Pity poor Vidar…be-sodden with an eternally “ill” Mother and at the mercy of a Draconian Christian community, our hero has led an overbearingly monotonous existence keeping up the family farm while trying to conform to societal norms. Seeking escape, Vidar begs Jesus for salvation, looks at a Playboy, dreams of a naked demoness (a dream in which he sees himself as a vampire…that’s foreshadowing for ya), wakes up and smokes a cig, and heads to his barn where a vampire Jesus appears and forces our hero to give him a beej…which turns him into a creature of the night…a bloodsucker who also regularly attends therapy to figure out what condition his condition is in. Dammit Vidar, you are one mother fucker of a film!!
Moving on, Vidar begins a debauched journey into all of life’s (and afterlife’s) pleasures with that demon Jesus (there’s the ultimate dichotomy for you) egging him on all the way! Can our hero find his humanity while dealing with his new existence as a preternatural monster?
More a black comedy (with plenty to say on the monotony life can offer and the dangers of an ultra repressed lifestyle) rather than a laugh out loud, knee slappin’ guffaw fest; Vidar the Vampire nevertheless provides many a chuckle while forcing us to examine our place in society; to wit, what would we do if we were beyond the mortal world…what standards would we be held to? Would we fuck and feast to our heart’s abandon, or would we at least attempt to adhere to the laws we held dear as normal folk…heady stuff if I do say so myself, but also vastly entertaining due mainly to the triple thereat of Director/Writer/Star Thomas Aske Berg who presents Vidar as equal parts pitiable, lovable, and a reflection of ourselves…no simple feat and slightly above and beyond what you would expect from a simple “vampire horror comedy”…a great performance indeed, though all in this film are excellent!
As for the negatives, Vidar isn’t the fastest moving of films (even though it runs less than ninety minutes) and things do get rather slow at times, particularly during the second act. Is that a deal breaker? Not at all in my book, plus things pick back up in spades in the third act, so the uneven pace is short lived (plus the flat out insanity of Act One evens things out nicely in my opinion).
Surreal, philosophical, funny, and delightfully offensive; Vidar the Vampire is a true original in the horror biz…it holds a mirror up to ourselves, and unlike the bloodsuckers of lore, we can easily see ourselves reflected in our protagonist, and it’s an entertaining (and sometimes off-putting) journey well worth taking!
For more on Vidar the Vampire from Horror Fuel head here!