Nosferatu (1922): The most important Horror film ever made (Review)

Each and every Halloween a classic Horror film is lavished with a limited cinema run. Taking high street cinema chain Cineworld for example, over the last two years they have screened Wes Craven’s 1984 classic Nightmare on Elm Street and Joe Dante’s anarchic delight, Gremlins. This year there’s something that bit more special. Nosferatu, Murnau’s silent masterpiece is getting a theatrical run co-ordinated by Eureka! Entertainment as part of the BFI’s GOTHIC: The Dark Heart of Film calendar. In that calendar, Eureka’s revered Master of Cinema label is releasing the film for the second time in a lavish Blu-ray print.

Alongside Sunrise and Tabu, Nosferatu counts as one of the many masterpieces of the silent era from one of the kings of German Cinema in F.W. Murnau. As well as being out of the original instigators turning the vampire into an enduring figure of horror in cinema (along with Carl Th. Dreyer’s Vampyr (1932)), the film also has unique mythology unmatched in cinema.  Max Schrek played Count Orlock and there have been theories that the man was a vampire. Theories that were exaggerated and dramatized in E. Elias Merhige’s film Shadow of the Vampire (2000). Building on that mythology, Murnau’s film was an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with names and details changed because the short-lived German studio Prana Film could not obtain rights (“vampire” became “Nosferatu” and “Count Dracula” became “Count Orlok”).

Count Orlok is the genesis of the vampire, everything positive about this horror stalwart is a recognizable trait in Nosferatu. The vampire played by Max Schrek cuts a grotesque figure. Gaunt and elongated, his bald head and long fingers cut a horrific shadow across Europe. He carves chaos across the European seas, sending people mad before taking them for sustenance with people confusing his wrath for the black plague. Given the work of Joel Schumacher’s Lost Boys and the Twilight Saga, it’s easy to forget Vampires horrific lineage. If nothing else, Nosferatu serves as a counter-point to the contemporary sexualised vampire.

The enduring facet of this horror centrepiece lies in its imagery. Falling within the grand cinematic tradition of German Expressionism, the contrast between the dark and light has never been as profound as it is here. In the climactic moments where Orlock stalks his prey, the shadow stretches his gaunt frame across the walls of Gothic Germany, an image that still holds the power to startle now some 91 years later. It’s quite incredible how imagery can endure time like this, for their achievements here, Fritz Arno Wagner & Günther Krampf should be acknowledged as the masters they are.

Despite all the tropes being kicked to life, visual concepts born and narrative tricks that chart 90+ years of horror development beginning here, it would be impossible to overlook the climax being a bit anti-climatic. Orlock claims the minds of many and devours the souls of more still, it’s impossible to this as anything but a victory for the darkness. This bleak heart plays as a contrast to the way Count Orlock is vanquished. Perhaps Vanquished is the wrong word; Nosferatu serves as a precursor to the array of pathetic deaths the character suffered during the reign of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Hammer Horror.

Horror is often like that though, it progresses, develops and goes through cycles like nothing else – horror is the most evolved genre in spite of its cynicism. It moves and births itself anew more times than the mythical phoenix and the ideas implanted here are just the first cycle, a cycle that in the time since has been iterated upon, improved and inevitably broken (for better and worse).

Master of Cinema’s continued pursuit in bringing the best of the silent era into the 21st century continues to amaze. Their latest edition of Murnau’s legendary film is unlikely to look or sound better than it does here.  For all horror fans of all ages, Nosferatu is a critical part of the curriculum, in that if you haven’t seen it you really aren’t a true fan. Its a centre stone far more important than any number of exorcist’s, texas chainsaws or evil deads. Hipster overtones be damned, Nosferatu is that important.

Thanks for reading our review of Nosferatu

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