1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- Nosferatu, A Sympathy of Terror

#15- Nosferatu, A Sympathy of Terror
Starring: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder
Directed by: F.W. Murnau


Plot Summary: Thomas Hutter is sent to Transylvania by his employer Knock in order to do business with Count Orlok. After being welcomed in Orlok's castle, Thomas begins to have second guesses about him staying there. After many suspicious incidents in the castle, Thomas begins to suspect that Orlok maybe Nosferatu, the "Bird of Death." Orlok's plan is to journey to the city of Wisborg and feast on the blood of Thomas's wife Ellen.


With hopes to watch a good silent horror film, I went back to German Expressionist films and found one of the more famous titles, Nosferatu, A Sympathy of Terror (which I will only refer to as Nosferatu for the rest of the review). Before watching it, I only knew a few things about it. I knew that it was based on Dracula by Bram Stoker, and I was familiar with some of the iconic scenes from the film. Oh, and I remember a reference to the character of Count Orlok in an episode of Spongebob Squarepants (which should totally give away my age and hopefully all '90s kids know which episode I'm talking about). Other than that, I didn't know if there was more to check out and remember it for or not.

The most memorable part of the film is Max Schreck's iconic appearance as Count Orlok. While he is technically supposed to be Dracula, you would never expect that with how his character looks on-screen. There's so much mystery and suspense with his character. Something as subtle as villagers living in fear and telling stories of him lets the viewer know that Orlok is going to be a creature of pure evil, and when you finally see him, he leaves you uneasy with those wide eyes, pointy ears, large teeth and tall frame. While Schreck's appearance is creepy, that is not the only thing that makes this film scary.

With so many vampire movies out there, Nosferatu is able to stay relevant through its innovative use of light and shadows to help accentuate the look and feel of a monster. There's so many great uses of shadows that allow this shadowy figure to expand and take up the whole shot. This is where I got most of my previous knowledge of the film, through scenes where Count Orlok's shadow ascends a staircase, or the shadow of his hands begin creeping after his victims. It left me with an eerie feeling about the film, which I think is the film's saving grace from something that for the most part I would consider tame.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

If you can make it through some dull scenes without Schrek, Nosferatu can actually be a pretty chilling film. Thanks to its creepy use of shadow and the unique design of Count Orlok, I feel comfortable recommending the film to be watched once by all horror fans.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review

Nosferatu, A Sympathy of Terror and movie images are copyrighted by Film Arts Guild