Product Details

• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1985
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00001W0F9
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,445 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic silent movie, March 25, 2002

By 

Penguin Egg (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nosferatu (VHS Tape)

Since the introduction of the talkies in the 1930s, it is not the easiest job in the world to watch silent movies, especially full-length features. It is interesting, rather than entertaining, to see how they overcame the limitations in telling a story using only moving pictures: exaggerated facial expressions; brief storyboards; simplified story lines; and expressionistic camera angles. German director F. W. Murnau's classic vampire movie, Nosferatu, made in 1921, is a case in point. Murnau pulls out all the stops and shows just why the German film industry of the 1920s was considered so innovative. He effectively creates an atmosphere of menace through using every visual effect imaginable, including the use of time lapse photography, speeding up the film, the use of shadow to suggest menace, filming through a microscope, and many other techniques, some of which are impressive even by today's jaded standards.

Max Shreck is an intriguing Nosferatu. His pointed nose and ears, emaciated body, staring, shifty eyes, rats' teeth, and bald pate with just a tuft of grey hair behind the ears, is both menacing and humorous. This is not the suave embodiment of evil as portrayed by Bela Lugosi, but a vision of evil as corrupt and foul as his taste for blood. You can almost smell the centuries of decay emanating from him.

An interesting film that is easy to admire. Murnau, his crew and cast deserve credit for creating a celluloid masterpiece. It is little wonder that silent movies sit uncomfortably with modern audiences. Films cry out for sound. I never forgot for a moment that I was watching a silent movie. However, silent movie making is an art in itself, and a difficult one. These early filmmakers deserve full credit for laying down the techniques for future filmmakers. The Germans led the field. Hitchcock learned a lot from the Germans, as did every filmmaker from the 1930s to the present day. This film shows why.

For those who are interested in the history of film making, it might be an idea to watch this back to back with Shadow of the Vampire. Shadow of the Vampire was made in 2001 and is based loosely, oh so very loosely, on the making of Nosferatu. It is based on the interesting premise that Max Shreck was not an actor but a real vampire. A fun idea and effectively carried through. However, it does recreate the atmosphere and conditions of early filmmaking. Shadow of the Vampire is an excellent film in its own right, but if you watch this film after watching Nosferatu, then it will help make you appreciate the craft of those silent movie makers of old.

Incidentally, when I recently saw this is the Soho Curzon in London, it has a live accompaniment of an accordion and a cello, composed by the Dane, Helle Solberg. Scene by scene it captured the spirit of the story exactly. It is a pity that a version of this film has not been released using that score.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tie between this and Dracula (1931) for best movie ever!, June 17, 2000

By 

Victor (hellosville) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nosferatu (VHS Tape)

We must all be extremely thankful that Stoker's widow couldn't completely destroy this film, because we in the Vampire-Fanatics Community would be nowhere without it. Bela Lugosi may have turned Stoker's monster into a suave ladies man, and since then Dracula has been famous for that role, but Max Schreck as the Dracula-based Graf Orlock IS Stoker's MONSTER. With the bald head, white skin, bat-like ears, gnarled teeth, and bony fingers, no one has ever been as scary him. If you were face to face with Satan he'd probably be easier to look at than Orlock. Honestly, though, that's the high point of the movie is Schreck as Orlock. The plot is relatively the same as all Dracula movies, seeing as how they're all based on Stoker's novel, but if you have to judge which is best, and you can't because the plot is all the same, then this one gets high points for Schreck's grotesque masterpiece. If there had ever been a movie with Schreck and Lugosi as vampires, both the stars, it would rule over all, but would ego's clash?

(by the way, i hate the 1979 remake version and i hate the Dracula version that has the Phillip Glass score. These classics are great as they were made....

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE ORIGINAL DRACULA MASTERPIECE., July 16, 2001

By 

Vincent Donato (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nosferatu (VHS Tape)

This slient film masterpiece,desinged by Albin Grau and directed by F.W Murnau,one of the three masters of the German cinema,is an adaption of Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula.

In the 1830's,Harker,the young clerk of a real estate agent,leaves his wife Mina in order to conduct the sale of some property with the mysterious Count Dracula(Nosferatu-undead)in Romania.He falls in the clutches of the count but escapes.Leaving his castle with a number of earth-filled coffins,the count travels by ship to Mina's town.The entire crew of the ship dies,and when it arrives in port a swarm of rats descends upon the city.Meanwhile,Harker has returned to Mina whith his tale of Count Dracula.She resolves to destroy the vampire by keeping him at her bedside until sunrise,when the sun's rays will destroy the monster's body.

Murnau's inspired editing,lighting,and direction and poerformance by Max Schreck as the vampire with taloned fingers,long pointy ears and jerky walk makes"Nosferatu" a true "Symphony of Horror" NOT RATED 1922 Starring Max Shreck and Alexander Granach. Black and White,silent.