Nosferatu [Blu-ray]

While I do not know a lot of things about B&W silent films from the early 20th Century and I'm not a movie fan myself in general, I caught myself to do a research on this one because I wanted to learn about film-making and horror genre around last October. When I researched this, I was surprised by all of the praises and influential of this movie since it was made. The reason why I wanted to watch this just to see how it's well-made back then so let me give you my thought on this old movie.PLOT:A gothic, horror film that tells a story about a vampire named Count Orlok to explore the German city of Wisbog to make a plague. As for the story, it's well unique and aged. It isn't hard to watch if you aren't a modern movie-goer where today's audiences only cares about today's technology. If this is hard for to watch all the way through, then do something else for your interest and that doesn't make you a good movie audience when it comes to 20th Century movies. Isn't that quite simple?ACTING:Acting it exactly how it needs to be. Modern audiences would probably say they're overacting and that's false. This movie was made in different era. The acting was on point. Max Schreck's, an actor who played the vampiric character, acting's the biggest thing this was ever done and that's how it carried the story. If Academy Awards was existed at the time, then this Best Male Acting in Leading Role would go to Max Schreck, in my opinion.DIRECTION:Simple to say about this. The director, F.W. Murnau, did an excellent job on this one. The movie made a perfect direction on the characters, places and story the way this movie needed to be. Sure, it took time and work but it nailed to the point on how this movie carried the story.EDITING:Different era. Editing, however, is not an easy job to do. This job does take a lot of patient and editor have to make sure a person edits scene-to-scene after each direction. Modern audience may say this job might be made from the computing or whatever but that's not true, this was made by the order of the director with the camera and his crew done this scene after scene, that's how it worked. There was no computer at that era, just filmed the movie with the camera on your own. Simple.MUSIC:The soundtrack is fantastic and dramatic. However, the version of this soundtrack may be different because this is a Blu-ray version, so this movie has different versions of music when it's on VHS, DVD or Blu-ray. Maybe I can say who knows?Now this is a movie that really paved the way for horror since. About my opinion on this movie, why would I give the film a praise? The movie is an absolute masterpiece. Considering the year the movie was made, using everything to the power it could. The acting, cinematography, musical score, directing, editing, atmosphere, makeup design and costumes are all top-notch for this movie. Everything about this movie is mysterious and phenomenal, the way Max Schreck walks and his hand gestures. There are things to say about this movie is just mysterious, no matter how amazing this movie was made back then. It's 1922 and this movie shown the true power of film-making that changed cinema forever. I haven't watched "Metropolis" or "The Artist" yet, so I'll keep in mind about silent movies that has good film-making. As I say again, this movie is a finest masterpiece and I will now consider it as one of my 5 greatest films ever made and all-time. If you love movies and want to learn about film-making in general, then this movie is a must-see! Highly recommend!

The only production of Prana Film, this is an adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Because the studio was unable to purchase the rights to the source material, they made a series of alterations, though not enough to avoid a lawsuit from Stoker's widow. Fortunately, some copies survived the court-ordered destruction of the film, and so it is we have a marvelous production of a legendary horror story.The tumultuous legal history aside, the film itself is nothing short of magnificent. The pacing of the film is very good, the story split into a series of acts, and things move along steadily so that you never feel as if the film is milling about unnecessarily (part of its troubled production was its limited budget and shooting times, and you can compare the shadows in same-location scenes to tell the passing of mere hours). It's said that Murnau used a metronome to pace each scene's acting.One thing I enjoy seeing in silent-era films is what proves wrong the label of "black-and-white" films: that scenes are colored in different ways to match the mood or the time of day, such as night scenes being in black-and-blue or black-and-purple. While many black-and-white films have a good quality to them that can hold even in modern-made films such as The Artist, seeing these older pictures with more tonal coloring just adds a welcome touch that I really wish someone would try again. It really does make a difference.Another element is the lighting, or rather, the shadowing (Murnau famously called film-making the "language of shadows," as he felt shadows were more important than lighting). Seeing Court Orlok's shadow on the wall, or reaching upon someone's heart, is a chilling image and a brilliant storytelling technique, with a strong symbolism to it.Orlok himself, played by Max Schreck, is a very well-done character. His bald and subtly-misshapen head, his elongated ears, his bulging eyes and gaunt cheeks, his pointed nose, and his clawed hands present a thoroughly-unsettling form, and it's made all the more frightening by his fangs (laughable by modern standards, since they're basically his two front teeth rather than sharpened incisors). In the making-of, it's revealed that his makeup and overall costuming caused many locals to shun him and treat him like the Devil himself.The other characters are certainly well-done, with the crooked real estate broker, Knock, being a very comical imitation of Renfield, much to my satisfaction. The protagonist, Hutter (a mirror to Johnathan Harker), definitely gets points for being fairly courageous, in both his attempt to confront Orlok and his escape from the castle. The substitute for Van Helsing, Professor Bulwer, is a good figure as well, though I imagine many viewers might feel let down by his lack of action in comparison to any number of other Dracula adaptations; it should be noted that Dr. Seward's mirror shares comparable screen time and accomplishment.A special note for Ellen, Hutter's wife. Her likeness in a memento that Orlok sees causes on the film's most hilarious lines (admittedly the intent is to be alarmed by the Count's attention), and her emotional connection to Hutter causes her to display some nerve-wracking acts, causing other characters to believe her struck by unknown maladies. The ending scene with her, built up to by her reading of a very particular book, is especially stirring.I was going to ask for this for my birthday, but ended up refraining and instead using a birthday gift card to purchase it (which amounts to more or less the same thing, I suppose). I'm very glad I did get around to not only seeing but owning this, because I'd really like to watch it again one day and finish watching the extras, and perhaps even take the time to view the version on the second disc, which is the version with German intertitles.Very highly recommend.

If you like this movie and want to own it, this is the one to get.

Classic film. Right up there in the top 5 vampire films.