Because I have an extremely low tolerance for fear and horror, when we were assigned a black and white movie of based on Dracula, Nosferatu, I was not excited to put it mildly. I have been unable to watch scary movies my entire life, but I was nonetheless anticipatory for an all-time classic story to be portrayed in a colorless, speechless movie for an overall haunting experience.
The first thing that came to my mind when viewing this film was the haunting music. Right from the opening credits through the final frame, the music effectively enhances each scene to extract a reaction from the viewer. The chilling music begets the chilling imagery. A comparison from the opposite spectrum would be when sporting events pump up the audience before the game. With the Knicks starting their season in two days, I could not help but get excited all over again from their pump up music.
Another aspect of the movie that I found fascinating was use of the shadow of the Count. The iconic picture of him ascending the stairs made me think about other scary iconic images, such as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of The Lambs.
Classic Image in Nosferatu
Classic Image in Silence of The Lambs
The last component I appreciated in the story was the body language of the characters. As discussed in the group session, because it was a speechless film, the body language had to be a little more exaggerated. Nothing like a little over the top acting to supplement the silence:
The Artist
I don’t really like scary movies either, but Nosferatu was a walk in the park compared to some scary movies that are out today. I also feel like I connected mostly with the music to supply the suspense and fear in the story. To me it was like the music drove the story forward because there was no speaking. When I look at the shadow image from Nosferatu I think more of an episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog, where there was a living evil shadow, than Silence of the Lambs. Finally I agree in a silent film there is a need for overacting, but I find overacting really funny so it takes away from some of the more serious scenes.
Being that I am a big fan of scary movies, I went into Nosferatu excitedly. I was not expecting to have the response that I did because I immediately thought it would be like a modern horror film. In the beginning I did not love it that much, but after reading your post I am starting to appreciate it a little bit more. They found ways to still make it ominous without any speaking, or special effects, and I took that for granted.
Also the actors were great. Count Orlok was really creepy and the man who played him did an amazing job. His physical expressions really added to the scare
Lastly, Silence Of The Lambs was extremely disturbing. That was a movie that really made it harder to sleep for weeks. I was not able to get some of those images out of my head for a while. That movie isone of the best horror films of all time.
I had the same exact feeling as you in the beginning, because I hate horror movies. I’ve never understood what their appeal was. But after watching Nosferatu, I noticed that it was different than what I was expecting. While still a horror movie, it was not the same horror as you and me would expect today.
I also was looking forward to finally learning about one of the most famous and influential stories of all time. While I obviously was familiar with the concept of Dracula and vampires, I never actually had the chance to read the book or watch the movie and this assignment gave me that opportunity.