'Nosferatu' review by MartialHorror

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NOSFERATU, A SYMPHONY OF HORROR(1922)
(Directed by F.W Murnau)

"Symphony indeed"- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: A Nosferatu(vampire) becomes infatuated with the (neck of the) wife of a real estate agent. Also known as "Nosferatu the Vampire", "Nosferatu, a symphony of terror" and "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens".

Review:

"Nosferatu" just might've beaten out "Frankenstein" as the oldest movie that I've ever seen. When I say 'might've', I mean I don't recall seeing anything older than "Frankenstein". Obviously "Nosferatu" is the older movie. Sure, I've seen movie shorts in film class, but I don't really count those. I've constantly heard famous critics, filmmakers, and fans laud this relic of a vampire movie as one of the greatest horror films of all time. Indeed, its legacy continues to this day. There is a movie called "Shadow of a Vampire", which is a fictional account of the making of "Nosferatu". The title of that film is really fitting, because the shadow of "Nosferatu" covers countless movies of various genres. But despite all of this, I suspect that you will like the films reputation more than the actual movie. Good or bad, silent films from this time had a completely different style. You might think that you can take the lack of recorded dialogue, but it goes beyond that. The absence of dialogue seems to effect every little aspect of the film. So watching "Nosferatu" is like stepping into a completely different world of cinema, and I hope I can clarify some of the issues that you might have. Here is a hint as to how you should proceed: Keep an open mind.

The film opens up with some exposition using........Ugh, how do I explain it. They were called on-screen intertitles(God bless wikipedia), where a photographed title card would explain the story to us or give the actual dialogue. The writing looked a lot like the following sentence: My eyes are poor and I have difficulty reading this fancy style of writing damn you!(Note: imdb doesn't support the format change, but the style is Brush script MT) Translation: "My eyes are poor and I have difficulty reading this fancy style of writing damn you!". I'm probably exaggerating on the style a bit, but I often had to squint to read. But anyway, we're quickly introduced to Hutter(Wangenheim), our hero. Personally, this dude is way too pasty faced and over-the-top for me to take seriously. He looks like the type of dude that you'd never leave alone with your kids, if you know what I mean. Must....keep.....open mind. Actually, he is meant to be a pristine representation of masculinity. He looks at himself in the mirror in the opening scene, acting like a narcissist. Then we can't help but notice that he isn't really fulfilling the needs of his devoted-but-frigid wife, Ellen(Schroder). When he gets the job to visit Count Orlok(Schreck), who is interested in buying a house in the area, he agrees even though it will mean that he'd be gone for awhile. This obviously dismays Ellen. Hutter isn't completely unlikeable because he's well intentioned, but he is kind of a douchebag.

The pacing REALLY lags until Hutter finally meets Orlok, which is kind of strange because I think only 20 minutes or so go by. Oh wait, I forgot to bring up my first big criticism. Hutter is off to Transylvania, forced to stay at an inn for the night because the locals are afraid of a werewolf. Seriously, the werewolf effect looks really bad. Must.....keep.....open mind. But sure, this was made in the 20's so you can't really fault it that much. But this whole scene fails to be terrifying and it's kind of pointless. The werewolf never even shows up again! Anyway, Hutter finally meets the super creepy Orlok. The makeup effects for Orlok are really good, and he is probably one of the creepiest visions of Dracula ever brought to the big screen. Sure, Christopher Lee and Bela Lugosi are great in their roles, but Schreck's performance as Orlok is nightmare inducing. So Hutter stays at Orlok's place. All is fine at first, but then Orlok rapes him........Okay, he doesn't actually rape him. He symbolically rapes him by drinking his blood. As genuinely creepy as these scenes are, they are also pretty hillarious. Orlok puts on his rape face and his imposing shadow looming over the shivering Hutter just screams of rape. When Orlok sees a picture of Ellen, he figures he could be raping that fine girl instead of this pasty dude.....Symbolically, of course. So Orlok takes off, because he just bought a house across from the Hutter home. Hutter finally stops being a pussy and chases after him.

The film does have a rambling structure, which is kind of a problem. We follow Orlok as he terrorizes the crew of a ship. He follow Hutter traveling back home. We follow Ellen as she....sleep walks. In the end, she's supposed to be the true hero, but her lack of screen time makes this sort of baffling. I really did like the plague aspect of it though. Basically, whenever Orlok kills someone, it appears that they were a victim of a plague. This obviously causes lots of paranoia. There are also some pointless subplots with a crazy servant of Orlok and a Van Hellsing-esque doctor. These feel tacked on, and I must confess, the pacing was often tedious for it.

But alas, I cannot deny that the film did genuinely creep me out. The director showcases some haunting imagery, amplified by his superb use of shadows. When the French critics used the term, Mise-en-scène, they were referring to movies like this, where the camera just always seems to be in the most effective places. The score is chilling as well, when it tries to be. Other times it gets kind of annoying. The film stock is attractive because it alternates between a sandy color, blue, red and even green. I like this kind of stuff, and I like "Nosferatu". But I like its shadow more than the movie itself.

One of the traits of silent films was that the actors would overact, so they can get the emotions across because they had no dialogue to work with. It can be quite distracting these days. Gustav von Wangenheim(Hutter) was way too flamboyant for me. But whenever he came across Orlok, he did look terrified. Max Schreck(Count Orlok) turns in one of the most blood curdling performances that I've ever seen. Without him, the movie simply would not work. He's captivating. Greta Shroder(Ellen) does fine for this style of acting. Alexander Granach(Knock) was pretty creepy too.

Coincidently, I just watched "Martin" a week ago and "Let the Right One In" two weeks ago. Am I going through some subconscious vampire phase? Ah, really, these movies are helping me forget the horrible memories that "Twilight" spawned. So I'd recommend "Nosferatu", because when it's on, it's on. I suspect that I will admire it more over time. But I can't call it a great movie from my spectrum because I had too many issues with its narrative......and that lame ass werewolf.

Violence: Not much, but I imagine it was pretty gritty for its time.

Nudity: None.

Overall: Watch "Nosferatu" just for its historical value. If you like it, watch it again. It's pretty spooky, and far more effective than most modern day horror films. But it's narrative is choppy and the pacing is tedious. Most of all, I can't imagine that most of todays audiences will be able to stomach of a silent film. I mean, come on, this is the same group that turned that "Prom Night" remake into a smash hit. Oh well, maybe next time. Now put on your rape face and come drink some blood!


3/4 Stars



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