Nosferatu is a black and white silent film about a vampire from Transylvania and his reign of terror over the inhabitants of a quiet town.
I am going to review this film differently to my usual approach.
THE POSITIVE
Nosferatu (The Vampire), played by Max Schreck looks superb and a true embodiment of evil, the make up and prosthetic’s they use on Schreck is remarkable considering this film is 90 years old.
The music used throughout the entire film was used greatly, truly setting an eerie tone throughout the movie.
THE NEGATIVE
As with most silent films, the plot has to be relatively simple due to the fact that it is a silent film and too many title cards were a chore for audiences in those time to read. However this plot is dull with seemingly very little happening throughout the film.
Although i am sure that in 1922 this film was truly terrifying, to a person who has viewed all era of film, this “horror” film is often camp and sometimes, even though there is no dialogue you can see some actors hamming it up which definitely takes me right back out of the eerie vibe the film was going for.
Also, this film has more jump cuts than a YouTube video which i found extremely annoying and threw me off a little.
CONCLUSION
Half way into this film i was seriously debating whether to turn this film off or not, it’s run time is just under 100 minutes and i really felt every second of those minutes, this film dragged on and on for me, yet it rushed its big finale.
This film is considered a classic of the silent era and rightly so. In those times i am sure that this film was horrifying, ground-breaking and superb however it just doesn’t hold up to modern standards.
After watching this film and one other silent film i have finally come to the decision that silent films just simply aren’t for me. I was bored stupid during this film, Nosferatu is only on screen for a total of 9 minutes and when he isn’t on screen there is nothing interesting occurring.
I watched this film in the middle of the day and i started drifting to sleep due to my boredom, definitely avoid this film unless you like silent films.
I find it really hard to hate a film, however this film has the honour of being on my “Hate” list.
MY SCORE
2/10