by the French royal court.

What it does work hard on is the family dynamic and their interactions especially regarding their loyalty to Gorcha, even as he starts to become more dangerous.

The film is adapted from a novella by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy’s novella The Family of the Vourdalak (1839) which I haven’t read. However, the film appears faithful to the period using natural light and candles (a la Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon) which foil with the use of period instruments.

There’s a playfulness about the film with the weird family, French court frivolity and the appearance of Gorcha and his stranglehold on the household and to a certain extent, the viewer who may feel that they have become the victim, or are part of, an elaborate joke.

The Vourdalak will be on digital platforms on 16 September 2024