I had never seen Nosferatu and know that it’s well revered by movie fans. So, I was extremely surprised to see the sloppy looking title cards that were on screen for so long. I didn’t like the way the film ended and found myself surprised at the films sustained popularity. Then I found out the version I watched had incorrect title cards and may even have some missing scenes. So, I give this version of Nosferatu that I watched for free on Amazon Prime the Avoid like the Plague, which is ironic given the plague elements of the film, rating.
Nosferatu didn’t live up to the expectations that I went in with
There is a lot of history about this film that it was an unauthorized version of Bram Stoker’s book, Dracula. The original version of the film refers to Dracula as Count Orlok. This version, however, has the title cards refer to him as Count Dracula. That should have been my first clue that things were off, but I stayed with it anyways. The IMDb plot summary says that Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter’s wife. In the version of the film that I watched his name was Jonathon Harker. It appears someone went in and attempted to correct the names from the original movie to match the book.
What appears to be extremely misleading on Amazon’s part is there are several films with the name Nosferatu. They appear to share ratings and reviews. This lead me to believe that the free film with a Prime subscription was the correct one. It is dated correctly and has the correct cast names. Yet, based primarily on the character name changes it has become clear that it was wrong. This lead me to really disliking this film as there were several problems with the structure and the end felt extremely anticlimactic as the heroes were basically left out of its conclusion.
Why reviewing beloved films stresses me out
The downside of watching iconic films like this is the possibility of not connecting to it knowing that other people do. I wonder if this version of the film is substantially worse than the correct one. I’m not sure if it will be enough to sway me over. I always want to be sophisticated and not fall into only enjoying modern films. However, I am a fan of the Chaplin and Keaton films from the same era as Nosferatu. Yet, this film felt rather bland and didn’t manage to instill any joy in the viewing experience for me.
In the end, I thought Count Orlok, or Dracula, was creepy. However, the performances of the other characters often felt more comedic than what I would expect from a horror film. I know that the style of acting had to be different given the nature of a silent film. Even with that in mind, it didn’t work for me with this genre. I am hoping to watch a better, more accurate version of the film to make a better decision. For now though, it wasn’t a film I would recommend. It leaves me wondering if others devotion to it is based on something other than the quality of the film itself.
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