Rating: 
Summary: BEST EDITION YET!
Review: I was always disappointed with all of the video releases of NOSFERATU around the 80's certain key scenes were left omitted. When Blackhawk Videos re-released it in 1991, I was able to see what scenes I missed. It all gave me a clearer idea of how the entire story unfolds. Not to mention different background music being heard. Some where better or worse than others. I should also mention because it was around this time that I first got into the old horror classics. I had always been fascinated in particular with the DRACULA legend. The making of NOSFERATU alone is in interesting key note in film history. What I really enjoyed was the audio commentary by Lokke Heiss, which along with alternate background scores are also accessible on the main menu. Check out the fascinating "NOSFERATOUR" where you get a look at the locations of certain scenes - what they look like now! In closing, if it is an old horror classic you want to scare your friends you invite at home for, NOSFERATU will be hard to beat. One look at Max Schreck will make that obvious!
Rating:
Summary: Masterful Symphony
Review: Nosferatu is a cleverly photographed filmed, a cinematic masterpiece, but when set to the music that can be at times obnoxious (the Silent Orchestra or original score) it is yet more compelling and chilling. Could the scene of Count Orlok walking across the vessel be the greatest image in film? The audio essay and the bonus pre-production of art posters and sketches are really cool features. My only drawback with this edition is the tinting, which makes the film choppy. But the film is too important and composed with such craft that you kind of forget about it in the end.
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Summary: Music Alone Worth The Price Of Admission!
Review: Cool Movie! Amazing Music! Watch It Over And Over Again!
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Summary: Nosferatu - Special Edition DVD, film horror's greatest!
Review: Summary: Chilling Nosferatu is the first (popular one, at least)...and best...vampire film ever created. Terrific use of landscapes and dark castle corridors supported by great actors (the best being Max Schreck) sets an absolutely chilling feeling rushing through your veins!!!Graf Orloc has a completely different look to him than the other blood suckers of the Bela Legosi and Peter Cushing era. A beautiful dance of fear and unconditional romance, this film is highly recommended to ALL fans of the horror genre.
Rating:
Summary: 2001 edition from Image the best yet
Review: The 2001 edition of this DVD from Image offers a vastly improved picture quality over the 1998 edition (which was made from a 1991 source). To me the difference is so great it is day and night. Where the picture was soft and contrasty in the '98 edition, it is now clear, sharp, and detailed in the 2001 edition. One good example is in the scene where the hero first discovers a bite mark on his neck; the mark (just a black dot) could barely be seen on the 1998 edition, but it shows up clearly on the improved picture of the 2001 edition. The 2001 edition is easily the best-looking version of the 1922 German silent classic and I doubt it could look any better. I envy those who haven't seen the film and will see it on this DVD for the first time. A new, more modern-sounding music score is included along with the more gothic organ score from the '98 edition. Tinting has been modified in some shots; a scene on the beach is tinted in dull green instead of brown in the '98 edition. Many intertitle cards have been re-written -- they are now generally more verbose. Title cards representing reading material have also been re-designed with a more archaic-looking font, which might be harder to read for some. The audio commentary is still here. The still-frame gallery section is expanded, and the stills, badly scanned in the '98 edition, were re-scanned in much better quality for the '01 edition, some of them in color. A new still-frame section, named "A Tour of Nosferatu", gives a "then-and-now" comparison of the many locations seen in the film. This is a clip of the "phantom carriage" scene shown in reverse black-and-white, showing that the carriage was actually cloaked in white when filmed.
Rating:
Summary: Freuderama or black comedy?
Review: It is so tempting, as with all horror works, to read 'Nosferatu' as a hotbed of Freudiana, with its troubled central marriage, its profusion of mirrors, its homosexual violation and erect, sleepwalking wife. The Count is the undead emanation of the childless couple's desires. But 'Nosferatu' is no ordinary horror, even if it is the only one to have that crinkly, sepia, medieval European look and atmosphere you imagine when reading classic horror books. It is in fact impishly subversive, disarmingly comic, and a thorough analysis of why we watch films (look at all those eyes and voyeurs, the foregrounding of the mechanics of film (negative, stock etc.)), about how it saves us from joining with other people and losing ourselves, our identities, in union. That bleak.
Rating: 
Summary: Watch in Silence
Review: This could have been a beautiful, artistic, provocative movie recommended to anyone who loves the cinema. Instead, it is an artistic failure! The "avantgarde" score (imagine bongos, bells and synethesizers!) provided by The Silent Orchestra (should have stayed that way!) is distracting, cacophonous, and woefully out-of-sync with the visuals. For the best results, turn off the sound until the more traditional organ score returns. Better yet, purchase the DVD version of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to see a bona fide artistic masterpiece, that masterfully integrates the audio with the visual!
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Summary: A Masterpiece of Horror From F.W. Murnau
Review: In 1921, director F.W. Murnau set out to make a horror film based on Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula," but was denied the rights to the property by Stoker's estate. Undeterred, however, Murnau merely changed the title to "Nosferatu," the name of the title character to "Count Orlok," then proceeded to make what has come to be considered nothing less than a classic of the silent film era. An unsettling film (especially for the times in which it was made), it is a faithful adaptation of Stoker's story, and brings images to the screen, the likes of which at the time, had never before been seen. And although by today's standards much of it may seem relatively tame, there is an innate sense of the sinister about it that is timeless. For the same elements that so unnerved audiences in 1922 when it was released, are equally discomfiting now, most of which is courtesy of Max Schreck, who portrayed Count Orlok. It was the first screen appearance for what is now the most famous vampire in history, and the German character actor Schreck brought an eerie presence to the role that has never been equaled. Bela Lugosi may be considered the definitive Dracula-- his portrayal is certainly the most well known-- but even he could not match the sense of evil that Schreck brought to the character. The scene in which Schreck's shadow is cast on the wall as he slowly negotiates a staircase, emphasizing his misshapen head and elongated fingers and nails, is an image that leaves an indelible impression on the memory, as does Schreck's overall appearance: Lanky, though slightly stooped, with oversized, pointed ears and haunted, sunken eyes. It was Schreck's greatest screen role, and had it not been for a lawsuit by Stoker's estate that prevented wide distribution of the film, it would no doubt have made him a star. The supporting cast includes John gottowt, Alexander Granach, Wolfgang Heinz, Max Nemetz, Gustav von Wangenheim, Ruth Landshoff and Greta Schroder. An air of mystery surrounded the set during the filming of "Nosferatu" that became something of a myth, which began with the fact that Schreck, a method actor, was never seen by cast nor crew without his makeup and in character. And it was further perpetuated when it may have been implied by Murnau that Schreck was actually a vampire playing an actor playing a vampire, all of which goes a long way toward proving that "hype" is nothing new to the entertainment industry. One of the three most highly regarded German directors of the times, Murnau, whose philosophy was that "nothing existed beyond the frame," directed a number of films, but none achieved the lasting notoriety of "Nosferatu." For film buffs everywhere, as well as aficionados of silent pictures, this film is a must-see, and a perfect companion piece to the recently released (2000) "Shadow of the Vampire," the film by E. Elias Merhige that chronicles the making of "Nosferatu." A comparatively short film-- the restored DVD version runs 81 minutes, the video, 63 minutes-- it will nevertheless provide an entertaining and memorable cinematic experience. This is an example of not only the magic, but the magic at the very core of the movies.
Rating: 
Summary: Remarkable print of a silent classic, and a great score
Review: Having just purchased the DVD of F.W. Murnau's great NOSFERATU, I'm intrigued by the way the mood of the film itself changes when different versions of the soundtrack are played. This DVD contains two separate soundtracks: one is an organ score based on the original score used for this film in the days of the silent era, whereas the other is a modern orchestral symphony composed especially for this DVD by "The Silent Orchestra," a.k.a. musicians Carlos Garza and Rich O'Meara. The organ score is eerie and moody, but I find myself drawn more towards the modern-day score, with its drums and bells and string instruments. Maybe it's because I grew up in the modern era of movies, where fully orchestral movie soundtracks are the norm. In the silent days, of course, the soundtrack was provided either by a live organist or by playing a pre-recorded soundtrack (though I think the live organists were more popular - when theaters could afford them), so having a full symphony soundtrack was probably a rarity in those days. NOSFERATU was a work of art, but I don't think it was a high-prestige film: since Bram Stoker's widow successfully sued the production company and the movie was ordered to be destroyed, I can't imagine that many high-brow, luxurious movie palaces would have screened this movie. So the organ soundtrack was more of the norm. But the orchestral score composed for this DVD is very appealing: it's almost 'avante-garde' in its use of instruments, especially with the way bells are used to create an eerie, dream-like atmosphere during the journey to the castle of Count Orlok. I've heard of the controversy surrounding the 'modernized' soundtracks created for various silent films, such the Club Foot Orchestra's score for SHERLOCK JR. or the famous (infamous?) Moroder presentation of METROPOLIS...but in the case of NOSFERATU, I think the symphonic soundtrack works very well. (The picture quality on the DVD is very good, as well. I don't have the laserdisc issue of the film from the mid-1990s, so I can't say offhand which version has a better quality print.)
Rating:
Summary: Great vampire, great images, bad ending!
Review: This is still one of the best horror movies ever, but time has not been kind to the ending of this old-fashioned nightmare. These days we expect a huge bang at the end - Nosferatu ends with a whimper. It's still a great movie, but not quite as rewatchable as Metropolis or even Battleship Potemkin. The special effects are, for the time, ingenious and creepy, and Max Schreck is a special effect that never ages. He is probably the most vampiric vampire actor ever, and the best moments of the film are the shots that follow him lurching slowly out of the shadows. All in all, this movie is not going to scare a modern horror lover, but it has great atmosphere and some classic images. No vampire film is complete without an homage to Nosferatu, and every horror library needs a copy of this. Technically, this is pretty good for a silent-movie DVD, light-years ahead of the Metropolis DVD. The picture is mostly clean, if a little murky, and there are 2 good soundtracks on it. The Silent Orchestra's score is great. It's my understanding that nobody knows what the original score for Nosferatu was, so it's perfectly legitimate to choose a different score if you like. I like to watch this one with some old Cocteau Twins playing...
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