Der Vampir auf der Couch

From personal experience I know there's only one thing worse than zombie comedies, and that's vampire comedies! I vividly remember how much I hated painfully embarrassing films like "Love at First Bite" or "Vampire in Brooklyn", and even the almighty Mel Brooks failed to bring a smile on my face with his parody "Dracula: Dead and Loving it". Therefore I wasn't really planning to watch "Therapy for a Vampire" when it played at the Fantastic Film Festival in my country, but since I had nothing better to do I went to see it anyways. I'm very glad I did, in fact, as this Austrian/Swiss co-production turned out an incredibly pleasant surprise. Writer/director David Rühm was present at the festival to introduce his film, and that probably also helped me to appreciate the film even more, because he's a really amiable person and more than obviously a hard-working guy. This is Rühm's first film in 17 years and he explained that he needed this time primarily to gather funds and raise money for this ambitious project. The humor in "Therapy for a Vampire" is almost constant and often very sharp, but it never becomes vulgar or tasteless, and the film never turns into slapstick neither. The basic plot is quite inventive and David Rühm's explanation on how he thought up the idea makes perfect sense. Since they are immortal and forced to live only at night, it must be very difficult for vampires not to get depressed, especially since they cannot even stop and look at themselves in the mirror for a moment of reflection. This is what happens to Count Geza Von Kösznöm in Vienna in the year 1932. He seeks the help of the acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Sigmund Freud because he's bored with his life and tired of his wife Elsa's nagging that she can't admire her own beauty in the mirror. Freud suggests that his assistant Viktor could paint Elsa's portrait, but then Count Von Kösznöm spots Viktor's girlfriend Lucy and sees in her the reincarnation of his muse Nadilla whom he lost centuries ago. The Counts wants Lucy to become his new bride, but how do you get rid of an immortal wife? Apart from an inventive script and surefooted direction, "Therapy for a Vampire" also benefices from delightful costumes, set-pieces and … gore! The make-up effects are delightfully old-fashioned and even the special effects that are generated with the help of computers and modern techniques are admirable. The gimmick of making the world-famous psychiatrist pioneer Sigmund Freud a lead character was a brilliant idea of Mr. Rühm, and there are several more truly original comedy sequences, like for example the vampire lady walking around tipsy after having killed two drunken sailors ("Their blood was full of schnapps!") or Lucy accidentally falling in love with the Count's hideous sidekick Oscar when under hypnosis. "Therapy for a Vampire" isn't the type of film that will make an everlasting impression, or one that will show up in the lists of best genre films of the year, but it's a more than enjoyable horror/comedy and certainly worth an hour and a half of your time!

THERAPY FOR A VAMPIRE is an Austrian vampire comedy that involves two vampires, two humans & Sigmund Freud in a kind of slapstick love-quadrilateral. The jokes were a bit corny (vampire to Freud: "I no longer have a thirst for life") & I wish the film had actually focused on the THERAPY part, rather than the silliness of vampires falling in love (or lust) with humans. Why even get Freud involved if psychoanalysis isn't going to play a central plot point? The costuming & ambience were nice to look at, although the lighting was a little soap opera-esque (was that on purpose?). Meh.

Some things are not translating well and I'm not sure how this will play with audiences who're not familiar with the German/Austrian language. It can be a lot of fun, if you get into the mood. It's slapstick, but it's also a lot of wordplay. I don't think it gets too silly, but it's not like it's high class humor.

The acting is spot on, especially because everything is played straight, the characters are not comical or sketchy in a one dimensional way. They have character and they have issues. And all that put together produce situations that become great comedy. Watching it with company elevates the whole thing of course, and you shouldn't have an aversion towards horror movies (on the contrary you should have an open mind towards them)

Dr. Sigmund Freud (Karl Fischer) has many interesting patients, but perhaps none are so enthralling as Count Geza von Kozsnom (Tobias Moretti), who has become tired of life and full of angst. His wife, the Countess (Jeanette Hain) is vain and blood- thirsty, and his home is empty and gloomy. Freud is also spending time with artist Viktor (Dominic Oley), who is painting the dream images of Freud's patients, to the disgust of his girlfriend Lucy (Cornelia Ivancan). When the Count complains that his wife is nagging him to describe how she looks because she cannot see herself, Freud suggests that she employ Viktor to obtain a portrait of herself. It seems like a good idea at first, but then the Count sees Lucy, who it turns out is the spitting image of the long-lost love of his life.... This is a really funny gem of a film, full of witty word-play (the Count complains that he has no talent for "self-reflection," for example) and hilarious sight-gags. Director David Ruhm uses the supernatural traits of vampires with an almost off-hand ease, and perhaps invents some of his own (I never knew vampires had a counting compulsion!), and it's clear from the performances that the actors were having a wonderful time playing up and against the old vampire tropes. Terrific fun all around!

Comedy Gold in any language! I loved it. I have a passing familiarity with German, so I was mostly reliant on the subtitles for context and the actors for subtext. That sort of works out well anyway, because that's usually the way it goes with most films and in real life, too.