Rating: 
Summary: Werner Herzog creates the ultimate vampire.
Review: Nosferatu was originally a German expressionist film, much in the style of "The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari. Moody, extremley gothic, and very scary, shot in Germany in 1922. Max Schreck played the part of Nosferatu, aka Count Orlok, the ugliest, scariest Dracula in cinematic history. Orlak is tall and skinny, shriveled, actually, with elongated limbs, and long, sharp claws for hands. He is ancient as well. We have no leading man type here, a la Christopher Lee, who was actually a sex symbol back in the late sixties, or handsome Bela, Frank Langella, or more recently, Gary Oldman. Orlak is the combination of an evil old man, mixed with a rodent. His ears are batlike, his eyes, wide and scary, a beak nose, and his full lips hide long, ratlike fangs. He is bald as well. Klaus Kinski captured Nosferatu to a tee, although Klaus is well, flat out not as ugly as Schrek. the story is virtually Dracula retold, including Harker's trip to Transylvania, the Count buying Real Estate, the Count lusting after Lucy, and Lucy's sacrifice. There is a hidden eroticism in the final scene with Lucy that must be seen to be believed. Lucy, by the way, is portrayed by the ever sexy Isabelle Adjani, and she portays a perfect damsel in distress, who knows what she must do. The contrast in Lucy's beauty, compared to Orlak's hideous repulsiveness, only adds to the erotic chemistry that is on the screen during their scenes together, especially when Lucy is first confronted by the lustful old vampire, and he demands her love. During the famous, final scene, we see Orlak consumate his vampiric love, in full detail. Lucy almost seems to be enjoying it. Orlak must have Lucy, even if it means that his very existance is the price to be paid, so he enjoys his night of bloodlust, and lovemaking to the fullest. The movie is atmospheric, and well acted throughout, although the Van Helsing character seems a bit powerless. Then again, aside from Lucy's sacrificial beauty, what can stop the evil Count Orlak.....Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Belief and Science Clash
Review: Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979)Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht directed by Werner Herzog, is really a color remake of the 1922 film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens directed by F.W. Murnau. There are a couple of name changes: Count Orlok became Count Dracula; Jonathan's fiancée Nina became Jonathan's wife Lucy. The original film was silent and in black and white, where the 1979 version is in color and is in German with English subtitles. However the plot is close to Bram Stoker's book on Count Dracula which has a very similar plot line and story. F.W. Murnau bought the movie rights to the film; however these rights were owned by Bram's widow Florence and she refused to allow the use of the name and storyline. Even though Murnau had changed the major names of the main characters (Count Dracula, Thomas and his wife Ellen) and location enough similarity remained that Florence took the case to court and in July of 1925 the German court ordered all the copies of the movie destroyed. However a few copies did manage to survive. While the film starts off slow it shows spectacular scenes of an ocean voyage, and waterfalls experienced during Jonathan (Bruno Ganz) Harker's journey to Count (Klaus Kinski) Dracula's castle. The contrast with his return trip is startling, since he was healthy when he started, but on the return is very sickly and barely alive. The Count's journey is very stark, his companions' death and rats board another ship, which glides into port with no one left alive on board except the rats. As the rats depart the ship one reminded of the story of Ben, where the rats were everywhere and out of control.
An interesting dilemma in this film is the direct confrontation of belief in the existence of the supernatural and sacramental with belief in the rationale of science. Science was believed to able to explain away rationally anything that happened out of the ordinary. Yet here it could not produce an answer for Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) Harker. The way that this was shown was that after consulting with the town physician, Lucy broke and crumbed the Eucharist around Jonathan to keep him locked into a chair in a corner all night, while she became the sacrificed lamb to save him from the Count and death. While she did this out of her love for Jonathan, her sacrifice resulted in the final demise of Count Dracula and her own death. Yet Jonathan in essence lives on to carry the legacy of the living dead, alive yet not fully. The last that is seen of Jonathan is when he is released from his imposed prison, by the removal of the broken host around him, he declares that he has much work to accomplish he mounts a horse and rides off.
Rating:
Summary: Good remake!
Review: Remakes don't get much better that this, lets give a round of applause to the drictor, it's hard to make a remake of a classic film. So the film follows the story of the orignal, some guy goes to see Dracula, who he later bits( the guy goes crazy). Dracula later takes a ship to England and starts a rampage of death. This film does not have as much action as the first but it's still fun to wach. Make-up for Dracula rocked. Worth every penny.
Rating: 
Summary: Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Pretence
Review: This 1979 German sound remake of the 1922 Murnau silent classic (The making of which was later to be the basis for the ficticious film SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE) is again closely based on Bram Stoker's novel DRACULA.
Klaus Kinski plays the Count as a victim doomed by circumstance to be one of the undead. A lonely, brooding soul craving love. After a meeting with businessman Jonathan Harker, the Count soon sets upon his fiancee Lucy (the stunning Isabelle Adjani) to be his next conquest/unsuspecting prey.
Written, Produced and Directed by Werner Herzog; the film begins promisingly with its hypnotic & chilling opening credits; but despite eeriely effective photography by Jorg Schmidt-Reitwein this version is slow, arty, pretentious and just not scary.
The movie's highlight is the sequence featuring the pack of rats. Apparently there's some deep meaning to it- probably tied in to the sickness and decay brought on by the plague. But I'm not in a deep and meaningful frame of mind at the moment. When a movie is this self-absorbed, is it truly deserving of that kind of analysis?
This version is poorly dubbed in English and is 10 minutes shorter than the German print. The ending does come as a surprise however.
The classical score is also worth noting, as Herzog appears to be using it as a means to pay homage to the Max Schreck version: Murnau's superior feature was sub-titled A SYMPHONY OF TERROR.
But in the long run you're probably better off watching the original version or Coppola's BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA instead. Kinski is good in the role (his interpretation of Count Dracula is closer to Jack Palance's than Lugosi or Lee), but even this slightly truncated version will test the patience of horror fans who prefer lashings of blood & bulging bodices in their vampire flicks.
NOSFERATU is more arthouse fare than a traditional horror flick, so it's probably more geared towards audiences of that persuasion. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea (or chalice of blood) you may want to check out one of the old Hammer movies starring Christopher Lee instead. I also recommended George A. Romero's MARTIN (1978) & Kathryn Bigelow's NEAR DARK(1987).
Rating:
Summary: Superior remake
Review: This is Werner Herzog's 1979 superior remake of silent classic German Expressionist vampire film F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu: Symphony of Horror. This film is all that the 1922 silent version was, and more. It begins showing Dr. Renfield giving Jonathan the order to travel to the "haunted" land beyond the Forrest, Translvania, to give Count Dracula the papers for his new home. Lucy, Jonathan's wife begs him not to go, but he does not listen. Upon arriving to Dracula's castle, Dracula sees Lucy's picture and immediately signs the papers, and travels by ship to her town. Jonathan quickly rides back, but slowly gets sicker and sicker, until he cannot even remember how he met Lucy. Dracula's arrival brings the plague, and Lucy must make the ultimate sacrifice to destroy this hideous monster deprived of love. The film is beautifully shot, and acted, with Werner Herzog behind the camera capturing, Klaus Kinkski's terrifying portrayal of the evil Dracula killing his victims. So many memorable scenes of darkness and horror are scattered throughout this film, with the silent beauty of nature watching on the side. The music in this film adds to the atmosphere of the good side of Jonthan/Lucy, and to the evil side of Dracula. The original 1922 version of this film, was perfect in its display of gothic horror, and this film has all that the original offered, but adds more philosophy and insight, and a tragic ending that makes this version superior. Another classic from Herzog and Kinkski, I highly recommend this film to all fans of horror, vampires, and classic films. 5 stars.
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