Any more exposure that Nosferatu can get is a good thing. If someone watches this and then goes back to the original version, having never seen it, then silent film fans will be happy. Maybe you just watched this for the very good 3D. The sound and voice effects are well done too. You have the option of watching this in 2D. The only bad thing is an intro which you can't by pass. There are after all many versions of the original Nosferatu. Shorter and longer, one in fact with a faster speed that clocks in at 60 minutes. Many different music scores, plus b&w or color tinted. Try watching it in 8mm. The big question is, when does an alternate version get it's own entry. Some may have easily put this in the alternate category.
2 Reviews
Nosferatu for our times, alas!
DJMan-5112 February 2024
F. W. Murnau's 1922 film *Nosferatu* has long been the subject of scholarly analysis in social, political, historical and psychological terms. However, it's also one hell of a scary spook show. The general gloom of the proceedings ("A chilly draft from doomsday") and the otherworldly characterization of the vampire antagonist have made audiences uneasy for nearly ninety years. Keep that in mind and you can almost appreciate *Orlok the Vampire.* Almost.
Nosferatu survived the Bram Stoker estate's legal attempts to turn it into banjo picks. Still, the film has been slowed, sped, cropped, tinted, retranslated, rescored, shaken and stirred. Lately, Troma Entertainment has taken the assault to a new dimension, literally: it's now presented with 3D effects via anaglyph. This serves to add depth of the superficial sort at the expense of all the other kinds, as there are other alterations.
Forget about viewing a legitimate representation of the classic film. The DVDs use of a different title is a reasonable accommodation, (although the cover notes imply that Murnau's is a long-lost film that they have graciously resurrected) and the DVD offers a screwball two-minute kicker by Troma exec Lloyd Kaufman that swiftly ditches any pretensions to film scholarship. There is also a brief tutorial on how to connect and adjust one's monitor for the best 3D.
A rather murky print of the film is employed, the sort of thing we got used to before the recent reconstructions. We know that we're in trouble about three seconds after the main title fades, to "London 1838," and then to the familiar Germanic vista. This is not a simple oversight: later on an animated map shows a journey from England to Transylvania.
The familiar story plays out, but you'll soon find that Troma's film editor has trimmed many of the original takes by a few seconds, and has "improved" the visuals with brief clips cribbed from other sources. (The swipes may be from White Zombie, The Vampire Bat and/or Devil Bat.) In place of the famous negative coach ride sequence, we get a gratuitous castle from some other film. Numerous scenes are resequenced, and threads are rewound, i.e., it takes Thomas Hutter much longer to return home than we're used to (even allowing for the fact that he's going all the way to "London" rather than Wisborg).
Nosferatu's guest hyena appearance is gone, replaced by an inserted shot of roosting bats. There is a determined effort to introduce bat motifs into the ambience. Not only are there close-ups of chiroptera kisser, but all of the title cards have fledermaus filigree in their borders. There are a few transitions wherein a bat graphic smacks you in the eyes and then recedes, in the tradition of the funky 1960s "Batman." The flotilla of the coffin-laden rafts is missing, and Professor Bulwer's microscopic hydra is AWOL.
The title cards are strange in content as well. We aren't in "Mystery Science Theater" territory, but there are some fast and loose translations with some modern idiom. There are also several "helpful" title cards in places where Murnau was so unkind as to let the scenes speak for themselves.
This is a very noisy silent movie, as the soundtrack is riddled with language-free (i.e., non-verbal) audio. These are scene-specific, though similar, with footsteps, creaks, moans, groans, laughs, cries and the occasional smooch. Count Orlok mutters like Popeye the Sailor Man and breathes aloud like that spider fellow at The Cobweb Hotel. There's a relentless musical score with a wide range of generic piano tinkling, plus some xylophone and sinister chorale.
The 3D Orlok does deliver a multi-planar view, but it's something less than natural looking. A cutout image of Max Schreck indeed seems closer to your eyes than does the doorway behind him. However, his figure itself is flat as a Bismarck. His prodigious nose and pointy ears don't seem any closer than the rest of his face. They may take the trouble to render his clawed fingers in a closer plane, but there's a limit to the effort, and the results are variable. Someone bothered to depict one character's unruly hair in two planes, but in execution, the locks of Knock seem to be partially affixed to the far wall!
Only the scenes featuring Nosferatu (or his servant) are presented in depth, with the remainder left flat. It's an interesting idea, but it often results in moments where hopelessly trapped characters seem to have plenty of room, and in peaceful scenes turned claustrophobic by the contrast.
All of this is ironic, because Murnau and his art director Albin Grau worked mightily to provide depth to shots that required it, and all without computers and colored cellophane. Nosferatu often enters our view through a frame (window, door, archway), as if from another level of existence. The 3D works best in the shot where the vampire glides in his little boat to his new home, but it makes the set look like a model.
Orlok is of interest only as a curiosity. Enjoy the spook show, but be sure to revisit the original. You'll find that you ain't seen nothing yet.
-- Don Mankowski.
Nosferatu survived the Bram Stoker estate's legal attempts to turn it into banjo picks. Still, the film has been slowed, sped, cropped, tinted, retranslated, rescored, shaken and stirred. Lately, Troma Entertainment has taken the assault to a new dimension, literally: it's now presented with 3D effects via anaglyph. This serves to add depth of the superficial sort at the expense of all the other kinds, as there are other alterations.
Forget about viewing a legitimate representation of the classic film. The DVDs use of a different title is a reasonable accommodation, (although the cover notes imply that Murnau's is a long-lost film that they have graciously resurrected) and the DVD offers a screwball two-minute kicker by Troma exec Lloyd Kaufman that swiftly ditches any pretensions to film scholarship. There is also a brief tutorial on how to connect and adjust one's monitor for the best 3D.
A rather murky print of the film is employed, the sort of thing we got used to before the recent reconstructions. We know that we're in trouble about three seconds after the main title fades, to "London 1838," and then to the familiar Germanic vista. This is not a simple oversight: later on an animated map shows a journey from England to Transylvania.
The familiar story plays out, but you'll soon find that Troma's film editor has trimmed many of the original takes by a few seconds, and has "improved" the visuals with brief clips cribbed from other sources. (The swipes may be from White Zombie, The Vampire Bat and/or Devil Bat.) In place of the famous negative coach ride sequence, we get a gratuitous castle from some other film. Numerous scenes are resequenced, and threads are rewound, i.e., it takes Thomas Hutter much longer to return home than we're used to (even allowing for the fact that he's going all the way to "London" rather than Wisborg).
Nosferatu's guest hyena appearance is gone, replaced by an inserted shot of roosting bats. There is a determined effort to introduce bat motifs into the ambience. Not only are there close-ups of chiroptera kisser, but all of the title cards have fledermaus filigree in their borders. There are a few transitions wherein a bat graphic smacks you in the eyes and then recedes, in the tradition of the funky 1960s "Batman." The flotilla of the coffin-laden rafts is missing, and Professor Bulwer's microscopic hydra is AWOL.
The title cards are strange in content as well. We aren't in "Mystery Science Theater" territory, but there are some fast and loose translations with some modern idiom. There are also several "helpful" title cards in places where Murnau was so unkind as to let the scenes speak for themselves.
This is a very noisy silent movie, as the soundtrack is riddled with language-free (i.e., non-verbal) audio. These are scene-specific, though similar, with footsteps, creaks, moans, groans, laughs, cries and the occasional smooch. Count Orlok mutters like Popeye the Sailor Man and breathes aloud like that spider fellow at The Cobweb Hotel. There's a relentless musical score with a wide range of generic piano tinkling, plus some xylophone and sinister chorale.
The 3D Orlok does deliver a multi-planar view, but it's something less than natural looking. A cutout image of Max Schreck indeed seems closer to your eyes than does the doorway behind him. However, his figure itself is flat as a Bismarck. His prodigious nose and pointy ears don't seem any closer than the rest of his face. They may take the trouble to render his clawed fingers in a closer plane, but there's a limit to the effort, and the results are variable. Someone bothered to depict one character's unruly hair in two planes, but in execution, the locks of Knock seem to be partially affixed to the far wall!
Only the scenes featuring Nosferatu (or his servant) are presented in depth, with the remainder left flat. It's an interesting idea, but it often results in moments where hopelessly trapped characters seem to have plenty of room, and in peaceful scenes turned claustrophobic by the contrast.
All of this is ironic, because Murnau and his art director Albin Grau worked mightily to provide depth to shots that required it, and all without computers and colored cellophane. Nosferatu often enters our view through a frame (window, door, archway), as if from another level of existence. The 3D works best in the shot where the vampire glides in his little boat to his new home, but it makes the set look like a model.
Orlok is of interest only as a curiosity. Enjoy the spook show, but be sure to revisit the original. You'll find that you ain't seen nothing yet.
-- Don Mankowski.
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