4 / 5 Jan 09Tagline: N/A
Directed by: F.W. Murnau
Written by: Henrik Galeen
Actors include: Max Schreck, Gustav Von Wangenheim
Genre: Horror
Length: 94 minutes
Banned: Finland, Sweden
Country: Germany
Review:
Well I saw this many years ago when I was younger, and although I thought the visuals were impressive I found it a big boring. I figured it must have just been because I was so young, so I gave it another shot, and I hate to say that I agree with younger me. It is seriously stunning in many ways, the imagery, the blowing sideways crosses and the strong shadows are quite something. Of course the highlight is the actual Vampire, Count Orlok, he is seriously the winner of most realistic looking Vampire. He's creepy, looks unnatural and he'd give just about anyone a fright I reckon. The story was originally based upon Bram Stoker's Dracula, but because they didn't get permission they were sued twice. Some things have obviously been changed, but it's quite clear what this is based upon. The story is about a young couple that the Count just happens to take interest in and of course they are being followed and stalked and whatnot for most of the film. The unfortunate part (and some will disagree with me on this one) is that there are many scenes that seem entirely pointless (the ship anyone) and really seem to only exist to show some lovely cinematography. That's nice and everything but it kept pushing the story off track and losing the intensity it muchly needed. Also a better and more dark score would greatly benefit the print, oh and they put the text up on the screen for wayyyy too long dragging it out even further. A condensed version of this film could have been absolutely amazing, but as it is this is impressive, but I'll take "Dracula" (1931) over this one any day.
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