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Genuine: The Tale of a Vampire (1920) - Robert Weine

Genuine: The Tale of a Vampire from 1920 was the first movie to inspire me to take this path. Unfortunately the version that I watched was presented as a special feature on my Cabinet of Dr. Caligari DVD. That meant that I only got the condensed version that is absent of about 5 or 6 minuets of footage.

This movie is one of the most interesting takes on Vampirism. The Vampire in the movie is named Genuine (Fern Andra). She is more of a savage succubus rather than a Vampire. This is where this movies whole Vampire take is really interesting. Genuine feeds on men that she has a sexual allure over. She uses this allure to have the unsuspecting men do her bidding.

This is really a great movie that could definitely be on par with Caligari. If it could only be cleaned up and presented in that way. The art of this movie is just non-stop amazing expressionist work. Definitely go see this movie. You will not be sorry.

  • A 43-minute condensation of this silent film can be found as an Extra Feature on the Kino Video DVD of _Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The (1920)_ The full-length version can only be viewed at the Munich City Film Museum archive in Germany. 
  • In Germany this film is called Genuine, die Tragödie eines seltsamen Hauses.
  • The film's sets were designed by the Expressionist painter César Klein. 
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Comments

Unknown said…
I've never heard of this movie. Where do you get these movies Sid? I do like the amount of work they used to put into sets and costumes back in the day. It was a true art-form that few productions try and accomplish in modern film. Are you seriously going to watch EVERY horror movie ever made? That will take a life time... But it will make things easier for me, cause I only want to watch every GOOD horror movie ever made. If you give it 5 stars, I'll watch it. Thanks for doing all the hard work buddy!
August 9, 2009 at 5:35 PM
Anonymous said…
Where is this bazaar where fucking vampires are for sale? I bet it was that one old dude from Gremlins who sold Gizmo as a household pet. "yea. This is a good vampire. Just keep her in your basement...Yea, yea throw a pad lock on there, should be fine. feed her a virgin once a week and keep her watered, change her litter box".
August 19, 2009 at 7:36 PM
Anonymous said…
Good luck! I started on a similar project in 2003, publishing my reviews in a fanzine. I'm past 100 issues and 1,000 horror movies now, and still going strong (plus it pays a pretty penny) ...

Erwin "Bathos" Neutzsky-Wulff

http://www.moviemags.com/last.php?type=Fanzine
December 10, 2010 at 6:28 AM
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