Due to its stylistic similarities with Feuillade's other crime serials Fantômas and Judex they often considered a trilogy. Stylistically, the film is done in a pulp fashion, being made quickly and inexpensively with very little written script. Despite being critically unpopular at the time of its release, due to its poor quality compared to other films and dubious morality, Les Vampires was a massive success with its War-time audience, making Musidora a star of French cinema. However, it has slowly gained critical acclaim and understanding, and is now arguably Feuillade's best known work and most revered. It is recognised for developing thriller techniques in cinema, later adopted by Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang, and avant-garde cinema, inspiring Luis Buñuel and others.
In this bit from the serial drama, our hero's mother (played by Delphine Renot) is gagged and kidnapped via horse-drawn carriage by the Vampires and later seen bound to a chair and forced to write a letter to her son demanding he hand over a red notebook containing details of The Vampires' various crimes. her captor has some sort of an attack and she lets the man pass out, fetches the key from his pocket, unlocks the door and flees.
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