MovieChat Forums > Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) Discussion > I don't understand what people like abou...

I don't understand what people like about this film

posted 9 years ago by brendanq19
4 replies | jump to latest

I do like silent movies but this particular one I found to be a chore to watch. I know the cinematography is great, and the movie is the first vampire film and one of the first horror films, so its very influential, but I don't see that as being enough to be able to classify this film as a masterpiece or even a really good movie.

The thing is, when I watched it I was interested at what might happen when Orlok would come on, but then the movie would often switch to the boring one dimensional protagonist Hutter for long periods of time, and thus Orlok wasn't shown enough or developed to any satisfying levels as a character. Ultimately, throughout the entire film I did not care at all about what would happen to Orlok or Hutter, and therefore the tension that the film was trying to create was lost.

I found the story to be a bit too needlessly overdrawn and tediously paced, and the title slides were often really long and a bore to sit there and read through.

I also had a problem with some of the hammy acting. I understand this film is German Expressionism and exaggeration is a characteristic of it, but I feel its very dated in some cases here. Max Schreck's performance as Count Orlok actually worked somewhat well, but for some actors like Wangenheim (Hutter), I couldn't help but to laugh at the goofy acting, even during scenes where I was supposed to be scared or tense.

Those are my thoughts. Do you feel the same way as I do? Or is there something that you think I'm missing that's keeping me from enjoying it? I know there are a lot of people who enjoy this movie so I'm curious.

[–] Rick_Grimes_RG 9 years ago

The ironic thing is that this is the earliest surviving vampire film and still the scariest to a large amount of people
.

To me at least, there has always been an otherworldly quality to this film. Something that makes it more "real" than other films. And this is NOT because of that frankly terrible movie Shadow of the Vampire. I actually felt this way before its release.

-Rick Grimes

[–] brendanq19 9 years ago

Interesting. What made it feel more "real"? Is it that its so old and came out before the Dracula concept got reduced to cliches?

[–] Rick_Grimes_RG 9 years ago

That may be one of the reasons.

The Orlok character doesn't seem to be even remotely like the modern-day interpretation of a seductive and good looking vampire. I guess to me, if there were real vampires (or a vampire-like demonic entity) they would be more horrifying than anything else. They could try to disguise themselves (like The Strain), but I doubt they would care to do so unless world domination or something is their plan.

Max Schreck is also a very elusive and mysterious actor. I have searched for information about him, but it is all very brief and vague, almost as if he wasn't even real. I know that's obviously not the case, but it's just the feeling I get.

Plus the old age of the film gives it a "really there at the time and not pretending" feel.

It's kind of hard to put all of it into words, but it's just one of those movies that doesn't feel like "just" a movie.

-Rick Grimes

[–] [deleted] a year ago

[deleted]