Dracula review

 Number 645 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1931 adaptation of the classic horror story 'Dracula.'

Dracula (Bela Lugosi) - a vampire from Transylvannia decides to emigrate to England in the hunt of fresh meat. Or, should I say, blood?

There is no denying Dracula's place in the pantheon of horror. Bram Stoker's original book was a pioneer of gothic literary horror for a reason. The same goes for the film. It is a titan of early horror and the horror genre in general. The hammer horror films of the sixties wouldn't have existed without this pioneering film.

As much as Legosi tried, he could never escape the shadow of his most famous character. A bit like a vampire, he was doomed to repeat himself for eternity. No doubt this type-casting led to his deteriorating mental health and drug addiction.

Dracula was also a film of its time with it slow pacing, shorter run-time and tiny budget being indicative of the early decades of cinema. The lack of musical score hurt the film's pacing. Its lack could be attributed to the high cost of adding music, as well as it still being too novel for audiences. Either way, it made the film quite dull.

Perhaps I'm being unfair in comparing Dracula to modern-horror films. Obviously, it has earned its place in the horror-movie canon, but it wasn't for me.

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.