Nosferatu review

 Number 330 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1920 silent, German expressionist horror film 'Nosferatu.'

Count Orlock (Max Shreck) has just moved into the fictional German town of Wisborg. He purchases a house from estate agent Thomas Hutter (Gustav Von Wangeheim.) However, Thomas and his wife Ellen (Greta Schroder) start to expect something more sinister is at work.

Like how Night of the Living Dead pioneered the zombie-horror genre, Nosferatu laid the groundwork for not only the vampire film, but also the horror film in general. Except, it wasn't horrific. Obviously, I'm not expecting the torture porn or excessive jump-scares that dominate modern horror, but I was expecting at least an unsettling atmosphere like you get in the Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

I thought that the atmosphere was too happy to qualify for a horror film. Happiness is fine if you can feel there is some dramatic tension building toward something, but I felt little tension. It didn't help that you had the subtitles saying "happy German music is playing."

I'm also not an expert on German expressionism, but this didn't seem very expressionistic. Unlike the likes of Metropolis, it stayed grounded in the real, rather than the abstract. Okay, I know that vampires aren't real, but I thought Nosferatu would be more surreal.

Nosferatu was a strange one. Considering its mighty reputation, I was expecting something more, but I was left disappointed.