Pablo Larrain is difficult to classify. The Chilean filmmaker is not a horror director, nor especially brooding or joyless, but themes and tones of horror often creep into his work. Several of his earlier films are set against the backdrop of the Chilean military dictatorship, often from the point of view of eccentric and relatively apolitical people — a morgue worker (Post Mortem), an obsessive John Travolta impersonator (Tony Manero), a slick ad man (No). His muses since then have included disgraced Catholic clergy (The Club) and a bloodstained Jackie Kennedy (Jackie). 2021’s Spencer depicted Christmas with the British royal family from Princess Diana’s eyes, in somewhat the way Clarice Starling might see Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill.

Larrain’s latest film, El Conde (The Count), is a horror film at its most explicit and literal, though one that is also a comedy of sorts and more head-scratching than scary. Shot mostly in black and white, with shades of Nosferatu, this winsomely odd and audacious movie invites us to imagine an alternate version of history in which Augusto Pinochet, the U.S.-supported military dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990, was an actual vampire.