Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979) - film review

Lured by the prospect of a substantial commission, real estate merchant Jonathan Harker sets out for Transylvania, to sell a house to the mysterious Count Dracula.  Arriving at the Count’s run-down castle after nightfall, Harker is greeted by Dracula, a pale ghoul-like creature with a strange appetite for blood.  Having seen a picture of Harker’s wife, Lucy, the Count secures Harker in the castle and hastens to Harker’s hometown in Holland in a coffin.  Realising that his wife is in danger, Harker makes a desperate attempt to reach his home before the Count.  He is too late.  When he arrives, his hometown is overrun by rats, thousands are dying from the plague, and he is a changed man.  Lucy realises there is only one way to banish this terrible evil...

Inspired by  F.W. Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie der Grauens, acclaimed German director Werner Herzog made this unusual re-telling of the Dracula story with the aim of creating a nightmare from which the viewer is unable to awake.  His film distinguishes itself from the plethora of film adaptations of the Dracula story and yet fails to be entirely satisfying.

Herzog’s most significant innovation is to present the vampiric fiend Dracula as a victim, not a wicked monster, a creature we should pity as much as fear.  To that end, Herzog is supported by a magnificent performance from celebrated German actor Klaus Kinski.  Although he is scarcely recognisable beneath the make-up, Kinski manages to evoke a powerful sense of pathos, whilst simultaneously terrifying us.   The film stands on Kinski’s performance alone.

Apart from Herzog’s brilliant relisation of the Dracula character, the film fails on virtually every other count (no pun intended).  The film’s opening, where Harker treks innocently across the Transylvanian countryside, is dull and needlessly protracted.  After Harker’s initial meeting with the Count, the film appears to lose momentum and thereafter fails to engage the viewers’ attention.

© James Travers 2000

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