Nosferatu

So, as you can probably tell from my recent posts, I'm on a bit of a vampire kick right now. So I decided to rent the old 1922 silent film Nosferatu, which is a German rip-off of Dracula. (Bram Stoker's estate sued and lost, FYI. Apparently, changing the names of the characters was good enough to prove that you had an original story back then.) They must have thought movie goers were idiots and slow readers back then. The text they throw up on the screen to explain and/or advance the story is up there for about 10x the amount of time it actually takes to read. They also show certain things repeatedly like we're all too dumb to remember what we saw five minutes ago. And, overall, it was really slow-moving compared to what we're used to watching now.

Having said all that, it was sort of fun to watch. I was impressed at the creativeness of the special effects - yes, that's right, special effects! Pretty amazing considering there wasn't Industrial Light & Magic to turn to for help. And the guy who plays the vampire, Max Schreck, is really creepy looking even by today's standards.

If you have any interest I recommend watching this when you're in the right mood for this type of film. Be prepared to hate the supposed "hero" of the movie. He's a total idiot and you'll probably end up rooting for the vampire to get him like I did. However, his wife actually has the ability to use her brain and she ends up saving humanity from the evil vampire. Which goes to prove that if you want something done right send a woman to do it! (But she can't be too smart or else she never would have married that tool in the first place.) Anyway, enjoy.