 Press in Europe ranged from mixed to negative . The press in Germany did not like the film . At the Berlin premiere , a writer for The New York Times wrote " Whatever you think of the director Charles [ sic ] Theodor Dreyer , there is no denying that he is ' different . ' He does things that make people talk about him . You may find his films ridiculous — but you won 't forget them ... Although in many ways [ Vampyr ] was one of the worst films I have ever attended , there were some scenes in it that gripped with brutal directness " . Press reaction to the film in Paris was mixed . Reporter Herbert Matthews of The New York Times wrote that Vampyr was " a hallucinating film " , that " either held the spectators spellbound as in a long nightmare or else moved them to hysterical laughter " . For many years after Vampyr 's initial release , the film was viewed by critics as one of Dreyer 's weaker works . 
