It is that time of year again, time for the great genre film festivals to bring this years crop of new and amazing films. Fantasia International Film Festival is under way and the first feature I’ve seen from them leads me to believe this is a very promising season indeed. It’s an amazing little horror comedy from Austria called Therapy for a Vampire. Let’s take a look!
Therapy for a Vampire
Start with the old European artistic style of a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, cross it with the vampiric zaniness of something like What We Do in the Shadows and you start to get a sense of what’s in store for you in the dazzling Viennese horror comedy Therapy for a Vampire. Set in 1930’s Vienna, Therapy presents a lush jazz age background to its touching and very funny tale of undead love. I found myself completely engrossed in this film’s dark fairy tale, its cast, and especially its remarkable art design.
Count Geza von Közsnöm is heartbroken for his lost maker and love who was beheaded centuries before. He feels no love for his current wife, a woman so vain she is still obsessed with the fact that she has no reflection. The Count has come to Vienna to seek out Sigmund Freud and receive psychoanalysis for his problem. Freud has an artist assisting him; drawing the patient’s dreams. During a session the Count spies a painting of the assistant’s girlfriend and believes her to be the reincarnation of his lost love.
Director David Rühm crafts this beautiful world with a master hand. There is incredible detail throughout the film and every shot is pretty much a work of art. The story is familiar, being not very far removed from the Dracula tale but the dry Germanic sense of humor keep the interest and the laughs coming. Therapy for a Vampire offers both homage to the long lineage of vampire films and some new surprises that truly make it a stand out entry in this year’s Fantasia International and a title not to be missed.
Adam Ruhl is a writer and life long Cinephile. He is the Executive
Cinema Editor of Pop Culture Beast’s Austin branch; covering festivals,
conventions, and new releases. When not filing reports, Adam can be
found stalking Alamo Drafthouse Programmers for leads on upcoming
DrafthouseFilms titles. Adam once blocked Harry Knowles entrance to a
theater until he was given extra tickets to a Roman Polanski movie.