Nosferatu - 2024
 

A moment for horror movie fans.....another Nosferatu remake upcoming. I recall seeing the last one at some point, the 1979 version, with Klaus Kinski as the titular vampire. That one was pretty good, although still short of the 1922 original, which was both the first and the strangest of all vampire movies.

The silent 1922 Nosferatu was lost for decades due to nitrate film rot, reconstructed from pieces of un-rotted film and digitally fixed. I have the disk on my shelf now.

It's a big task to think of another Nosferatu do-over, but after The Lighthouse, The Northman and The VVitch (Eggers movies), if anybody is going to get it right, it would be Robert Eggers.

It's a big hill to climb, but we will see...next year.

Will it work? The most legendary of all horror movies? Re-done?

Eggers tackles Nosferatu?

I’m so there!

Not much I look forward to. This guy is kind of interesting. I'm in.

Re: Nosferatu - 2024
 

This has been in the news for like 2 years already. Eggers is the only contemporary American filmmaker who could pull it off.

Looking forward to it.

My first introduction to the character was on the Nickelodeon show Are You Afraid of the Dark?. There's an episode ("The Tale of the Midnight Madness") in an old movie theater where they're screening Nosferatu and it comes to life, and it was one of the scariest things I'd ever seen. It was the de facto scary thing I thought about when I thought about being scared for awhile afterwards. I was nine.

They did a pretty good job with it:

https://imgur.com/BP61hSz.gif

(Side note: the fact that Nosferatu comes out of the screen, and that I had a similarly horrified, prolonged reaction to the end of The Ring, suggests there's something about that idea specifically that has always scared me. I'll have to think more about that, as I don't think it occurred to me before writing this post.)

Anyway, this is an origin-story kind of personal fear which has enough distance that I'm pretty excited to see this, either in spite of (or because of?) the idea that it might trigger all that again.

It's a big task, for sure, but I think it's one of those things that's actually ripe for the attempt. It is shocking, however, that even those original images are haunting to this day. It's so easy for horror, in particular to lose its punch a couple generations later, nevermind a century, but the staying power on that character design is something else.

You're just afraid all those users you banned will come out of the screen and punch you in the nose.

Those images have been around long enough to finally gain an aesthetic property which cannot be acquired by spending any sum of money, antiquity. The real thing. Not some fake old castle they just nailed together. The film itself reaches out to us across a void. A little dated is a little boring. Dated is, at best, quaint; we still get it and laugh at our parents for having been impressed by it. Beyond dated is true antiquity. Ancient, old, odd, stuff that is subtly strange simply for still existing. It does not matter that they just nailed together the set when they made Nosferatu, the film itself is a haunted house.

Re: Nosferatu - 2024
 

This may or may not have been what you meant, but what you said made me think of it, regardless: part of the brilliance here is that the monster is decrepit. So if it looks old and flakey and falling apart...well, that doesn't necessarily hurt it. It might enhance it. Ditto for the grainy quality and the distance from the camera and all that. That stuff, that found footage, that analog horror stuff, is in vogue anyway, so it's probably scarier to the culture as a whole than it was even a few decades ago, when it wasn't quite as old.

I think that probably ties into why it has staying power, too: most of the people reading this will be familiar with the idea of the vampire as metaphor for disease, particularly syphilis. So part of our revulsion is the basic human instinct to pull back from disease itself when it gets close to us (which ties into the coming-out-of-the-screen thing, the movement towards you having an extra layer of meaning and threat beyond the obvious).

And yeah, to (I think) build on what you're saying, horror from the 70s or 80s is close enough that we recognize it as a poorer version of what we might create now, but century-old horror is foreign and alien in a way that can make it more sinister.

Re: Nosferatu - 2024
 

It looks interesting---I am awaiting the trailer.

Yes, it has reached an age where it almost looks like documentary to a modern audience.

I've always said the silent factor is also important. Shreck's vampire and Chaney's phantom are both iconic images, but they could easily be undermined by a weird vocal delivery or dated performance or mismatched voice. Chaney's speaking voice was very American, so it's hard to imagine how he might attempt to play a demonic Frenchman. Luckily we don't have to confront that so we're allowed to imagine what these characters would sound like.

Ultimately, we're repulsed by death. It's not disease and decay. These are merely heralds. And I don't really mean the creature which should be dead and yet is still animate. I mean rather the image which is still animate. It should be gone, but still is. The Langoliers forgot to eat this one. Death, wearing a mask of death, appears with us as we march along in our perpetual parade of the present. Thus, we arrive at cinematic coulrophobia. It's old and silly, a mere amusement, and yet it still is. And it still moves. We have the toy image of death in the frame, but subtler reminder of death is the distressed image itself. Death is winking at us through, and not in between, the scratches and film grain.

Right, it is old enough to be alien.

Re: Nosferatu - 2024
 

It will be interesting. Part of what made the old one work was not just how creepy it was, but the fact that it was silent. On two occasions, I've seen the 1922 movie, accompanied by two different live chamber music groups providing contemporary original music and that whole concept really made the thing more creepy than any normal sound production that I would imagine. It was far preferable to someone dubbing in realistic sound. Moving to the new one, do you do sound? It's such an iconic silent movie that it almost seems like it would be like redoing Ben Hur without chariots.

I don't know what dialog you'd put in Orlock's script since the character is so rat-like and non-verbal......nothing like Bela Lugosi and "Good Even-ing".

I also recall seeing Shadow of the Vampire, another Nosferatu spin-off. That one was pretty good, but was more of a a fictional making-of movie, having an actor portraying a character that really exists, preying on the crew. It was pretty good as I recall, but definitely a spin-off and not a remake.

I recall seeing images from Nosferatu long before I saw the movie. It was essentially lost for some decades, and subsequently pieced together from sections of film that had not melted or been destroyed due to alleged copyright problems. The estate of Bram Stoker claimed to own the concept of a vampire and won their case, hence copies of the full movie were destroyed, leaving "lost" and deteriorated copies and fragments as the only source. What we have now is the outcome of an extensive restoration process, believed to be mainly complete.

The most high-fidelity remake of the original would be a copy of the original. A shot-for-shot remake, however, would be pointless.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S7YcVh6cw...ay%2Bcover.png


Eggers (worry not, I don't say it with a hard "r") kind of "went there" with the cinematography of The Lighthouse, so who knows? I don't think that a formal requirement of a remake of Nosferatu is that it must be shot in black and white or be a silent film accompanied by an organist in a theater, etc., etc.


BtVS gave it a shot, but they didn't have the stones go silent for the entirety of "Hush." It's a tough sell. Films are supposed to make money and people are kind of attached to talkies these days. Capital speaks and I don't see capital green-lighting a silent movie.



My guess is something that will look a lot like The Lighthouse with sound. And that will be OK. Will there be long Kubrickian stretches without dialogue? Maybe?

I guess, I will need to take a peek at the 1979 remake. I saw it years ago, recall Klaus Kinski being "Count Dracula" and looking like Max Shrek, or something like that. I see in IMDB that they also had Lucy, Mina and Jonathan appearing straight from Bram Stoker, so it must have been a hybrid of Stoker and the silent version. Apparently, you can stream it on Tubi or Peacock.

It's an interesting quandary. Any horror fan knows that the original was silent and monochrome, but, if that doesn't seem marketable now, they will need to somehow evoke the creepy, twisted feeling of the 1922 version, but update the technology. That might work, might not. If anybody could make it happen, Eggers seems like the guy.

I see that there is a web page with a bunch of Nosferatu-styled vampires, if you stand all of the ads that pop up on this ad-junk-ware web site, so it's not a unique thought.

https://nofspodcast.com/13-unforgett...in-film-and-tv

Bram Stoker's estate claimed to own the rights to Bram Stoker's novel.

Nosferatu is quite clearly based on his novel.

That is the issue. Not that they had dibs on the concept of vampires, which clearly predates both.

Dracula =/= vampires

https://www.cbr.com/dracula-nosferat...-vampire-lore/

Trying to determine if this is more pathetic or stupid before I respond..

Oh, that's right, I also can not respond at all.

As much as I love living rent free in your head, I must confess that the space is awfully small and not well-furnished.

What an accomplishment. And you only had to be a completely insufferable loser for ten plus years to gain access.



At this rate, you'll be squatting in dozens of people's heads by the end of your life. Dozens! Hope life is as enjoyable for you as it sounds.

I don't know what you mean by it being a hybrid of an adaptation of a novel and the novel, itself.


The Herzog version was a conscious remake of the Murnau version. His line about it was something along the lines of, German cultural heritage of our fathers was basically destroyed by the toxic influence of the Nazis, so in order to reclaim that heritage, they needed to go to the culture of their grandfathers.

You're really bringing out your arsenal of clever comebacks, aren't you.


But please, keep giving me more reason to enjoy how much you flounder when you can't quote from one of your college textbooks.

Ironically, the Stoker version of the original story was written by an English guy and the historic Dracula was Wallachian....Germany wasn't part of the story. The story was beyond German boundaries before the Nazis. We've even had Nicolas Cage being Dracula as well as Blacula, Vampyros Lesbos, Ed Wood and Leslie Nielson, not to mention Count Chocula.

I'd suggest that Dracula and blood suckers in general have escaped. Ironically, the historic Dracula was entirely mortal, and while he was a bloody monster, nothing suggests that he actually drank anybody's blood.

I'm looking at this response and can't suss out if you knew that Nosferatu was a German film.

So, they decided to run back the clock to where they just ignominiously lost a world war, signed the Treaty of Versailles, and dove into hyperinflation hell? Yeah, bringing the sexy back. I guess when the period that follows is literal Nazis everything looks good. "Hey, wasn't there some ad hoc plagiarism project which preceded the Nazis? Some vampire thing? Surely, that will help us subtly erase the mark of National Socialism."

Murnau's silent version is a whole, whole lot different from the book Dracula. About the only thing they have in common is use of the word Nosferatu and blood suckers. The plot is completely different as are the characters and.... it's an epistolary novel. The book is rather talky and full of good Victorian British manners and well dressed English people...."Mr Arthur Holmwood requests your company for a luncheon on the morrow" sort of talk.

It's been too long since I saw the Herzog version to comment clearly, but I do recall that it had elements of both the book and the first movie.

It's kind of like Frankenstein in that each movie uses part of the novel and part of other movie versions, but, for the most part they are not all that faithful. They remind us that it's not easy to adapt a book to a movie without shortening, reducing plot elements and making your own changes to parts of books that don't make good movies.

Maybe Herzog needed to go there, but Dracula had nothing to do with Germany or Nazis. Murnau may have been German, but nothing about his movie or the book Dracula or the silent Nosferatu has anything all that German in it.

Um....no?


There are more than enough similarities to make it pretty clear what Nosferatu was based upon. Just because changes were made (most specifically to characters names), doesn't mean it wasn't adapted from Stoker's book. It clearly was.

I'm pretty sure Herzog was talking about rescuing the heritage of German film, of which Nosferatu is one of its earliest shining examples. He wasn't saying Dracula, either the book or the movie, had anything to do with Nazi's.

Pretty much. The story is the same, and even with the setting having changed as well as the characters, the characters still fill the basic role as Stoker’s counterparts.
Everyone knows the name change was done for legal reasons, and it feels like splitting hairs here.

And it appears that a hundred years later, changing characters names in order to disguise where they adapted their script from, is still somehow an effective tactic.

It boggles the mind!

Re: Nosferatu - 2024
 

Image released
https://static1.moviewebimages.com/w...140&h=&dpr=1.5


Source

Re: Nosferatu - 2024
 

The original Murneau was amazing. Herzog's was interesting and I'll watch Eggers' version as he's a great director. If it comes anywhere near Murneau's he's doing well.

Re: Nosferatu - 2024
 

I love the original for the creepy atmosphere and I’m not sure if that can be successfully recreated. I just hope the remake doesn’t turn into a gore galore fest. Hopefully the remake will spur on some horror fans who wouldn’t normally watch a silent movie to view the original. It is an outright classic and very important film in the genre.

From what we can see in the image it appears that the film will be in color, perhaps muted color, but a color image nonetheless.



I do not think it will be a gore-fest. I don't get that feel from Eggers despite the bloodiness of The Norseman. This is a genre pic and he knows it.

Yes, and I can only assume that Kracauer and this book in mind as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Caligari_to_Hitler

"Willem Dafoe says Nosferatu is unlike anything he's ever seen

https://www.gamesradar.com/nosferatu...like-anything/

We have to wait an entire year for that?! Oh well. You should always have something to look forward to.

Longer than that.

Eggers < Flanagan

I haven't seen a single Flanagan movie but I can already tell Eggers is miles better. :cool:

Oh, I assure you, the content of his films are greater than their covers.

Just talked to a friend who saw some of his films. He defines them as the very definition of mediocrity. Figures my hunch was right. It usually is.

Ask your friend if it's okay for you to watch one anyway.

A hard pass from me either way. There's too much good stuff and good bad stuff still left to watch to waste my time on second-rate horror flicks.

Re: Nosferatu - 2024
 

Flanagan's Gerald's Game and Hush range from pretty good to really good, but Eggers is definitely the better filmmaker. But then again, you shouldn't knock his films until you actually watch them.

There are some scenes in Hush that just feel like Nosferatu. I have no doubt that Flanagan would be able to deliver a proper remake of the original (my favorite). And I have no doubt that Eggers is going to deliver a proper remake of Herzog's remake. I'm more interested in the former than the latter, but I'll show up and support it.

Re: Nosferatu - 2024
 

They're pretty different directors, why are we even comparing?