Mutant Reviewers from Hell do
"Blood! Your precious blood!"

1922 NR / Horror Directed by: F.W. Murnau Starring: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder

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Summary Capsule

Stylish silent movie treating the Dracula story as vampire stories were treated long before Anne Rice or goths.

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Shalen's Rating: Ten. Out of ten. Of whatever.
Shalen's Review: Not being a real film major, I'm not cognizant of this movie's full impact on screen history, but I know it has been considerable. The film seems to have been elevated to one of those movies that is often referenced by people who have never seen it, like Battleship Potemkin (which I haven't seen) or Metropolis.¹ Watching this film, it's not hard to see why it has such influence and why it is so seldom viewed. Nosferatu is stylish. It is atmospheric. It has some of the world's first visual effects in film. It contains the amazing Max Schreck, without whose onscreen presence this film is nothing.

"You can see why this film is not going to be incredibly popular with filmgoers who prefer watching Kate Beckinsale shooting at things and being mouthed by topless guys wearing colored contacts."

But it's very old, and it was filmed in black and white, and the other main protagonist (Gustav Wangenheim as Jonathan Harker) is a pudgy guy wearing long hair and a lot of makeup. The female lead is heavier than her counterpart in Shadow of the Vampire and much more so than the contemporary beauty standard, though she would not look out of place at one of my family's reunions.² There is no sex. There is little violence. There is not overmuch dialogue, and what is there is flashed onto the screen as intertitles in between the characters mouthing things we can't hear. So you can see why this film is not going to be incredibly popular with filmgoers who prefer watching Kate Beckinsale shooting at things and being mouthed by topless guys wearing colored contacts.³

With this important caveat, however, if you consider yourself a cult fan you need to see this movie. It's well filmed on a small budget. It has some good acting. The camerawork is intimate and in some cases very beautiful, and the 1920's German sets are beautiful also. And it has an ending that is very different — and in my opinion, much better — than the ending of the work from which it is drawn.⁴

For that matter, this is a very different treatment of the vampire mythos from its source material. This is not the vampire as seducer, the vampire as Freudian metaphor, the vampire as dashing and mysterious creature of the night. This is the horror of immortality without agelessness or beauty. It is vampirism as a real curse, not an "Oh, it's so awful to be pretty and live forever" curse. The only other film I've seen that comes close to this is Cronos, and that film owes a great deal to this one. (Not surprising, since from what I hear Cronos director Guillermo del Toro is fairly fond of Nosferatu.)

Now that I'm down off my high horse, I'll make one more recommendation regarding this film. It has no soundtrack, so your enjoyment of it will be affected by what music, if any, you choose. My version came on DVD packaged with the original House on Haunted Hill and Night of the Living Dead, and it is scored with heavy metal music. This works far better than the cheery classical soundtrack I first heard with it. If you end up with a version whose music doesn't seem to fit, turn off the sound and add your own. You'll be glad you did.

This is a great film and a different kind of viewing experience. I highly recommend it to more or less everyone who considers themselves Mutant, cult, a film geek, or a rabid Anne Rice/Laurell K. Hamilton fan.⁵

1. Which I haven't seen, either. And by Metropolis I do NOT mean the overhyped one-more-robot-girl anime of that title which, to my chagrin, I have seen.
2. Except that she would be the only one speaking German.
3. Or Tom Cruise nibbling on Brad Pitt and many other people, and talking about how no one else is important, but we felt that sentence would be too long if we left that in.
4. This being Bram Stoker's Dracula, by which I do not mean the movie.
5. But only if I get to see the look on their face when they first see the Nosferatu makeup.

Even in 1922, vampires were sexy and stylish! One of Shalen's favorite screenshots, actually. You should see his driver's license photo.

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• The guy who plays Jonathan Harker really does look like Eddie Izzard in Shadow of the Vampire. Ditto Max Schreck and Willem Dafoe. This confirms Shalen's belief that Willem Dafoe is awesome.
• Van Helsing thinks everything is a vampire.
• That makeup seems amazing for 1922 until you realize Mr. Schreck was wearing only false teeth and ears (and fingernails, I dearly hope). Apparently Director Murnau found him "strikingly ugly".
• Some lovely background scenery. Makes sense, since it was filmed in the German countryside.
• Count Orlock's scenes are obviously filmed in daylight, unless you have one of the later versions where they have been tinted blue.
• Apparently there's an old woman at the inn who makes the sign of the cross in a Catholic manner, though most Romanians are Western Orthodox (and consequently do this differently).
• Count Orlock does not blink onscreen. Ever.

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

There aren't any. Things were different in 1922.

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Filmed between August and October 1921.

Count Orlock or Nosferatu is seen on screen for perhaps nine minutes total.

All known prints and negatives were destroyed under the terms of settlement of a lawsuit by Bram Stoker's widow (this film started out as Dracula). Apparently this process was not entirely thorough, as prints began showing up later in Europe.

The only known complete and original copy is apparently owned by a German collector of things related to the actor Max Schreck.

The name "Schreck" means "fear" or "terror" in German. One or two web sites say this is "obviously" a stage name, but most sources I googled indicate it was actor Max Schreck's real name. Not much is known about him, and he supposedly never appeared on the set without his makeup, giving rise to silly rumors like the one on which Shadow of the Vampire is based.

Groovy Quotes

(This being a silent film, these are all in intertitles, not actually heard by the viewer.)

Count Orlock: Blood! Your precious blood!

Count Orlock: Is this your wife? What a lovely throat!

Van Helsing: And now, gentlemen, here is another type of vampire: a polyp with claws... transparent, without substance, almost a phantom. [A/N: He's looking at a hydra, a harmless microscopic creature which detects prey with its tentacles. The biology geek in me loves that there are hydras in this movie, even if they are mislabeled.]

Renfield: The Master is coming! The Master is here!

Final intertitle: And at that moment, as if by a miracle, the sick no longer died, and the stifling shadow of the vampire vanished with the morning sun.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Shadow of the Vampire
• Dracula
• Interview with the Vampire