The Vampires or, The Arch Criminals of Paris (1916) on Netflix

An intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.

As a spate of grisly murders and mysterious disappearances terrorise Paris, the inquisitive reporter for The Globe, Philippe Guérande, and his loyal ally, Oscar Mazamette, embark on a peril-laden mission to expose the Vampires: a nefarious, well-connected organisation of arch-criminals preying on the innocent. But in this white-knuckle cat-and-mouse game of death, the dauntless companions are up against formidable adversaries, the Grand Vampires, and the sinister underground society's murderous muse: the gracefully deadly assassin, Irma Vep. In the imminent, once-and-for-all final confrontation with the forces of evil, can valiant Philippe and Mazamette thwart the Vampire menace before more people have to suffer?

—Nick Riganas

[US release - 1916] Episode One: "The Detective's Head" The terrible crimes of a mysterious band of law-breakers nicknamed the Vampires have made all France fear these desperate men. No one has been able to discover who they are. A young reporter on Mondial, a newspaper, Philip Guard, has been receiving anonymous notes in a feminine handwriting. He is publishing what clues he has found when Detective Durtal's headless body is found at St. Clement. The officer had been sent there to follow a Vampire clue, and his death is a warning from the band. Philip Guard asks his paper to send him to St. Clement. Philip's mother tells him that near St. Clement lives an old friend of his father's, Dr. Nox. She fears for her son's life and makes him promise that he will seek Dr. Nox's protection. He does so, and meets there a Mrs. Simpson, an American woman, who is thinking of buying Dr. Nox's chateau. Philip is distressed the first night to find that a picture hides an empty space in the wall which could be used to conceal a bulky package. In the pocket of his dressing robe he also finds a message from the Vampires, warning not to seek further clues. The next morning Mrs. Simpson discovers that during the night she has been robbed of both jewels and money. Philip discovers that her jeweled cigarette case has been placed in his pocket. He hurries to the authorities with latest news of the Vampires, and is followed by Mrs. Simpson and Dr. Nox, who accuse him of the theft. His accusers are detained in a room at police headquarters while Philip returns to the chateau with the magistrate to investigate. In the hidden closet behind the picture is found a box containing the head of Detective Durtal. It had been put there only a few hours previous, for, when Philip discovered the place, it was empty. Philip returns with the magistrate to find that Mrs. Simpson left a note acknowledging that he was a Vampire, and that six months previously the band had murdered the real Dr. Nox. The newspaper reporter hurriedly returns to Paris, feeling the next developments will be in the city. The Vampires discover that Philip Guard is learning of their movements from Marfa Koutiloff, a Russian dancer. She discloses her identity to Philip, who hastens to meet her. At the same time, in her dressing room at the theater, she receives a visit from a friend, Baron Mortense. The Baron gives her a ring, accidentally scratching her with one of its sharp points as he places, it on her finger. He then goes to his box to watch her dance. Marfa attempts to dance, but falls dead on the stage. Philip, who has met Baron Mortense in the dancer's dressing room, immediately suspects him of being a Vampire. He does not wait to see what happens to Marfa, knowing that the Vampires have finished her. He follows her executioner, the man who is the grand Vampire. The band is too sharp for him. In turn he is followed and captured. The decree of the judge of the Vampires is that he is to be killed at dawn. The man left to guard Philip is Normandin, a Vampire working for the Mondial. He recalls how Philip has helped him and decides to liberate him. When the judge returns, Philip and Normandin bind him and cover his face. They then escape. It is their aim to capture as many of the band as possible. Under their leadership the police surround the cellar in which the execution is to take place. Before the Vampires can uncover the face of the bound and gagged man, they hear the police breaking in. As they make their escape through the underground passage, they determine that Philip shall not be rescued. They shoot the bound man, not knowing that it is their own comrade they are executing.

—Moving Picture World synopsis

[US release - 1916] Episode Two: "The Red Notebook" When Philip Guard and the police broke into the cellar where the Vampires had planned to execute him. The mysterious bandits fled through an underground passage. However, one of them dropped a red notebook which contained a mere jumble of letters. Guard, a wide-awake newspaper man, finally deciphered it, and from its pages learned many of the secrets of the Vampires. Upon finding that the book had come into the reporter's possession, the desperate men planned to get it back. A spy was set to watch him. but Philip escaped from his home unnoticed and made his way to a café in the slums where the band often met. At the café, Guard was surprised to find that a pretty woman who sang there, Irma Vep, appeared to be in league with the Vampires. The Grand Vampire, or as he was known, The Great Julot, soon led his followers into an inner, secret room. Here the reporter was unable to follow them. Returning home, he was overtaken by the breaking of day and knew that it would be hard to escape the spy. Fortunately, he remembered that the chimney in his room was very large, and down this he climbed to escape observation. No sooner was he in his room than a brick about which a note was tied came crashing down the chimney. It said: "A friend who knows the house is watched is waiting above for you to make a signal in the chimney, as he must pay you a short visit." Philip burned a newspaper in the fireplace as a signal. Soon Normandin crawled out of the chimney. Normandin warned Philip of the Vampires' scheme to do him harm and at the same time recover the red notebook. He gave Philip a fountain pen filled with a deadly poison, which he had stolen from the Grand Vampire. No sooner had Normandin disappeared up the chimney than a ring of the bell announced the arrival of Amie Goff, a new maid. Mrs. Guard found nothing unusual about her, but Philip, instinctively suspected the pretty young woman. He kept wondering where he had seen her flashing eyes before. When Amie had been observed by Philip trying to drug him, he knew that she was a Vampire. The girl thought that she had administered a sleeping potion. Word came for Mrs. Guard that her brother had been dangerously injured. Despite the lateness of the hour she set out to go to him. Philip was unable to accompany her, but he pressed upon her the poison pen which he had received from Normandin. Mrs. Guard had been tricked. Her brother had not been injured. She found herself in the clutches of the Vampires. A mute, Father Silence, was left to guard her and extort from her a letter to her son telling him to come to her. Mrs. Guard stabbed Father Silence with the poisoned pen, and made her escape from the den. She hastened home to find that Amie Goff had admitted a Vampire to search for the red notebook. Philip had shot him, as he thought, and then hurried for the police. Upon his return they ad vanished, and when his revolver was examined it was found that the Vampires had substituted blank cartridges for those which he had himself placed in the chambers. The Great Julot, the Vampire admitted by the maid, who was herself Irma Vep, hastened with the girl to the den of Father Silence in the hope of finding Mrs. Guard there. What they found was the dead body of their comrade. The Vampires swore a mighty oath to continue their efforts to kill Philip Guard.

—Moving Picture World synopsis