Nosferatu (1922) - Movie Review

NOSFERATU (1922)

MOVIE REVIEW

I first saw Nosferatu many years ago when I was home sick from school. It was around the time I first got interested in filmmaking, and I read about this classic film on the Internet. And then I found the whole movie on YouTube for free, so I watched it. I don't remember what I thought of it, but I remember being terrified of Count Orlok, and he haunted me in my nightmares! I've always wanted to rewatch the film, but I just couldn't find the right opportunity. But now, with a self-imposed little F.W. Murnau-marathon for a week, this seemed like the perfect time to rewatch the silent horror classic, and possibly reevaluate it. Here's what I think!

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (I'll just call it Nosferatu for brevity's sake) is a 1922 German silent horror film directed by F.W. Murnau, starring Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim and Greta Schröder. It is based on the classic 1897 horror novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, although the studio, Prana Films, was unable to obtain the rights so changes were made to the story and characters. So Dracula become Count Orlock, Harker became Hutter, Renfield became Knock and vampire became nosferatu. (Prana Films were eventually sued by Stoker's widow, and were forced to shut down. All prints were ordered to be destroyed, but one print survived, thank God!)

The story is set in Wisborg in 1838, where Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) is happily married to his wife Ellen (Greta Schröder). Hutter is sent to Transylvania by his boss Knock (Alexander Granach) to Transylvania to sell a house to Count Orlock (Max Schreck). Orlock takes great interest in Ellen, and travels to Wisborg to drink her blood.

Hutter and his wife Ellen.

Before I get into the technical side of the film, I want to talk about the acting in the film for a second. Rewatcing the film the other night, I was shocked at the level of restraint the actors maintained. When you think of silent movies, you tend to think of highly theatrical acting with lots of gestures and facial expressions, but Murnau and his actors avoid that in this film. Most of them play their roles relatively straight and naturalistic, with the big standout for me being Greta Schröder's performace. She plays Ellen like a fragile doll, who whilst loving and caring for her husband, she remains reserved when he leaves her. It is a quite remarkable performance, I think. The same cannot be said about Gustav von Wangenheim, however! He is the epitomy of silent film acting: theatrical, exaggerated, gesturing etc. There is even one scene, where he wakes up in Orlok's castle, where the night before Orlok almost drank some of his blood, and then the next morning, he's walking around with a big smile with happy music in the background. Jeez, talk about happy-go-lucky!

Director F.W. Murnau, who later directed Sunrise (1927) and The Last Laugh (1924).

The silhouetted shot of Orlok has gone on to become iconic.

From a technical standpoint, Nosferatu is very much a product of German Expressionism. The German Expressionist movement was a movement in filmmaking in Germany where there was a heavy emphasis on creating a "subjective" reality as opposed to a "objective" reality. This often meant stylized and angled sets, bizarre camera angles and heave usage of symbolism. Whilst Nosferatu is not as heavily stylized as, say Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), it still bears many of the expressionistic hallmarks. Murnau and his cinematographers Fritz Arno Wagner and Günther Krampf create a creepy and frightening atmosphere with low-key lighting and use of shadows, along with a static camera. Two of the most famous shots in the film include a silhouette of Count Orlok as he's walking up some stairs, and a shot of Orlok's silhouetted hand grabbing Ellen.

The design of Count Orlok is a good example of German Expressionism.

The character of Orlok is equally important to emphasise the impact that German Expressionism had on Murnau when crafting this film. Orlok almost looks like a personification of darkness and evil, with his bald head, his haunting eyes and his extremely long fingernails He may not look like our typical image of a vampire or another monster, but he invokes much more fear into you than Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee in a cape playing Dracula.

On a quick sidenote, the guidelines of Orlok's designs overlap into the design of the character Knock, Nosferatu's version of the Renfield character. He too is given a memorable and devilish look, with his short stature, minimal hair and creepy smile almost makes him look like a demonic Danny DeVito. But in all seriousness, why I bring this up is because I think Murnau is trying to visually differenciate our protagonists and our antagonists, by giving our protagonists normal appearances whilst giving our antagonists a nightmarish and devilish look.

Another interesting aspect in this film is the way Murnau, Wagner and Krampf visually communicate Orlok's powers. For instance, there are several shots in the film where it's very clearly stop-motion. There's another shot where the 35mm film stock has been flipped into the original negative, and another shot from the deck of the ship when where given the impression that Orlok is using his powers to make the boat go superfast. All of these shots and special effects help give us a sense of Orlok's supernatural and almost otherworldy powers.

Overall, Nosferatu is a technically impressive and well-acted silent horror film. It may not be perfect, and it may not be one of my favorite films, but I think it's definitely worth watching, especially for fellow film lovers.

My final verdict: 7/10.