Vourdalak — The

There was a noise like a snap as something within Dmitri broke. He let out a cry that was more animal than human, and for an instant his mouth opened wide enough for a shadow to pass through. The servants closed ranks, but the thing that moved in Dmitri was not the boy they had known. It was clever, deceptive—one moment pleading, the next slavering.

The story follows the Marquis d’Urfé, a refined French diplomat played with delightful vanity by Antonin Meyer-Exner. After his carriage breaks down in a remote, fog-drenched forest, he seeks refuge in the home of a grim rural family. The Vourdalak