Review of Nosferatu (1922) by Davidsdfdsf Y — 01 Mar 2010

Can words really describe how beautiful and terrible this movie is, even after almost 90 years?

Nosferatu was the first of the God-knows-how-many film adaptions of Bram Stoker's famous novel/play Dracula, and arguably the best. Nosferatu brought a creepy atmosphere that no other horror movie had ever seen before and combined it with inspired cinematography and (dare I say) state of the art special effects to create a genuine masterpiece.

It's amazing how incredibly eerie a silent movie can be, and Nosferatu is a perfect example of that eeriness. Long, stationary shots of hallways and ship decks and God forsaken dirt roads only added to the mystique of the film's overall atmosphere. The shot of Orlok staring out at Mina Harker from his apartment on the other side of the street still creeps me out sometimes.

I was quite amazed and pleasantly surprised to find that the film makers were able to pull off those disappearing scenes, which also added to the just plain scariness of Nosferatu.

All in all, Nosferatu proved to the world (and still does to this day) that vampire movies don't need a gratuitous amount of blood or Twilightishness to be horror classics. Nosferatu stands as the pinnacle of horror movies, and will probably stay there for another hundred years.