Forgotten film rises from the dead

You’ve got to admit, there’s a certain irony to a vampire film coming back from the dead.

For decades, it was generally thought that “A Fool There Was,” made in 1915, was the oldest surviving film featuring a vampire.

But then, James Aubrey, Ph.D., professor of English at Metropolitan State University of Denver, went digging around in the archives of the George Eastman Museum in New York. And to his delight, Aubrey rediscovered — you might even say unearthed — “The Vampire,” an even earlier film from 1913.

On March 4, MSU Denver’s Dphi will screen both films at the Sie Film Center, providing live piano accompaniment by students from the University’s Music program. Aubrey and Vincent Piturro, Ph.D., professor of Film and Media Studies at MSU Denver, will lead discussions after each screening. They offered their insights to RED.

How and when did you find this supposedly lost film in New York?

Aubrey: I first came across a still picture in 2019 of a vampiric-looking woman dancing around a male body, which apparently came from a little-known film called “The Vampire.” However, it wasn’t clear whether the woman had actually killed the man or was merely celebrating his demise. (Early films often featured “social vampires,” who ruined men financially and emotionally.)

Having discovered that the film was preserved at the Eastman Museum, I flew to Rochester last spring to watch it on a viewing device. And sure enough, I saw that the woman lured her unsuspecting male into the bushes, then killed him by pinning him down and biting him in the neck.

Did you immediately realize the significance of your discovery?

Aubrey: While the film’s existence had been previously known, it was difficult to access. And most vampire scholars had assumed that, like nine other similar films made between 1910 and 1922, it would be about a “social vampire” rather than a deadly blood-seeker. So it was quite a moment when my hunch was proved correct and the film turned out to contain the first and only known vampire attack in film history before “Nosferatu,” in 1922.

Few cinematic genres have proved as durable as the humble vampire flick. What qualities make them so persistent and memorable?

Piturro: For one thing, vampire films are very versatile and can work effectively in almost any era or language. Besides the classic Victorian vampire, you can easily find aristocratic vampires, vampire Westerns, Swedish child vampires, superhero vampires, even mockumentary vampires. The list is virtually endless.

These movies also often speak to the era in which they were made. “Nosferatu,” for example, is heavily imbued with post-World War I paranoia, while “Near Dark” speaks explicitly to the AIDS epidemic and “The Lost Boys” addresses rising divorce rates during the ’80s. But maybe most of all, vampire movies are incredibly sensuous and appeal to our voyeuristic nature, which makes them perfect for a movie theatre, where we are all voyeurs.

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How does “The Vampire” stand up against “A Fool There Was,” previously thought to be the first vampire film?

Aubrey: The earlier film that I discovered is more of a true “vampire” film, as we understand the term. In “A Fool There Was,” the seductress is seen more as a threat to domesticity than to anyone’s jugular vein, and her victim dies of suicide or alcoholic consumption rather than loss of blood. While both films are moralistic, cautionary tales aimed at unwary males, only “The Vampire” features a classic vampiric attack.

You’ve written books about and teach courses on vampire films. What is it about these movies that has led to such an enduring fascination?

Aubrey: For many people, part of the appeal of vampire stories lies in the erotic aspect of being kissed on the neck by a stranger in the night. That key element of danger both enhances the fantasy and complicates the story at the same time. Then, of course, there is also the appeal of eternal life, albeit one that would be twisted by macabre circumstances. My own movie fascination goes back to “Byzantium” (2012), which focuses on a vampiric mother and daughter being hunted by a misogynistic cult of male vampires.

Can you speak a little about how singular and rewarding you find the experience of watching a silent movie with live piano accompaniment?

Piturro: Well, silent film never was silent. It was always made to be shown with musical accompaniment. And in the early days, before they had specific sheet music, the performers just made tunes up every night, which added a dynamic and energetic quality.

That’s why, when you watch a silent film now with an added musical soundtrack, it seems a bit flat and loses all the energy — a bit like listening to your favorite band on record rather than watching them live. However, witnessing a silent film with live music is thrilling — it feels like you’re going back and forward in time simultaneously.

Most films from the silent era have, sadly, been lost forever. How valuable are the surviving films, in terms of what they can tell us about early cinematic techniques and social mores of the time?

Piturro: They are valuable beyond belief. We have so few films left, and fewer all the time. James Aubrey has done tremendous work in this field over the years, at great personal expense, to bring us numerous cinematic gems. Hopefully, the more events we do like this upcoming one, the more the film studios (or the George Eastman Museum, in this case) will be willing to save these precious little parcels from history.