Reviewing Nosferatu
Feb. 2nd, 2025 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pj1228I saw Nosferatu this week in the movie theatre and thought I'd share my thoughts about it here.
Nosferatu is a remake of the first ever vampire movie, the 1922 silent movie directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (who happened to be born in the same town as I). The silent movie is quite scary for its time, achieving chilly effects by use of shadows and a lovely music score. The new version used similar effects. And if you know the old movie by heart, you recognise similar camera angles.
The story is basically Bram Stoker's Dracula, but since Murnau didn't get the rights to film the novel, he exchanged the names. So we have Count Orlok instead of Dracula. As a nice nod towards Murnau and the producer of the 1922 version Albin Grau, in the new movie, the young man who travels to Transsylvania was called Friedrich and the Professor (the van Helsing equivalent) was called Albin.
The latter was played by Willem Defoe who happened to play the vampire in a funny movie called "Shadow of the Vampire", which tells the ficticious story of filming the 1922 movie Nosferatu. In that movie, the actor Max Schreck who was hired to play Count Orlok is a real vampire and chaos ensues on the set. It's funny to watch. F.W. Murnau is played by John Malkovitch and the producer Albin Grau is played by my favourite German actor Udo Kier.
So back to the new Nosferatu movie, it's a classic horror movie that adequately serves to produce shivers running down your back. The atmosphere and music score are great. Count Orlok is not a handsome vampire though. Personally, I prefer the seductive type that Bela Lugosi established.
Nosferatu is a remake of the first ever vampire movie, the 1922 silent movie directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (who happened to be born in the same town as I). The silent movie is quite scary for its time, achieving chilly effects by use of shadows and a lovely music score. The new version used similar effects. And if you know the old movie by heart, you recognise similar camera angles.
The story is basically Bram Stoker's Dracula, but since Murnau didn't get the rights to film the novel, he exchanged the names. So we have Count Orlok instead of Dracula. As a nice nod towards Murnau and the producer of the 1922 version Albin Grau, in the new movie, the young man who travels to Transsylvania was called Friedrich and the Professor (the van Helsing equivalent) was called Albin.
The latter was played by Willem Defoe who happened to play the vampire in a funny movie called "Shadow of the Vampire", which tells the ficticious story of filming the 1922 movie Nosferatu. In that movie, the actor Max Schreck who was hired to play Count Orlok is a real vampire and chaos ensues on the set. It's funny to watch. F.W. Murnau is played by John Malkovitch and the producer Albin Grau is played by my favourite German actor Udo Kier.
So back to the new Nosferatu movie, it's a classic horror movie that adequately serves to produce shivers running down your back. The atmosphere and music score are great. Count Orlok is not a handsome vampire though. Personally, I prefer the seductive type that Bela Lugosi established.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-02 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-02 08:32 pm (UTC)Looks like I really need to watch it (when my body finally decides it's done with being sick XD). I remember seeing Shadow of the Vampire in the cinema. It was so much fun. Another film to rewatch.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-02 11:56 pm (UTC)