Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre is essentially a homage to F.W Mumau’s 1922 classic of expressionist cinema – Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (“Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night”).
Visually it is spectacular and music from Popol Vuh and Wagner and the presence of a few hundred rats help to create a creepy atmosphere. Herzog’s intention was to recreate the scary strangeness of the original but what he ended up making was one of the most unintentionally hilarious horror movies of all time.
When I first saw it in 1979, I came out of the cinema aching from having laughed so much.
Watching it again on DVD wasn’t quite as funny but there are still plenty of reasons why it is impossible to take seriously.
For example, when estate agent Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) arrives in Transylvania, he takes refreshment at a local inn. He announces his intention to visit Count Dracula’s castle whereupon the waitress drops a bottle of wine and all the clientele stop talking and stare in horror. The owner of the inn says, somewhat superfluously, that he would advise against this trip!
Harker had received his assignment from Renfield, an absurdly over the top performance from Roland Topor. Every sentence he utters ends with a high-pitched giggle so we get the point that he is a raving lunatic long before he starts getting his nutrition from eating flies.
In keeping with true horror-movie tradition, Harker disregards the advice of the innkeeper and arrives at Dracula’s castle. Once there, he seems surprisingly unfazed by the monstrous sight of the count (Klaus Kinski) with sharp teeth, long fingernails and rat-like ears. He accidentally cuts his hand while slicing some bread which provides an irresistible temptation to Dracula who lunges at his hand to drink the blood.
Nosferatu is a movie that shows the dangers of late night binge-drinking.
When Dracula sees a photo of Harker’s wife Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) he says “What a beautiful neck!”and signs the deeds to the house to become Harker’s new next door neighbour.
Even before Dracula pays a social call, Lucy already looks pale and bloodless. She becomes his victim all the same but she keeps him up drinking all night and he is destroyed by the sun’s rays on daybreak. One bloodsucker bites the dust but in the meantime Harker shows his teeth to reveal he has become a vampire.
The movie ends with him riding off into the sunset for what could have been a cue for a sequel which thankfully was never made
