I wasn’t scared by Nosferatu, I should probably start there. Rather, it was really more of a sense of sympathy and respect that I felt throughout most of the movie, mixed of course with a sense of bewilderment. On the one hand, the movie seemed to be trying to desperately to be funny to the point that I couldn’t help but feel bad at their failure. I mean there were really very few emotions that the movie was trying to evoke besides fear. No particular love scene or funny moments. Yet, the movie’s attempt at frightening me came off like one of those little Chihuahuas that bark like they are a german shepherd; it wasn’t effective, at all.Still, when I put myself in the shoes of someone from the 1920’s I felt much more respect for the movie. The producers of the movie’s had nearly none of the tools available today, no color, no dialogue, certainly no digital effects, and probably most inhibiting, no predecessors. For the frontier that this movie was, I thought it did a pretty admirable job of scaring an audience that would have been experiencing a new kind of entertainment. They made excellent use of costumes. Many of the the masks and scenery could rival today’s blockbusters.

But I did feel as if the handicaps helped the movie in some ways. The lack of dialogue, or sound in general really allowed me as a viewer to emphasize what was on the screen. For instance, the abrupt and drastic body language really came across during the movie, perhaps because it was mute or perhaps because they did exaggerate it. Either way, the character’s nonverbal communication really drove the archetypes that the characters represented. At the same time the movie’s lack of color definitely contributed to the dark and depressing atmosphere that surrounded much of the movie. It reminded me of the film I did based on my interpretation of the Metamorphosis. In my film Jason Woo and I opted to put our film in black and white for precisely the same reason, to emphasize the feeling of depression and hopelessness that we associate with black and white.

Still, Even though I didn’t love the movie, I still think that it is worthy of being watched and studied. If for no other reason, Nefaratu is important because it is arguably ground zero for the very large horror movie genre that has developed today. Nefaratu is integral in understanding the way horror films, or even films in general have evolved since their clearly humble beginnings. Sometimes, it can be pretty rewarding to see how far we’ve come.