Klaus Kinski melts into one of the most memorable horror performances of all time in Werner Herzog's remarkable remake of the 1922 classic.
Herzog’s haunting remake of the
1922 horror classic. If you’re going to remake a classic, this is how it’s done.
German acting legend and infamous egomaniac
Klaus Kinski gives one of the greatest performances the horror genre has ever seen with his iteration of the iconic monster,
Count Dracula (known as Count Orlok in the film). Similar to his cinematic fore-bearer,
Max Schreck, Kinski’s skin-crawling take on the character seems so natural it makes you wonder how much of his performance is acting, and like the vampiric trance that paralyzes a vampire’s victims, the dread Kinski induces becomes hypnotic.
The story largely remains the same as the original, but Herzog injects the film with his trademark sense of atmosphere that makes his works feel like they came from beyond; even his documentaries tend to have a pressing otherworldliness to them.
The film opens with Herzog’s camera roaming through a crypt as we see shot after shot of actual mummified bodies that look as if they’re screaming into the void, trying to will their voices across the chasm between the living and the dead with a harbinger’s message: “
Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” With that impending sense of doom from the outset, the images of
Nosferatu the Vampyre culminate and animate, giving you the feeling that while you’re watching it, it’s watching you back.
The film seems to leave a residue in the air after it ends, as if through this mutual act of watching, over the rift opened by those mummified warnings, a bridge between realms formed, allowing that otherworldliness to seep through into ours. You can’t help but feel the lingering sensation that in viewing Nosferatu the Vampyre, you opened yourself up to some unspeakable ancient curse. #ItsLit
End note: watch the German-language version. DO NOT watch the English-language version.
Comments
Post a Comment