Today’s Dracula vampire is brought to you by France (by way of Russia).

The Vourdalak (2023):

The Plot: The Marquis d’Urfé (Kacey Mottet Klein), an emissary of the King of France, takes refuge with a strange peasant family after being waylaid by bandits in 18th-century Eastern Europe. Told to seek aid from the elderly Gorcha (Adrien Beau), d’Urfé instead finds the patriarch’s three adult children awaiting their father’s return from an ill-advised quest to kill the leader of a marauding band of Turkish brigands: Tough eldest son Jegor (Grégoire Colin), along with his wife Anja (Claire Duburcq) and child Vlad (Gabriel Pavie); witchy daughter Sdenka (Ariane Labed); and cross-dressing youngest son Piotr (Vassili Schneider). Before he left, Gorcha warned his children that if he did not return in six days, it would mean he had died fighting. However, if he returned after the six days were up, it would be as a vourdalak, a kind of vampire that feeds on the blood of its loved ones. Naturally, d’Urfé realizes that he has arrived on the sixth day. That evening, something claiming to be Gorcha emerges from the woods…

Based on a novella by 19th-century Russian author Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (not the Anna Karenina one), The Vourdalak has the tone of a campfire tale. It even opens on a dark and stormy night, with a suspicious face peering out from behind a barred door at an unseen traveler. The movie was shot on Super 16 mm, and the film grain pairs with cinematographer David Chizallet’s use of natural lighting to give the woodland setting a dreamlike quality.

Cavorting through these woods is d’Urfé, whose powdered face, bright blue frock, and courtly mannerisms make him at once comical and oddly effective as an audience surrogate. He is a representative of the “civilized” world. These rural superstitions are as foreign to him as they are to us. Klein gives an effective performance, conveying the character’s sillier aspects and hidden depths with equal finesse. d’Urfé is a fussy, vain little man, but he is also observant. After the intrigue of the French Court, sussing out complicated family dynamics comes naturally. He is a bit of a coward who displays, not quite heroism, but decency.

The rest of the cast are equally effective, giving similarly mannered performances without sacrificing the emotional core of their characters. However, they are somewhat let down by the script, which doesn’t always capitalize on the drama suggested by its premise. Piotr’s cross-dressing, for example, isn’t really used to develop the character or the family. Traits and backstories are there for d’Urfé to learn and Gorcha to briefly exploit. The film takes its characters seriously enough, but keeps them at arm’s length.

Perhaps the most interesting choice in The Vourdalak is also, unfortunately, another area where the film undercuts its own character development: Gorcha is portrayed by a marionette. The titular creature looks like a Mike Mignola drawing come to life, lip-less and emaciated. It’s very creepy, but it makes it obvious right from the start that Gorcha has returned as a vourdalak. Given the premise of the movie, that isn’t really a surprise to the audience, but the story unfolds as if it is a surprise to the characters, a creeping suspicion that leads to a horrifying revelation. Their denial feels implausible, even as the film asks us to take the family’s emotional pain seriously.

Voiced and performed by director Adrien Beau, Gorcha is a compelling villain, scary and a little sassy. He just feels out of sync with the rest of the film in a way that lessens the impact of the premise. The Vourdalak needs either a less artificial monster or a more artificial world. Maybe I’ve just been watching a lot of silent films recently, but I couldn’t help but long for the angular sets of Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or the storybook theatricality of Ernst Lubitsch’s The Doll. If you’re going to go with a marionette, then really go for it, I say.

Still, The Vourdalak is a strong first feature. Beau works with a talented cast to tell an engaging, creepy tale. Those looking for an off-beat Halloween treat will find plenty to like here: Stormy nights, foreboding woods, and a (full-sized) wee little puppet man.

The Vourdalak is available to rent on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Apple TV Plus.