Nosferatu the Vampyre

I’ve changed my mind. After repeated screenings, I have to admit that here more than ever you have to accept the author's rules of the game and take into account his entire body of work. What may seem like ridiculous mannerisms on Herzog's part is actually a bold creative move; I now see the previously perceived weakness and hesitancy of the protagonist with the pointed fangs as the sad tragic fate of a creature who understands his sad fate as the years pass. The only thing that has remained the same from all those years ago is the heady surrealistic atmosphere of the story. And I applaud Klaus Kinski, his demonic bald Nosferatu can evoke strong emotions despite the small space he gets. (07/19/2010)

Massive surprise! I’ve never been able to get around Murnau’s classic and Coppola’s Dracula pissed me off, but Herzog’s version has an incredibly beautiful atmosphere that I savoured every second. In the first half, in particular, I was completely thrilled, I loved the gloomy mountain landscape and the old castle. By the way, this is the only horror film besides Hostel where I recognised the shooting location, Pernštejn castle in this case. (12/23/2009)

The return to expressionism is, more than a remake, the retelling of the story of the mysterious Count Orlock in color and sound. And oddly enough, the suggestiveness of the original did not suffer in any way, only it is more than in masks set in scenery, sounds and new moments (such as the plague Danse Macabre at the end). The end of the film, in which the vampire wins and not the woman, is also very different. Werner Herzog made a great horror film that, like Murnau's Nosferatu, far exceeds the standard of the genre both in its visuality and in perfect personification of evil and decline. A daring filmmaking experiment crowned with success. (01/25/2004)

This mirroring of the great Murnau is spiritual, melancholic, and almost lazy, but at the same time absorbing. The atmosphere is almost palpable, while the music could move mountains. This new take on the German version of Bram Stoker's eternal book is inward-looking yet affectionate. It expands and shifts to other meanings the expressionist view of this perfect work of modern literature. Years ago I brought back the lovely edition from Arthaus in Leipzig, and today I finally saw it on screen. I don't think it would have been impossible for it to go further, but it is the peak in terms of the optics of the time. Greta Schröder has not yet found a better successor than Isabelle Adjani. (06/28/2013)