Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) Horror Movie Review

by The Baron
(Alabama, USA)

Released: January 17, 1979
Directed by: Werner Herzog
Written by: Werner Herzog
Starring:

Klaus Kinski Count Dracula
Isabelle Adjani Lucy Harker
Bruno Ganz Jonathan Harker
Roland Topor Renfield
Walter Ladengast Dr. Van Helsing

Werner Herzog, German director extraordinaire, brings an art house sensibility to this remake of the 1922 film Nosferatu, and the result is a beautifully chilling film that is more concerned with mood and atmosphere than simple shocks. What emerges instead of a standard vampire chiller is rumination on the image of the vampire, a creature who has sacrificed his humanity and any prospects of love in exchange for eternal life.

Herzog’s film is slowly paced, something which will no doubt be a sore spot for fans of cranked-up, thrill-a-minute modern horror films. However, patient viewers will find much to like here, including some stunning cinematography and a dark and moody score by Popol Vuh.

The basic plot of the original film is followed with a few additions here and there. Count Dracula (called Count Orlock in this version) leaves his castle in Transylvania and sets sail for Wismar in search of new blood. Once there, he unleashes an army of rats that fan out across the town spreading the plague. Only Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) knows the cause of the pestilence and sets out to put an end to Dracula’s reign of terror.

Klaus Kinski, the volatile actor who gave many a scenery-chewing performance in his long career, here brings a quiet intensity to the character of Count Dracula. His gaunt, bald and bat-eared form is the perfect embodiment of eternal suffering. Herzog does not glamorize the vampire as so many others have, i.e. John Badham’s version of Dracula (1979), opting instead to use it to depict the suffering of one who is damned to live forever.

Isabelle Adjani is equally good as Lucy. While she at first seems to be in a sort of trance, or perhaps even sleepwalking, Lucy reveals hidden layers of strength as the plague sweeps across the town and the townspeople, including an especially ineffective Dr. Van Helsing, who proves helpless to stop Dracula.

Herzog creates some truly beautiful sequences. Chief among them is the scene where Lucy enters the town square and witnesses a danse macabre, in which plague-infected people dance among the coffins of the recent dead with wild abandon, their ultimate fate already decided. The sequence plays like a fevered dream and ends with one gentleman asking Lucy to join them at their dinner table – set up in the square and teeming with rats underneath – because, as he says, it’s their ‘last supper’.

No, Nosferatu the Vampyre is not a fast paced thrill ride. It's not even a conventional vampire tale. It is however, a classic film that takes the time to develop its themes and allows room for the viewer to fully immerse themselves in its macabre beauty.