#nosferatu the vampyre

So, while its relevant, I thought it would be a good time to bring to people’s attention the best Dracula adaptation, Nosferatu The Vampyre(1979).

While there are obviously many changes made between the film and the book, it is important to note that many of these changes are actually good. To begin with, the film removes a lot of Stoker’s non-diegetic racism towards the Roma, portraying them as people rather than Dracula’s ghoulish minions. It also treats women with a deal more of respect. The combination Lucy/Mina character does almost all of the work when it comes to hunting down and ending the titular Count, though it does cost her her life.

But the film can still stand on its own merits, outside of its changes. For one, I think it is perhaps the most atmospheric version of Dracula there is out there. To say this movie is creepy is beyond understatement. The whole film is dripping with this sense of dread and the macabre. It probably has the eeriest opening sequence of any horror film I’ve ever seen.

And yes. Those desiccated corpses are real.

The filmmaking on display in this film is incredible. It’s a Werner Herzog production, so of course it is. I think one of the most stand out features of the film is its use of color grading. The colors in this film are deep, and profound, and very affecting. It’s more of the dread I spoke of earlier. It really creeps it’s way into even the most minute details of the film.

The movie stars Klaus Kinsky, who had already worked with Herzog on one previous film, Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972), and would work with him again in a future film, Fitzcarraldo (1982). Kinsky has an arresting presence as Count Dracula. He has about him an air of melancholy and pestilence that capture in the imagination in a way equal only to those of Max Schreck and Bela Lugosi before him.

Playing alongside him are Isabelle Adjani, who plays a sort of Lucy/Mina compound character, and Bruno Ganz, yes that Bruno Ganz, who plays Jonathan. Both do a fantastic job of portraying their parts as devoted partners and very ordinary people.

Nosferatu The Vampyre really is an incredible film. I know a lot of people cling to Coppola’s 1992 feature for its “book accuracy” but I’m telling y’all this one is so much better. It’s a very artsy foreign film, much of it filmed in the Eastern Bloc no less, so I know a lot of people here likely haven’t been that exposed to it. Luckily, while I have been unable to trace down the original language version on any streaming service, the English dub is free with ads on Amazon Prime. If you like Dracula, or appreciate gothic horror at all really, I would highly encourage you to check it out.

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