What struck me the most were each actor’s exaggerated movements. It’s unnatural to make such wide gestures, and I felt more so this way when we made those gestures ourselves in class today. Yet, with silent films, such gestures are one of the main ways to communicate to the audience. The actors were able to get their points across effectively. I find it amusing that we can laugh at these gestures when watchers from the 1900s screamed in fright.

We’ve been exposed to such high graphics and special effects that we aren’t as easily scared as people were in the 1900s. We just sit in front of the movie and blink through till the end, shrugging at the lack of scariness when the 1900s audience would scream at a train driving towards the screen. I guess these are examples of when overdose can suck the reactions out of something that should have quaking in our boots.

However, if we think about it, imagine how we’d act if we couldn’t speak. I used to play the “Quiet Game” in school where the winner was the person who could stay quiet the longest. It was hard to communicate to each other. In the middle of the game, if we took a picture, we’d see a bunch of kids waving their arms wildly, jabbing the air with facial expressions saying, “God,  how oblivious can you get?” or “How in the world am I friends with such an idiot?” It’s because there’s no other way to communicate except for writing and kindergarteners were not quite adept at such a skill yet.

In those situations, we mirror the wild gestures of the actors in Nosferatu. That’s why I find that even if I laugh at the ridiculousness of the gestures in the silent film, I still act that way when I’m unable to express myself in words.