Vampir is inspired by the real vampire cases that occurred in Serbia in the early 1700s. Those were the origin of vampires. Though the film is set in modern times it's based on those myths, superstitions and folk elements. Tomovic wanted to show a more mysterious side of Serbia.
The film also serves as an allegory of an immigrant child who was raised abroad and comes back to his ancestry's country, where he is confronted with the local habits, traditions and way of life which are hard to accept at first.
Branko Tomovic on inspirations for Vampir (Interview for TerrorWeekend): "I take most of my inspiration from paintings. And nightmares. I love genre cinema as there is no limit to your imagination, you can go as crazy and wild as you wish, as long as it makes sense in this little world you are creating. I love European directors who have their own strong and distinctive voice. But for Vampir my influences go way back to early horror classics like Dreyer's "Vampyr" from last century or "Carnival of Souls" or the early "Twilight zone". And I love absurd things and surrealism so I wanted my film to feel very claustrophobic and enhance the paranoia of the main character and create this very Kafkaesque feeling of no escape. Edward Hopper's paintings are a huge influence for my work. The use of shadows and light and also the theme of loneliness is definitely present in our film. When we shot it September it was still 33C and very sunny outside. So I wanted the house to feel like the opposite. We have those blinds with light beams shining through but it's always dark inside the house. I have also used the painting "Dante and Vigil" by Bouguereau as an inspiration for our vampire attack. But made it more violent, the knee is being rammed into Arnaut's back and then he gets bitten in this weird uncomfortable position. The intestine crank scene is also from an old Dutch painting, as that was a torture method in medieval times. But I thought it would be cool to add those long rusty nails so you can attach the intestines to it. So in a way I always try and see the beauty in all these dark elements."
Vampir marks the horror debut for Balkan screen legend Eva Ras (81) in her 61-year old career. Her extensive acting career includes "It rains in my village" (directed by Aleksandar Petrovic, Cannes 1969), "When Father was away on Business" (directed by Emir Kusturica, Cannes Winner 1985, Nominated for Golden Globe and Academy Award 1986) and other films directed by acclaimed directors Dusan Makajev, Zivko Nikolic and Ferenc Kardos.
Filming took place during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.