A symphony of horror… If there was ever a tag line that best describes the film itself, it’s that one. Probably the most well known silent horror movie, Nosferatu is an absolute masterpiece in filmmaking. Released in 1921, Nosferatu is an unofficial version of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. After being unsuccessful in acquiring the rights to the story itself, the makers decided that they would put their own twist on the tale, changing the names of the characters and tweaking the story ever so slightly. The result was probably one of the most terrifying and creepy films ever made that still packs a huge punch 92 years later. Quite impressive don’t you think?

The story follows a man named Hutter, a real estate agent from Germany who revives an unusual request from Count Orlok to visit him at his castle to discuss buying a house in Wisburg. Although it seemed strange, Hutter complies and sets off on his journey. Once there, he gets a terrible feeling, sensing evil but unable to escape. Hutter starts to believe that Count Orlok is in fact a vampire after finding a crypt in the castle. Death and terror soon follow…

Now obviously, you can’t talk about Nosferatu without first talking about the ferociously haunting performance of Max Schreck as Count Orlok. It might seem like a pretty bold opinion but I think Schreck gave a better performance here than Bela Lugosi did in the authorised version of Dracula. The sharp teeth and vacant eyes of the vampire while he states at you through the screen is one of the most chilling scenes in movie history in my opinion. Although is only on screen for just short of 9 minutes all together, his qualities, or lack thereof, give off a terrifying feel to them, as though even he doesn’t know why he’s murdering all of these people and I think that’s one of the reasons why Schreck’s version of the Count is superior to Lugosi’s.

One thing I do wish to clarify is that although Nosferatu is better than Dracula in many ways, Dracula also has many qualities that could argue otherwise. I think it’s all based on preference. I didn’t want to start writing about why this is better than that and that is better than this because both are superb films and to be quite honest, I’d prefer it if you made that judgement yourself!

I mentioned Schreck earlier and how his acting was second to none. It’s a shame however, that the same can’t really be said for the rest of the cast. The word passable comes to mind to describe most of them. The estate agent didn’t do a bad job, although I found him a little bit over the top sometimes, even for a silent film and it didn’t really fit the tone of the picture.

One more thing to note is the expressionism that Murnau has become so famous for. One thing that differentiates this film from other German expressionist pieces of that era was the use of real locations for filming. If you take for example, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, you’ll notice a much different feeling compared to Nosferatu and I think that’s mostly down to the realism of this compared to Cabinet. The score really helps the film to portray the bleakness that it achieves and enhances the more important scenes featuring Orlok. To put it simply, the direction was done to near perfection.

Nosferatu will always have a special place in my heart with it being my first silent film and all. Sure, there’re many silents out there that are better overall but when it comes to silent horror, nothing even comes close.

Rating: 9.5/10