(1922) ****1/2
On Halloween night last year I wanted to fit this film into my lineup, but it didn't happen. So last night, fighting the exhaustion of the five-movie day, I threw it in. This movie is so old and weird, it seems like the visual transcript to the collective human nightmare.
Loosely based on Bram Stoker's novel, this silent offering tells of Count Graf Orlok's plague on the town of Bremen. It starts with Jonathan Harker heading off to his gig in Transylvania, even stopped by an early version of The Old Man of Warning, who cryptically says "you can't escape your destiny by running away." Not quite Ralph's "you're doomed! Dooomed" in Friday the 13th, but they did have nearly sixty years to iron out the character.
If you catch this, I hope you see the version with soundtrack I had. It periodically busts into this groovy jazz vibe, either a bass/drums combo or just bass by itself. In certain scenes it accentuates the scare; at the very least (as when we see Harker's progress back home) it's groovily amusing.
Max Schreck's embodiment of the gaunt, inhuman Orlok is like a bottle of 100 Proof Creepy Evil. He's only in the movie for about nine minutes all together, but his presence is so instantly gripping I didn't notice. I just saw frame after frame that I wanted to put on my wall.
The storytelling in this has a strange stamp, as is true with much silent cinema. As such, it may seem to drag in spots to the modern viewer. But it's well worth the look; it's got plenty of dark, expressive beauty and a villain for the ages.
2 comments:
This movie's only an hour long! Awesome for a Horrorthon entry. Hee hee.
Dana here -
I don't remember too much about this movie except that I'm pretty sure we saw it in Mr. Caruso's Film Studies class in high school. I do remember one creepy shot of the dude with some really cool lighting.
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