Ever since the beginning I had somewhat resented watching the film Nosferatu. Being born into an age of special visual and sound effects, I really have a hard time appreciating the art pieces from the soundless era.
The film successfully met my expectation to be a boring work. The horror movie from decades ago failed to give me the shock that contemporary works do. Perhaps the people of Nosfertu’s era considered it a horror movie due to the newness of movies at the time, but it really can’t count as a good work at all from a contemporary view.
The point work commemorating in the piece is definitely its music. Despite the fact that the storyline was somewhat boring for me, I found the music to be quite well placed. The music nicely fit with the atmosphere of the story at its different scenes. The tense moments when the vampire is confronted, the sweet moments between two lovers, and the sad moments of death were all nicely portrayed by the changes in tone of music.
I think the music was well placed for you because it was the only type of special effects that they used to stimulate mood. The movie didn’t do a good job of stimulating mood through the massive make up and “different lighting” that I think they tried to impose (you couldn’t tell because it was black and white). I actually turned off the music because I get scared easily and music is actually known to be one of the most frightening things. I believe that if you tune out the music, it just appears to be less frightening.
I liked that you wanted to be scared though, but I guess it just wasn’t scary enough! I think had the special effects been there, it would have done a better job at being a “horror film”. The content, in my opinion, was fine. Had they re-made Nosferatu today, I think it would have been better for your taste.
Janice Fong