The Vourdalak

A proudly old-fashioned Gothic fable with grain and grit, the delectable “Vourdalak” is swift to announce in its early moments that we are in the hands of a skillful stylist.

It’s pitch black and stormy when the tale begins. There is a knock on some door by a fearful man whose face we don’t see at first. Whatever we don’t see, filmmaker Adrian Beau telegraphs in a cheeky duel of light and shadow every time a loud thunder interrupts the man’s pleas to be let in, and reflects his silhouette on the door. That pulsating reflection is enough to know that he’s donned an unmistakably aristocratic hat, and that “Vourdalak” is here to have some fun with such visual clues and tricks in its horror-adjacent cosmos.