I was given a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas, and I used it today.
Let me first say I looked for the two Straight Dope books that my personal library, tragically, lacks. Failing to find the tomes of wisdom I truly desired, I checked out the DVDs.
Yes, there it was, amongst many other extremely good films which I will also someday own.
The classic 1922 silent, unauthorized adaptiation of Stoker’s vampire story, directed by F. W. Murnau, and starring Max Schreck.
I must pick the right time to view it. I may have to wait a while, but I know the undead wait for me…
Excellent movie, I really enjoy it. I bought the box set with it and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Waxworks and Golem I find the best time to watch is on a dark, rainy, hopefully thundering, night. I agree with CK, the score is so so, but after a while I forget all about it.
Haven’t seen it on DVD, but Nosferatu is without a doubt one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen. Yes, the 1922 version. Who needs special effects? It’s bone-chillingly good.
Saw it in the theater a couple years ago as a midnight double feature with “Shadow of the Vampire.” Great flick, one of the best horror movies ever made.
I agree; this is easily the scariest vampire ever put on film. Even if you laugh at some of the effects, like the rising from the coffin (I found myself giggling), you’re shut up instantly as soon as you get a close-up of that face.
I’d watch it without sound. The first time I saw it was at 8 AM in a film class in college, in a small dark room with no noise but the whirr of the projector. Scary to the point of being nauseating.
One of the best movie-going experiences of my life was seeing Nosferatu at the National Museum of Modern Art in D.C. back in 1997.
The print, which was made from a restored negative in Germany, was fresh out of the lab, color-tinted, had brand new intertitles in the original German (with English translation on a electric teleprompter under the screen) and was presented with a live music score peformed by a 20-piece orchestra. (Speaking of that score, it was the best music yet I’ve heard set to the film, and I have no idea who wrote it or if it’s available anywhere)
Best of all, it was a totally free show. First come, first served. Me and my friends figured no one would show up, but we wound up arriving an hour early purely by accident…good thing we did, because the line rapidly grew and grew until there were at least a thousand people in line for a 600-person theatre.
Sorry. Just had to share that. It still sticks in me head.
On another note, Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake is pretty interesting as well, in a sort of dissonant arthouse way.
I saw it on halloween once with a real live organist playing the music. Which was cool and all, but I have to say it appears that horror (like romance and toothpaste) gets flat with age. I didn’t think it was scarey at all, actually kind of unintentionally funny in parts, in a “Young Frankenstein” kind of way.
