“The Thing in the Coffin” is an experimental horror film made entirely from digital and analogue footage of old vampire movies. Dozens of Dracula adaptations – including 35mm, 16mm, Super 8, and digital prints – are used and transformed through various forms of material decay and distortion, such as film rot, dyeing, glitch effects, digital manipulation, reprinting, and re-filming. The resulting abstract flow of images offers a unique, sensuous reinterpretation of Bram Stoker’s gothic novel, amplifying its spectral eroticism and haunting aesthetic. Evoking the visual language of silent cinema, “The Thing in the Coffin” unfolds through intertitles (taken from the literary text) and is accompanied by an original score. In the end credits, the list of the films ’cited’ is impressive, making Lichter’s work an archive of film history in itself. – Pesaro Film Festival
Péter Lichter
HU 2026 | German Premiere
62 min | no dialogue
Péter Lichter
Born in Hungary in 1984. He studied film history and theory at ELTE University in Budapest. He has been making experimental found-footage and documentary films since 2002. He writes books on film and teaches at the Department of Film and Visual Studies at the University of Pécs in Budapest.
Films (selection)
No Signal Detected 2013 (Kurzfilm) (9. UX) | Frozen May 2017 | The Rub (with Bori Máté) | Empty Horses 2019 | The Philosophy of Horror (with Bori Máté) | Barokk Femina 2020 | The Mysterious Affair at Styles 2022 | The Grey Machine 2025 | The Thing in the Coffin 2026
D+B+E+P: Péter Lichter | S: Kovács-Vajda Bence | M: Bence Kovács-Vajda, Anna Bölöni