Vampire Horror Movie Over A Century Old Rediscovered

The Vampire movie is the story of how one man allows a seductress to destroy the life he has built for himself. Harold Brentwell (Harry F. Millarde) takes a job in the city to save money so that he and his fiance Helen (Marguerite Courtot) can marry. But Harold’s life takes an unexpected turn when he has a chance meeting with Sybil (Alice Hollister).

Sybil is a vampire and uses Harold up by sucking the life out of him and the money out of his bank account. The Vampire sees Harold lose his good job in part due to his infatuation with Sybil and quickly is bled dry of cash. Once Harold is penniless, Sybil abandons him.

Harold is a shell of his former self. He begins drinking heavily and wandering the streets of the city. In a moment of desperation, Harold decides that the only way he can make money is to commit robbery, an action that he thankfully ponders beforehand while he’s in a theater trying to pass the time.

The performance Harold watches in The Vampire movie gives Harold the eye-opening moment that he’s needed since he met Sybil. He watches “The Vampire Dance,” a duet dance that follows a woman vampire luring in an unsuspecting male victim, bleeding him dry of money before sinking her fangs into his jugular and killing him.

Drawing parallels to himself and Sybil, Harold realizes what a fool he’s been and resigns himself to becoming a better person.

The Vampire movie finds Harold getting the redemption that he so desperately was seeking. He cleans up, lands a great job, and is reunited in the city with Helen.

But Sybil is still lurking by, ready to drain him once again unless Harold possesses a strength he didn’t have before.

The Vampire was a United States production directed by Robert G. Vignola, one of the masters of the silent film era. With this particular film, Vignola can be credited with the creation of the femme fatale movie trope, which has a woman capable of luring in weaker men and brutally destroying their lives.

In the horror genre, bloodsucking women with the femme fatale persona are known as vamps.

The Vampire movie was one of scores of films from the silent era that was thought to be forever lost. For decades, only a handful of stills survived which hardly painted the entire mood of the film or captured the brilliance of its performers.

Thankfully, a print of the film was discovered a few years ago and has been preserved by the George Eastman Museum film archive.

The Vampire isn’t available to stream and can currently be viewed when the museum hosts screenings of the film from time to time.

The oldest surviving vampire film joins the likes of Nosferatu, Haxan, and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari as remnants of the silent era’s masterpieces of horror.