Just when my faith was shattered due to the extreme crappiness of Death Tunnel, along comes Werner Herzog and the late, great Klaus Kinski to restore my faith in the horror film (I didn't REALLY lose it, but I was a bitter old cow for a couple of days.) I had been searching for Herzog's 1979 film for a while. I could only find it as part of a Herzog DVD set, and as much as I would love to own that, funds were not available. Low and behold the SAME day I made the fatal decision to buy Death Tunnel (my friend actually bought it, and I made him take it home. It is his shame now) I found a copy of Nosferatu for 20 bucks!! 
Happy day! Nosferatu is all that I hoped it would be. It is a loving tribute by Herzog to F. W. Murnau's silent film, as well as an update of Bram Stoker's masterpiece. The beautiful Isabelle Adjani plays Lucy Harker, wife of Jonathan and object of Count Dracula's lust. Jonathan (Bruno Ganz) comes under Dracula's spell after visiting Transylvania to have him sign papers. He is bitten, but manages to escape Dracula's castle. He races home to save Lucy, but instead begins to lose his mind. Meanwhile, a ship has arrived at port with the whole crew dead. It is overrun with rats, and the townsfolk fear that it carries the plague. As you can imagine it carries something far worse than the plague. It carries Klaus Kinski!!!
It falls on Lucy's shoulders to defeat the Count. This Lucy (Mina in the novel) is well aware of Dracula's intentions and she uses them to ultimately defeat him. This being a Herzog film the ending is kind of a downer.
I loved it!! It is classic Herzog, from the nature shots to the amazing score. Kinski is in top form- scary, funny, and sympathetic as the monster who is doomed to live forever. The set design is amazing, the acting is top notch all around. Piece of advice-- if you get the version I bought, watch the German version. I watched both and found the German just creepier....
Thank you once again Werner Herzog. Now read me some more bedtime stories so I can fall asleep.....
3 comments:
Oh, now I get it! I had no idea that there was a remake. All of your little hints, etc. about not being able to find "Nosferatu" were baffling to me- because I was thinking of the silent film, which is wonderful. Now I have to check this one out, definitely!
Please do! Kinski is awesome!
Kinski is genius on this one! I love how Herzog stretches the moments in this horror movie, one can really absorb all that delicious atmosphere with such a deliberately slow pace. Love it!
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