Nosferatu: 1922

    For my first review I thought it would be fitting to start off with one of the first vampire films.  Nosferatu was made in Germany and was released in 1922 by director F.W. Murnau.  The film opens on Jonathan Harker, who was at the time living in the city of Wisborg. His boss Renfield, wants Harker to travel to Transylvania to sell a house to Count Orlok (Dracula).  The reason that the characters names were altered was because they couldn't obtain the rights to, Bram Stoker's," Dracula", the novel Nosferatu is based off of.  


   Now, the music that is played throughout the film is very well done because it(most of the time) accurately sets the tone of every scene, however strange it is.  However, sometimes the music playing just sounds like the same pitch of notes being played over and over which can sometimes be annoying.  You could actually replace the soundtrack of the film with something whimsical and it would work in its favor.  But if we did that nothing would be taken seriously.  I've also noticed something that many other people might have noticed if this was also their first silent film which is that many ,if not all, of the actors in Nosferatu have heightened emotional reactions to most everything around them (they overact).  However in this case I think that the film needed this because of the lack of actual dialog to express themselves.  


   I know that the film makers didn't mean for this to be an effect, but the film grain that was created during filming adds an eerie and displacing effect.  To add on I also believe that the architectural designs  used for Transylvania hold up to this day and can still be quite surreal compared to normal towns.  Although Ill have to point out that the overacting can be very funny at times and this does lower the seriousness trying to be placed in every act.  In conclusion I recommend this movie to hard-core horror film fanatics as it can be a little boring at times.  The atmosphere is quite scary besides that and is very fun to look at.  So if you can get past the overplayed characters and the silly facial expressions that are made, you are in for an enjoyable film.


5 stars


   Live the life surreal, 


 Vérité  

     Next Review:  The Invisible Man 1933