10 Recent Horror Films You Need To Stop Sleeping On

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu may be the big Dracula movie of the past few years, but there are still some strong contenders to its title - and at a fraction of the budget. Adrien Beau’s French-language Vourdalak is one such film, set in 18th-century Europe, as Marquis Jacques Saturnin du Antoine (Kacey Mottet Klein) becomes lost in the Eastern reaches of the continent while on business for the King of France. Penniless and horseless, Jacques finds himself at the Gorcha homestead, where he’s promised a replacement ride and a few supplies.

Unfortunately, the peasant family who live there are beholden to Gorcha himself, their patriarch and a vampire.

Everything that gives films like Nosferatu their grand, gothic stature is undercut in this film, which is shot more like a ‘70s drama than a 2020s horror, and it relishes in its quirky aesthetic, especially the character design for Gorcha himself. Voiced by the director, Gorcha is a skeletal puppet who minces around his scenes with threatening allure - and nobody, not Jacques, the family or anyone acts as though this masterstroke of minor absurdity is anything but ordinary.

This humorous vampire flick is undeniably an acquired taste, but for those few who have been willing to give themselves over to its unique brand of horror and satire, it has paid eternally.