The Vampires or, The Arch Criminals of Paris

Les Vampires (1915) is a ten-episode French silent serial directed by Louis Feuillade — watch online on iFILM. Seven hours of Paris under siege. No supernatural creatures: the Vampires are a real criminal gang — thieves, kidnappers, killers — and the police are outmatched.

Journalist Philippe Guérande (Édouard Mathé) pursues them across rooftops and cellars while the gang keeps shifting shape and striking again. The serial's great discovery is Musidora as Irma Vep — black catsuit, unreadable composure, and a name that is an anagram of "vampire." She became one of the first genre-cinema icons.

Feuillade shot almost entirely on location in actual Paris streets and courtyards. The city feels genuinely infiltrated, not staged. André Breton and Louis Aragon declared their admiration in print — the serial fed directly into Surrealist ideas about cinema. Stream Les Vampires (1915) on iFILM.