German, silent
black and white (basically)
Directed by F.W. Murnau
Starring Max Schreck, Greta Schroder, Gustav v. Wangenheim
(watched via Netflix streaming)
The Plot Basically Breaks Down Like This:
So there is this young fella and he works for a company that procures things like real estate for wealthy people and they send him over the river and through the woods to the castle of a creepy old dude who is quite possibly the king of all vampires. The young fella laughs in the face of dangerous blood sucking fiends...at least at first. Eventually he starts getting all sickly cause the vampire is feeding on him and then the vampire tires of his one young fella dinner selection and decides to set out for the big city where he can get a young fella buffet. He drinks his way across the ocean and lands in the city only to sneak around and feast on people and eventually be thwarted in his wicked wicked ways by the young fella's long-suffering lady friend.
My Thoughts Basically Break Down Like This:
If you have read the novel Dracula than you already know the plot of this film. If you've seen the Bela Lugosi movie version of Dracula than you already pretty much know the plot of this film. If you've seen the movie version of Dracula starring Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder than you kind of know the plot of this film but not really because there were definitely some liberties taken with the story for that one.
Anyhoo, so yeah, this is pretty much the first Dracula film version and it has one of the creepiest looking vampire kings EVER. Max Schreck has these big creepy eyes and long long pointy fingers and tall thin body that scuttles around kind of bug like. He is not someone I'd want to meet in a dark alley on a blustery night...or any night for that matter. However, there were a few moments where he was sneaking around the city carrying his coffin in an overly exaggerated manner which made me think more Benny Hill then vicious blood drinking monster. I don't know if that was intentionally done for comedic effect or not, but I was certainly laughing.
I was excited to finally see Nosferatu because it is one of those classic horror films and silent films that helped usher in the age of cinema. But the version on Netflix left me feeling kind of annoyed and disappointed. Title cards were added in to explain things when I don't think they were necessary. They kept throwing off my ability to get into the film. A great silent film can tell a story with only a few words (on a few title cards) and a great cast of over-actors. I didn't want to read long blocks of text, I wanted to understand the story from what I was shown on screen. Also, I don't know who decided to update the music with some late '90's muzak group, but it was HORRIBLE. It was peppy in places it shouldn't have been peppy, and tried to be dour in places it shouldn't have been dour. It ruined the mood for me and even with the lights off I couldn't get scared with it playing.
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