Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire (1920)
Directed by Robert Wiene

Film Review

Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920) was never going to be an easy act to follow but its director, Robert Wiene, made a reasonable stab at it with his next foray into expressionist horror, Genuine, die Tragödie eines seltsamen Hauses, released seven months later.  Better known by its slightly misleading English title, Genuine the Vampire, this stylised horror film features a monstrously beguiling female, played by American actress Fern Andra, who perfectly embodies the screen siren or femme fatale that would soon become one of cinema's most enduring icons.  Although Wiene's female fiend is more vamp than vampire she is one of the most terrifying creations that the horror genre yielded in the silent era, every bit as deadly as Murnau's Nosferatu, but infinitely more alluring.

Genuine the Vampire shares the aggressively expressionistic design of Caligari (on both films, the wildly distorted sets, decorated with dizzying swirls and jagged patterns, were created by the painter Walther Reimann), but the style of acting is far more exaggerated.  In some scenes, the actors resemble statues that have been brought to life, their movements jerky and deliberate, adding to the impression that what we are witnessing isn't real life but a dream.  The plot has a vagueness, a lack of coherence and logic about it that is also suggestive of a confused dream experience.  Freudian symbolism abounds, the most evident being Genuine's slow vertical ascent from her underground prison.  Of course Genuine, the object of desire to which all men are drawn as surely as moths to a naked flame, is not a woman but the personification of Death.
 
As is fundamental to expressionistic art, Genuine the Vampire attempts a visual represention of those dark neuroses and deadly desires that plague our subconscious minds and govern our conscious behaviour.  Whilst the film is a striking example of expressionistic cinema, one of the most daring of its time, its combination of lurid erotica and graphic horror was too much for a 1920s cinema audience.  Since its unsuccessful first showing, it has been all but forgotten, buried in the shadow of Wiene's most popular film.  Genuine the Vampire may not have the enduring appeal of Caligari, but it is just as hauntingly expressive of the madness that lies at the centre of our being - the same vortex of terror that fuels all our fantasies, dreams and neuroses, and which Edvard Munch captured so perfectly in his famous painting The Scream.

Film Synopsis

A young artist named Percy has completed a painting of Genuine, a high priestess with an irresistible allure.  Since, he has become withdrawn, preferring the company of his creation to that of his friends.  Whilst reading a book which recounts Genuine's real-life exploits, the artist falls asleep and the high priestess steps out of her picture frame.  After a war in which her own people are conquered by another tribe, Genuine is carried off and sold into slavery.  She is bought by a reclusive old man named Melo, who imprisons her in a richly adorned room in the basement of his grand house.  Despite Genuine's desperate appeals to be set free, Melo refuses to let her go.  The odd behaviour of Melo has aroused the suspicion of the townsfolk.  His barber is summoned by the judge to answer questions, and in his place he sends his nephew Florian to attend to the old man.  By now, Genuine has managed to escape from her subterranean prison.  She compels Florian to cut Melo's throat whilst shaving him and then sets about seducing him.  Genuine orders Florian to prove his love for her by killing himself.  The young man manages to escape from the temptress, just before Percy, Melo's grandson, arrives at the house.  Genuine wastes no time luring her second victim to his doom...