NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE Movie Review

Werner Herzog's 1979 reworking of F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent classic is often dissed or dismissed for largely being a shot-by-shot remake of the original. There's no denying that many images are based on Murnau's, but Herzog has also infused the Dracula legend with unnervingly nightmarish qualities that seem entirely Herzog's. Klaus Kinski's performance is a brilliant updating of Max Schreck's original rodentlike vampire, and Herzog goes all the way with that theme—rats carry the plague to a doomed population here, and as the dying dance madly in the streets, the rats scurry about at the command of their evil, disease-carrying master to infect still more. The picture is stylized in the expressionist manner of Murnau's original, but reconfigured for consumption by modern audiences (i.e. it's in color and has sound). Herzog and Kinski reportedly had a difficult relationship while shooting this movie (a year after its release I overheard Kinski complaining loudly to a stranger about “those f*****g teeth Herzog made me wear,” but you'd never know it from the elegant finished product. Kinski's makeup—bald head, pointed ears, and yes, those great rodent teeth—would be useless without his deliberate, theatrical movements. He's great, and the picture's a creepy joy. With Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Adjani, and Roland Topor (Fantastic Planet) as the bughungry Renfield. (Beware at all costs the English-language version. This kind of stylization seems natural in German, but impossibly silly in English.)

NEXT STOP … Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror, Dracula (1931), The Fearless Vampire Killers

1979 107m/C FR GE Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Roland Topor, Walter Ladengast; D: Werner Herzog; W: Werner Herzog; C: Jorge Schmidt-Reitwein. VHS VTR