Dreyer's film is all atmosphere-all one atmosphere, unified by a silvery gray tonality and gossamer texture, everyone and everything appearing bloodless or dematerialized. "This strange, unique film is the supreme example of horror sensed rather than seen, evil suggested rather than exposed. The story...concerns a young man, David Gray, who comes to spend a night in a lonely inn....In the middle of the night-a weird, non-dark, creeping night-a stranger slips into his room and gives him a parcel, telling him to open it should the stranger die....Shadows have apparently no solid counterparts; weird unexplained sounds are heard, such as barking dogs and crying children where none exist; characters appear and disappear without reason or motive; at any moment, one feels buildings and persons are liable to dissolve into mist. Only evil itself is real-and that is invisible." (Ivan Butler, The Horror Film)