The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) – Vampiric Projections II: Regression/Reversal & Slowing

The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck Storbritannia 1967 Regi Roman Polanski Manus Roman Polanski, Gérard Brach Foto Douglas Slocombe Med Jack MacGowran, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate & Alfie Bass 1t 48m DCP Engelsk tale, utekstet Aldersgrense 16 år

The second instalment in the Vampiric Projections program, titled Regression/Reversal & Slowing, begins with the screening of Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck (1967).

It has been observed that the vampire(s) can perform backward displacement: they either retreat backwards when their powers are compromised, or regress in the case of a servant vampire induced into trance/hypnosis by their master.
Film theorist Jacques Aumont, in his in-depth analysis book on Dreyer’s Vampyr (1932), wrote much about the vampire’s reversal of their: shadow, actions, and body poses inside many of the film’s frames.

The 1967 vampire comedy features unique cinematic bravura, especially in the quirkily baroque ball scene. Artist and film curator Oscar Debs will shed some focus on this sequence after the movie’s projection, in the context of his video essay project Vampiric Reflections. He will also suggest an alternative approach to this scene, within his observation and research into the reversal trope (with no intention to undermine the excellently-executed original sequence).