Nosferatu (1922)

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And now for something completely different. This is the classic unauthorized retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in silent film form.

I can imagine this movie being quite amazing when it originally came out. This was all the people had and it probably freaked them out.

The choppy, grainy, dirty, black and white visuals make it really hard to see what is going on half the time. It was also strange reading the sparse dialogue as title cards between scenes. Then there is the score, which started out as mesmerizing ominous organ/orchestral music and eventually started to sound like nails on a chalkboard, but got better again toward the end.

There is no doubt that, for the time period, this a unique and interesting flick. With all of its flaws, the director’s vision and cinematography were decades beyond the technology they had available to them. When your story must be told in visuals alone, you must pay attention to every detail and it is clear that care was taken to make Nosferatu a true symphony of horror.

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Available to stream on: Amazon Prime (subscription required) and YouTube