Rent Nosferatu (1922)

completly terrifying! - Nosferatu review by CP Customer

I was amazed and dazilled by the spectacular camera work of this film, i didn't expect a film to have been made so soon after the invention of cinema to be so amazingly sophisticated that it rivals todays achievements. Marnau certainly knew a creepy shot and how to go about creating it, no other film of any sort has ever frightened me this much.

Wonderful, a universal must see!

Creepy - Nosferatu review by RE

A very creepy atmospheric film. as a horror fan for me this is a must watch for anybody who loves horrors and still holds up as a top film today over 100 years after it was released

Brilliant, Classic, Visually Stunning and Scary Unofficial German Version of Dracula - Nosferatu review by PV

This is a film version of the novel (and then stage play) Dracula by Bram Stoker. After complaints of copyright infringement, the film makers altered some details BUT Stoker's widow still sued - a court ruling ordered all copies of the film destroyed. Luckily, a few prints of Nosferatu survived, and thus the film came to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema and the horror genre.

This is 90 minutes not 60 minutes as stated on the sleeve. It is divided into 5 acts with INTERTITLES between scenes as in old silent movies.

What makes this special is 1) the attention to detail - the skeleton clock, the shrouded horses, the atmosphere always and shadows of course; 2) the main character Nosferatu who despite his name Count Orlock is Dracula and is terrifying, his eyes, fangs to the front incisors not canine here, and those long, clever, sinister fingers clawing at the screen! 3) the film sticks loyally to the novel too, simply swapping Whitby for a German coastal town so is well-structured, even having its first plot point at minute 24 just like modern movies!. 3) the acting is superb - exaggerated as per silent films which came from stage acting BUT perfect for horror - and the still camera lingers over it which makes it worse - but better cinematically!

The soundtrack is a version of the original, apparently. Sometimes is jarred, the panpipes etc, but hey ho...

This is 1922, when silent films were either comedy shorts from Chaplin etc or the 1920s romantic epics of Rudolf Valentino playing a non-authentic non-pc Sheikh, the silent Ben Hur, various shorts - romance, crime etc. So this though only seen by German audiences was special and groundbreaking.

Watch the same director's silent films, and first sound film M a brave film about a child abuser which made Peter Lorre a star.

I also recommend another German silent films by Fritz Lang, Metropolis of course but especially Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond) 1929 which is excellent.