Best Vampire Movie - Nosferatu (1922) Germany
by Lauren Salisbury
(Findlay, Ohio, USA)
I believe that Nosferatu (1922) the German expressionist film is among the very best of vampire movies. It is my personal favorite because outside of the realm of literature, with Bram Stoker?s Dracula, it is the first of its kind.
Though the film was unable to obtain the rights to Stoker's work, it is a piece loosely based around his novel and it shows the true fear and shock value that Stoker was aiming for in his literature.
The quality of Nosferatu is something that has not been attempted too many times. He is a rodent like, extremely animalistic version of the vampire; one that we must assume has departed from all humanistic tendencies. It is his inhumanity that adds to his loathsome appearance.
Later Dracula films, even those that are centered around Stoker's novel, lack this innate animalistic quality; Instead they attempt to conceal the vampire in the realm of humans. Though this is frightening, we can understand the way that a monster conceals himself among those that are unlike him.
It is far more terrifying when a monster makes no attempt to conceal himself and is instead so far from removed from humanity that we are unable to understand him. Nosferatu achieves this perfectly. Not only does this element add to our fear, perhaps the most terrifying a creature like a vampire has ever been presented, but it also paves the way for other cinematic elements.
To add to the shock of the screenplay, Fritz Arno Wagner and Günther Krampf produce some of the most beautiful cinematography in the history of horror films.
For this reason the film is able to transcend the genre, even before such a genre categorization really existed, and become a classic in terms of the over encompassing film industry.
The silence permeates the film and paired with daunting camera angles and plays of light and dark it screams at the audience.
The silence of the film adds to the suspicions we have.
The silence is what keeps us up at night, because in that silence there is the quiet that sneaks up on us.
In that silence is Nosferatu....
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