1922 was when vampires were vampires not horny emotional teenagers with big teeth unlike Twilight. Nosferatu was directed by F.W. Murnau and starting Max Schreck as the Count Orlok. It's a chilling and eerie adaption of Stoker's Dracula, following the same plot somewhat and ever since it has first came to the screens in 1922, it has become a silent masterpiece of terror which to this day is the most striking and frightening portrayal of the legend. The old grainy black and white footage, and low frames per second recording somehow add to the creepiness of this film. Since it's public domain though, there have been several different re-releases over the years, a lot of which have music and voice overs that just seems out of place. It's hard to decide, when there is so many version of the film. There is a version where the music by Type O Negative
somewhere. Some of the campy music; there are moments when the tension of the music doesn't even fit what's happening on the screen. It's sad to watch. The original music was more Gothic in nature and better fit the feel for the movie. The music was originally composed by Hans Erdmann but the score was never recorded. This song is by far the greatest soundtrack to this movie! All the re-mastered versions suck! Not only did the remastered versions mess up the score, but also the picture by making it gold and blue. One problem in the film, is you can't really tell the different between night and day in this film
so it's better to have it black and white for the picture. W. Murnau originally filmed Nosferatu in a color tinted version not black and white, for instance Murnau shot the night scenes in a blue tint and the day ones in a gold tint which really works at the end of film with the rising of the sun. The Kino DVD of Nosferatu is really beautiful. It's amazing how great actors had to be, by telling the story by body expressing. Max Schreck acting in Nosferatu is chilling. The Orlok make-up is so timeless. He doesn't close his eyes at any time during the film, which I find rather creepy. He was an eccentric who took his parts so seriously he remained in character during the entire shoot. Max was already known for his quirky and often seen as weird or obscure habits. He was a loner who enjoyed playing grotesque characters and mainly lived in his own world. It's a trait that adds to Schreck's macabre appearance. The other actors acting are somewhat slow and awkward. Gustav v. Wangenheim is just awful as Hutter. Makes you appreciate this classic! Interesting thing is that the name credits in this B&W film at the beginning are a bit off because Murnau didn't use any of the character's names from the original Stoker novel when he filmed Nosferatu so Bram Stoker's widow wouldn't sue him and his company, (she did though) which is why in the original German titles you have names like 'Graff Orlock' instead of Count Dracula and 'Hutter' in place of Harker and 'Ellen' in place of Mina. Only very loosely based on Bram Stoker's novel, which, I guess would have been too complex to make a film of without dialogue - and is probably over-complex anyway. It's better than Dracula somewhat. Thank goodness that the widow of Bram Stoker couldn't burn all the film due to the suing of Nosferatu. We are lucky to see this film due to that. True horror enters the soul and disturbs us, like a insecure feeling of helplessness. This film holds those emotions after all these years, it still frightens many people.
Review of Nosferatu
