As a fan of horror movies, I was very curious to finally see Nosferatu. I didn’t expect it to actual scare me, but I was aware the whole time of what elements might have scared an audience in the 1920’s. In fact I think this is the oldest film I’ve ever seen, and because of this, I also noticed a lot of the elements of the film that were a byproduct of its age.
Many modern horror films use the same sort of black and white film effect on their frames to make them appear scary. The association with this effect, I suspect, may have come from Nosferatu. Nosferatu, like other early films, could not control whether or not they had this effect on the frame – I’m not an expert, but I’m assuming it was due to the quality of the physical film. While I watched Nosferatu, I consciously tried to avoid associating this visual effect with horror – and as a result, I was not as scared.
Often used in modern horror films to be scary, this was a part of every older film, scary or not.
But there were times while I was watching Nosferatu that I slipped and allowed the old effects to act on me as if I was watching a modern film. I figure that this is okay to happen when watching an older film, as I can’t possibly deny that I live in the now and not nearly a century ago. Watching from a modern standpoint made me want to probe deeper into the film, even when there was nothing deeper to probe into. For instance, in the scenes where a character is simply walking, is there anything going on in the background of significance? Do the little black dots and lines actually mean something? These questions popped into my head as I watched the film, and the answer is, no.
See the image above? Nothing there. Like me trying to delve deeper into Nosferatu as I watched it – I couldn’t see deeper meaning in individual scenes. No symbolism or anything of the sort.
Modern films have forced me to act as if there is always something significant in the frame. Older films, or at least Nosferatu, take things slow. I respect this, because along with other elements of the films (such as the silence, and the lack of visual violence) it forces the viewer to use their imagination. This isn’t to say that there isn’t a deeper meaning to Nosferatu as a whole – I think that it raises questions about society of the 1920s – but there are no small symbols or hidden objects in each scene.
Did Nosferatu end up being scary to me? Not really. But I’m still glad that I saw it – it serves as a basis for many other horror films to follow. I’m glad that it forces the viewer to use his/her imagination in the horror, because it draws the viewer in more, rather than presenting it all for the viewer to see. More modern films such as Saw lay everything out for the viewer to see, which desensitizes the modern moviegoer. I can respect that Nosferatu respected its viewers by not desensitizing them.
I loved the new and fresh information you brought to the table about Noseferatu. Without realizing it, I did the same thing as you while watching the silent film– I looked to the background and prominent details to search for elements of foreshadowing. In modern day movies, every sign and fruit is vital. Because movies today use minute details as a tool for story progression, I incorporated observing details into my movie watching. However, this skill, as you noted, is unnecessary to watch this film because there are no elements displayed in the background or details that contribute any true, if any, significance to the story. Even the blurred black and white film effect wasn’t important.
Thank you for revealing this fact about the frames, for I was under the impression this was the desired aesthetic. Ironically, I found this to be the scariest element of the movie, figures it was out of the production team’s control.
I loved how you noticed the problem with the frames. Now that I think about it, the frames did contribute to the eeriness of the movie. However, I don’t think that the audiences in the 1920s would have associated the visual effects with horror because: 1) movies were a new form of entertainment, so they are unlikely to notice any discrepancy in the frames (since there is no point of comparison); and 2) most people were probably too overwhelmed with the dreary music and creepy-looking Count Dracula. That being said, I was never genuinely scared of what was to come. I was just curious about what the narrator meant when he referred to the plague in the beginning of the movie. Lastly, I did notice one thing that perhaps falls a little short of being called a symbolism in today’s film industry and literature. The last scene of the movie when light covered the buildings and reduced darkness below its essence was symbolic of good overpowering evil.