Film reviews

Murnau’s Nosferatu was the first feature-length vampire film ever made, and it is a tribute to Murnau’s genius that he created this film without any other films as reference points. All vampire films subsequent to this one can scarcely say the same thing, and must pay silent tribute to this work of art.

For art it is… This silent 1922 film is a masterpiece of the macabre and the horrid. Genuinely frightening, it builds up its symphonic plot with never any sense of faltering. Even the somewhat hammy gestures of von Wangenheim, in his role as the naïve estate agent called to Graf Orlock’s castle in the Carpathian mountains, does not negate the steadily increasing creepiness of the film.

Greta Schröder is very effective as the young bride who conveys an ever more powerful sense of terror as her home town of Bremen becomes subjected to the horrors of the vampire. The other characters are also excellent in their roles, but it is without a doubt Max Schreck as the sinister Graf Orlock who dominates the film, even when he is not directly there. He provides an unspeakably superb piece of acting.

Makeup, costume, acting – all of these contribute to make Schreck’s vampire the most frightening and foully cadaverous creature that could still pass for a man. His long and skeletal fingers, his grotesque and almost rodent-like head upon hunched-up shoulders, his sinister gait… This truly is a living corpse. Every nuance is played subtly and powerfully by Schreck, and the frankly superb cinematography, with its brilliant use of shadows and light, of negative film, double exposure, and other pioneering technique, is enough to breed nightmares. Spoiler The scene when the young estate agent sees his door slowly open is one of the most suspenseful moments of film, and the sinister arrival of the ship laden with its dreadful cargo coming into the town of Bremen will remain forever as a classic and powerful scene. The relationship between the vampire and the outbreak of pestilence is frighteningly well portrayed.

The story itself will be known to all who have read Bram Stoker's Dracula. The film has changed names and locations, but the story remains the same - which is why Florence, the widow of Bram Stoker, successfully sued to have the film destroyed. We are fortunate that a print survived in Germany, and that this horror classic is available for us to view.