NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979)

I am hoping to review as many films as possible this month as October is most appropriate for the Cinema of the Fantastic. This greatest of months continues with.....

NOSFERATU, yes the remake.......

I've bashed more than my fair share of remakes over my life, and most of them deserved it. Rarely does a remake have the power and energy of the original. Werner Herzog's Nosferatu The Vampyre (or in Germany, Phantom Der Nacht) is one of those rare remakes that one can argue is as good as the original. The film expands the dark mood of the silent original and feels far more unsettling whilst the vampire here is more sympathetic than Orlok in the original. One might argue that in this case a certain sense of horror is lost, but in spite of a more sympathetic vampire, this French-German co production remains a dark, brooding Gothic tale of horror. Filmed on location as the original was, it is almost impossible not to compare the two films......

To meet the demands of foreign distributors, Herzog filmed the movie in a German and an English version. It's obvious in some scenes in the English version, that the actors did not have a full grip on the English language. This means the German version is superior as the acting is far more natural though still very quiet and calm in a way I've never seen any other film accomplish.

The calmness I refer to is nowhere more evident than in the scene with joyous townspeople celebrating whatever time they have left to live. They've all contracted the plague and are dining and dancing in the streets in what may be Cinema's best "End of the World" setting. Though it may only be one town, the impending doom is conveyed in brilliant apocolyptic fashion. Even better than how the original does it. Despite the fact these people know they are soon to die, they have already come to accept it.

The ending is similar, yet the final result is quite different with young Johnathan Harker becoming a new Nosferatu and presumably riding off to spread the plague throughout Europe. The story itself is too familiar and obvious and needs not be discussed here with any serious detail. We all know the basic story of Dracula by now, even if every incarnation changes something around.....

The musical score is to die for. Nosferatu has one of the few scores that actually manages to be creepy. It may rank among the best of all horror scores, not much of a surprise. It goes quite well with every scene, especially the more ominous touches. The music makes one feel as if they are being stalked.....

The actors are mixed. Roland Topor is nothing less than insane as Renfield. Klaus Kinski gives Max Schreck a run for his money with a fantastic performance. Isabelle Adjani is enthusiastic enough. Bruno Ganz (who went on to play Hitler) seems a little flat in many scenes and is quite often not a convincing actor, much like his 1922 counterpart. His scene eating with the Gypsies is quite memorable, as is his first encounter with Kinski. It is Kinski of course who steals any scene he is in. His first meeting with Adjani (as she sits looking at a mirror,  she watches the door open but can only see a reflection of a shadow moving closer towards her) is unforgettable to say the least. The supporting actors are no names who expertly show us why they never got too far in the acting world.

The film was popular upon first release but was lesser known for many years afterward. It sold only 1,000,000 tickets in Germany but has since become an acclaimed classic and has added Kinski to a list of the greatest screen vampires. The film moves at an alarmingly slow pace, but note the finer touches. The thick gothic atmosphere that prevails throughout is virtually never interupted, a mood that is quite difficult for any film to sustain. Nosferatu pulls it off and in the end, it's arguably better than Murnau's. Twilight fans, this one ain't for you..... FIVE STARS OUT OF FIVE.