|
|
|
Nosferatu was not the first horror movie. I think the first horror movie (granted, one must count short films in the early film era to be movies) is a version of Frankenstein created by Thomas Edison's movie company. Nosferatu is one of the first, if not the first, full-length horror movies. It inspired a remake and the recent film Shadow of the Vampire. Being a Film Major, I decided to pick the movie up. I was surprised to see how relatively good the movie looked considering it's almost 100 years old! Anyway, Nosferatu is basically the plot of Dracula. They had to change names so they wouldn't get sued, but they did anyway and England ordered all copies to be destroyed! A few copies survived, accounting for its availability on video and DVD today. I found Nosferatu very hard to take in one sitting… I had to watch it in four separate segments, which is fine because I am rather familiar with Bram Stoker's Dracula story. While I liked the different incorporation of the Renfield character into the story, the whole middle stretch concentrates on Count Orlock's wacky boat journeys. The movie wavers from creepy to silly as sometimes Count Orlock looks like an offensive Chinese stereotype. Orlock looks most effective when his shadow is magnified. The acting is good, I guess--it's really difficult to judge silent film acting because of the over-acting of it all. Nosferatu is recommended to film enthusiasts or for horror fans who are curious to see how the genre started. It's easy to see the influence this movie has had on many others since then, and not just Dracula films either. I give Nosferatu **1/2 out of ****. |