Blu-ray, DVD Release: Les Vampires

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 14, 2012
Price: DVD $34.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Kino Lorber


Les Vampires movie scene

Musidora is sleek and sexy assassin Irma Vep in Louis Feuillade's classic 1915 serial Les Vampires.

The 1915 serialized silent adventure-crime movie Les Vampires is the greatest work of French filmmaker Louis Feuillade (Fantômas), the undisputed master of the espionage serial.

Comprised of ten episodes and clocking in at nearly seven hours, Les Vampires follows journalist Philippe Guérande (Édouard Mathé) in his efforts to expose a vast criminal organization known as “The Vampires.” Joined by a comical sidekick Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque), and often competing against a rival gang lord (Fernand Herrmann), Guérande dethrones a succession of the Vampires’ Grand Masters. But most evasive of all is The Vampires’ muse, a seductive assassin who performs her job with deadly grace: Irma Vep (Musidora).

Feuillade crafted his films with labyrinthine plots, narrow escapes and unforgettable characters—all of which went on to influence multiple generations of filmmakers, including Steven Spielberg, whose Indiana Jones series directly descends from Feuillade’s works.

Authorized by France’s Gaumont Studios, these new editions marks Les Vampires’ Blu-ray debut. It was mastered in HD from the 35mm restoration produced in 1996 by the Cinémathèque Française, under the supervision of Feuillade’s grandson, Jacques Champreux.

There are no bonus materials on the discs.

Here’s a list of the ten episodes that comprise the classic film:

Episode 1: The Severed Head
Episode 2: The Deadly Ring
Episode 3: The Red Cryptogram
Episode 4: The Spectre
Episode 5: The Corpse’s Escape
Episode 6: The Eyes That Mesmerize
Episode 7: Satanas
Episode 8: The Lord of Thunder
Episode 9: The Poison Man
Episode 10: The Bloody Wedding

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.