Nosferatu
by F.W. Murnau
List Price:
Our Price: $9.45
You Save: $10.50 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.89 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alexander Granach, Greta Schröder, Gustav von Wangenheim, Max Schreck, Ruth LandshoffDirector: F.W. Murnau
Brand: Kino International
Cinematographer: Fritz Arno Wagner
Cinematographer: Günther Krampf
Producer: Albin Grau
Producer: Enrico Dieckmann
Writer: Bram Stoker
Writer: Henrik Galeen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Japanese (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Silent
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-09-24
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: 2532
Studio: Kino Video
Product features:
- NOSFERATU, EINA SYMPHONIE DES GRAUENS (DVD MOVIE)
Movie Reviews of Nosferatu
Movie Review: Still Scary after almost a Century
Summary: 5 Stars
This version of Nosferatu is the ULTIMATE vampire movie, it is still amazing and quite a special movie.
The story also differs in many points from the Stoker story, principally in the depiction of the count and the death of the vampire, so I don't quite understand how they lost the lawsuit with Stoker's widow, which called for the destruction of all copies of the film. Luckily for us, this never was done effectively and enough copies survived to guarantee the existence of this masterpiece.
It starts when the town's greedy real estate manager, played exquisitely by Alexander Granach, who was very talented at depicting creeps and had a long carrer in these roles, actually shows up many years later in Garbo's "Ninotchka" playing one, receives a letter from Count Orlock. The letter itself is a manuscript covered with magical signs, and the expression on his face becomes so horrid that one just knows this is bad news, yet he manages to convince his younger employee, Gustav von Wangenheim as Thomas Hutter of the power of Location, Location, Location and convinces him to take the trip for the purpose of selling the Count the deserted huge house across the street.
One of the best features of the film, is the fact that it was filmed on location, through not as commonly believed, in Transylvannia. The castle depicted, Orava Castle, does exist and is in Slovakia, it is terrifying enough, and I for one would not go there, even under bright sunlight. The mountain range so beautifully depicted in the tainted bluish tones are not the Carpathian mopuntains but the High Tatras, located between Slovakia and Poland, but they manage just as well to convey the air of mystery and ominous danger.
You have to have the silly optimism and natural idiocy of the real estate agent Hutter to not notice the obvious signs of doom in the reaction of the people in the tavern, and particularly the coachmen, that leave him at the crossing of a bridge into the Count's estate. Soon another carriage picks him up, this is the scariest ride imaginable, yet Hutter doesn't quite catch on, with the horses completely covered in cloth and the expression of the coachman intensely deranged.
This Count Orlock as played by Max Schreck (this last name means "terror" in German, but it was pure coincidence, not an invention for the movie) is a scary, creepy, repulsive creature. No sex appeal or suave moves here, and though he has a certain aristocratic demeanor, very evident when he first meets Hutter, he is still just a monster looking for the next blood-feed. He does have magical powers though, as he can, for example, get in and out of his coffin without moving the lid. His own shadow is like another character in the film, so intense is its evil reflection either on walls or victims.This vampire is still scary and quiet creepy after all these years and seeing so many other creations and variations on this theme, not an easy feat to accomplish given the popularity of this subject.
The film can seem long, because a lot of the effects depend on the time SEQUENCE itself, I found this out later when reading about the film, specifically that the director used a metronome to measure time, but while viewing it I must confess I was impatient at times.
Even after being bitten by the vampire in the night, Hutter can not make himself believe that this is happening and goes off to write his bride that the mosquitoes had done it. Never understimate the power of denial. Nevertheless he eats so well in the castle that he is able to recover and escape from his tower room and down the mountains before he faints and is luckily found be a good Samaritan that brings him to a hospital, where he recovers and hurries home.
He had seen the Count prepairing for a voyage and is afraid he will get to the town before he does. Next thing we know the Count's coffins are going down a river,he actually needs several to carry the accursed earth of the plague with him, rats included, that he finds most comforting to sleep with. The river is actually the Vah, also in Slovakia, the scenes of the harbor and the town are from Lubeck and Wisborg, small towns in Germany.
The ship takes the cargo in and soon enough the sailors start to die, one by one. They think it's the plague, but of course it's the Count feeding. He timed it perfectly so that when the very last man dies he has arrived.
The drawback is that he has to carry his own coffin into the house he purchased back in his castle. The scene is suppossed to be at night so understandably, he meets no one carrying it by himself, but I would have added a couple of magically conjured servants here, it was almost comical to watch the Count carry the coffin as if it were a package with his belongings. Coppola's Count would never have done such un-vampirical labor and neither would Belosi's impersonation. This is where I would have preferred to see the monster levitating from the ship and flying majestically in a brand new cape of velvet, preferably with some Eastern European Byzantine embroidery, or at least trailing a long one through the town square.
Greta Schroder as Ellen, is convincing in the role, but so unappealing I actually thought she was a man in drag in the first scenes. As the innocent bride that is to marry Hutter, she has been 'feeling drawn to' walking in her nightgown on the balcony of her terrace, expressing 'longing' but whether is for the return of her boyfriend or the vampire himself is not clear. Upon Hutter's return she manages to read his vampire manual and discovers there that the only way to kill the vampire is to have a young virgin distract him so much while he sucks the life out of her, that he may forget the sunrise and be destroyed by the light.
This information will help her save her town from the curse of the vampire in the last scene, which is pure magic.
This copy was excellent quality. I have heard others complain it was not so with copies they've seen, so there are many around and you have to make sure to get the KINO restored one.
Summary of Nosferatu
NOSFERATU - DVD MovieAs noted critic Pauline Kael observed, "... this first important film of the vampire genre has more spectral atmosphere, more ingenuity, and more imaginative ghoulish ghastliness than any of its successors." Some really good vampire movies have been made since Kael wrote those words, but German director F.W. Murnau's 1922 version remains a definitive adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Created when German silent films were at the forefront of visual technique and experimentation, Murnau's classic is remarkable for its creation of mood and setting, and for the unforgettably creepy performance of Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a.k.a. the blood-sucking predator Nosferatu. With his rodent-like features and long, bony-fingered hands, Schreck's vampire is an icon of screen horror, bringing pestilence and death to the town of Bremen in 1838. (These changes of story detail were made necessary when Murnau could not secure a copyright agreement with Stoker's estate.) Using negative film, double-exposures, and a variety of other in-camera special effects, Murnau created a vampire classic that still holds a powerful influence on the horror genre. (Werner Herzog's 1978 film Nosferatu the Vampyre is both a remake and a tribute, and Francis Coppola adopted many of Murnau's visual techniques for Bram Stoker's Dracula.) Seen today, Murnau's film is more of a fascinating curiosity, but its frightening images remain effectively eerie. --Jeff Shannon
Similar DVD Movies
Vampyr (The Criterion Collection)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2008-07-22; DVD
Best price: $20.74
Price in other shops:
The Phantom Carriage (Criterion Collection)IMG; Release date: 2011-09-27; DVD
Best price: $17.10
Price in other shops:
![The Complete Metropolis [Blu-ray] Image](/images/The-Complete-Metropolis-Blu-ray-B0040QYROK-X.jpg)
The Complete Metropolis [Blu-ray]KNV; Release date: 2010-11-23; Blu-ray
Best price: $22.22
Price in other shops:
The Phantom of the Opera - The Ultimate Edition (1925 Original Version and 1929 Restored Version)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2003-09-09; DVD
Best price: $69.95
Shadow of the VampireLGF; Release date: 2003-06-17; DVD
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Battleship Potemkin (The Special Edition)Kino International; Release date: 2007-10-23; DVD
Best price: $15.74
Price in other shops:
Dracula (Universal Studios Classic Monster Collection)Universal Studios; Release date: 1999-12-21; DVD
Best price: $7.04
Price in other shops:
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Restored Authorized Edition)Kino International; Release date: 2002-09-24; DVD
Best price: $10.52
Price in other shops:
Nosferatu (The Vampyre / Phantom Der Nacht)KINSKI,KLAUS; Release date: 2002-07-09; DVD
Best price: $7.40
Price in other shops:
The Complete MetropolisKNV; Release date: 2010-11-16; DVD
Best price: $16.64
Price in other shops: