NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979)

(aka. "Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht")

Starring: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, Roland Topor, Walter Ladengast, Dan van Husen, Jan Groth, Carsten Bodinus, Martje Grohman. Written and Directed by Werner Herzog. Germany. 107 minutes.

What could possibly be creepier, spookier, more Gothic and austere than F.W. Murnau's spine-tingling 1922 German Expressionist classic Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens? Well, in 1979 visionary director Werner hertzog gave us the answer with this stunning remake, Nosferatu: Phantom Der Nacht. Shot simultaneously in both an English version and auf Deutsch, Herzog follows the original film very closely in plot and scene structure. However, as with all great remakes (of which this is an example of that rather rare type), the filmmaker here uses the original as a springboard, a template from which to explore his own personal obsessions.

By now most of you will be familiar with the plot: Jonathan Harker (Ganz) sets out for Transylvania to visit the castle of one Count Dracula ("Count Orlok" in the orignal, due to a copyright dispute with Bram Stoker's widow) to fascilitate his relocation to his own home town of Wismar. Before long the Count puts the bite on the unwitting mortal and sets forth to claim his new home, not to mention Harker's new bride Lucy (Adjani). Them vampire brings the plague with him to the quiet waterfront town and soon the population are dropping like flies. It seems that only wide-eyed, innocent Lucy can save the day, but at a terrible price.

Herzog's favorite subject, and the theme explored in the great majority of his works, is that of Futility, and the entire film (particularly the apoclyptic ending) is permeated with a sinking sensation of doom and despair. Here he bombards the viewer with his typical images of running water and hordes of small, furry animals (in Aquirre: Wrath of God it was monkeys, here it is plague carrying rats disgorged from the decks of the ship on which our intrepid parasite drifts into Wismar). Van Helsing (Ladengast) is hardly the heroic vampire-slayer here, but a coldly rational old man unable or unwilling to accept the fact that an agent of the supernatural is responsible for this calamity. Peter Cushing he ain't.

Kinski gives one of his best performances as the brooding, death-longing Count, a creature who is far less hideous and less horrifying in appearance than his predecessor Max Schreck. He's given the same bat-eared, rat-toothed look, but far less of his features are covered (maybe because ol' Klaus was so butt ugly he didn't need much make-up?) making him slightly more "human" in appearance, and therefore more sympathetic. Adjani is simply radiant as Lucy, with her wide eyes and alabaster skin self-consciously mimicking the appearance of her silent-era predecessors. Brutish-looking but likeable Ganz makes an unusual Harker, hardly a handsome man but a soulful one who desperately loves his wife and shudders with fear at the hideous changes occuring within and around him.

Detractors of the film have called it "slow-moving" and "boring". Clearly, it's not a typical modern horror film in the sense that it seeks not to terrorize the viewer with suspenseful predicaments and splatter effects, but I think critics who passed judgement on the film in this was missed the film's entire point. Herzog's Nosferatu is first and foremost a mood piece. His intention is to immerse the viewer into a Gothic nightmare world that is at once familiar (from the Murnau original) and refreshingly authentic in feel. Great fantasy film-makers have made it their mission to transport us to worlds where we've never been before, and 19th century Germany has never before been rendered with such a sure and vivid hand. Masters of the Gothic Cinema (like Bava) are masters of atmosphere, and this movie has atmosphere coming out of its (pointy bat) ears. It don't get no Gothier my friends.

**** Four Ghost Ships Full of Plague Carrying Rats out of Four

* Dead meat, ripe n' reeking.
** Moribund, but showing a slight flicker of life.
*** Good and healthy.
**** Brimming with vitality.