To indulge myself, I’ll post the obligatory Spongebob gif everyone is so fond of and primarily the reason most of us had heard of this fellow Nosferatu before.
Alright, now that I got that out of the way…
This may not make sense because Nosferatu predates its inception by over 30 years, but the film reminded me of The Twilight Zone (a 1950’s-60’s T.V series by Rod Serling). Particularly, it reminded me of a certain episode: The Howling Man (pictured below). In this episode, a man comes upon a castle one night during a terrible storm. He goes in for shelter and stays there for the night only to find out a man is being held captive. This man says that he had been wrongly imprisoned and asks the man staying the night to release him. He releases the captive even after strict warnings by the caretaker of the castle. The man had been tricked and the captive he released was no man at all, but the devil incarnate! DUN DUN DUN (sorry to ruin the ending for anyone).
But anyway, this stuck in my head so vividly while I was watching Nosferatu because of the similarities in the style. The Twilight Zone episode was not silent, however, it did contain a great deal of narration comparable to the cards shown throughout Nosferatu. The episode was in black and white as well which triggered my feelings. The series has a distinct theme music to it that is in itself very mysterious like the score of Nosferatu.
I also thought that the Nosferatu character was rather funny-looking. I found the plot to be more humorous (though dramatic) than frightening. It might be partially due to Spongebob introducing a seemingly harmless character of Nosferatu in my youth or it could be because it loosely resembled a Kanamit (something out of another Twilight Zone episode) – not pictured. I think this also says a lot about how our perception of “scary” has evolved over the years.
I’m also not used to silent movies; No one nowadays really is, but I found myself focusing on the background music a lot which I thoroughly enjoyed.
By the way, am I the only one who was thinking NOSE-feratu the whole time? (especially due to the last thing we were required to see)
Happy early Halloween!
See you all on Thursday at BAM
Ralph S. signing off
I really found the spongebob gif funny because I remember from my childhood as well. I also like the relation of Nosferatu to the Twilight Zone because it is totally an episode that I would see Serling create. It has a lot of the dark, twisted views on how we perceive reality and how a lot of small things could easily be questioned if we thought about it in one way. I think the part that is particularly Twilightesque is the ending with Ellen giving herself up. Thinking about it, after seeing this scene the balance of what people think she should have done would dramatically change because they would see one loss for the greater good better than all the other loses even though it also means that we are killing someone. It’s hard to explain, but the Twilight Zone always keeps that type of wonder in a persons mind.
Ralph,
First, I gotta say that I had the same connection to Nosferatu. Between the Twilight Zone and Spongebob, and putting anything in black and white in the same boat we might be long lost brothers. I too posted the famous gif of the flickering light switch and without spongebob, I probably would have never heard of Nosferatu.
I really do agree with you when you say there is a connection between Nosferatu and the Twilight Zone. Both produce such an eerie feeling in the back of your mind without actually showing anything very scary. I always admired the ability of the Twilight Zone to set the scene and create a scenario that was so innately creepy that the show itself did not have to add too many characters with intense makeup or add crazy special effects. Anyway, enjoy halloween and watch some more funny silent films.
Austin