Movie Appraisal: Nosferatu (1922)

Oh, dude, do I love this movie. It is literally one of the best vampire movies I have ever seen. And it also happens to be one of the first. This is not going to be an incredibly long review because... seriously? This movie has been out for almost a century. If you don't know about it you really need to go watch it now. Stop reading this review and go watch it.

Yes, I know it's in black and white. Yes, it's also silent... but neither of those matter. It is an incredibly effective early vampire movie, introducing ideas like the sun actually destroying vampires and the incredibly old "Nosferatu" type of vampire with the old, bald head, ancient eyes, and fangs that go far past his mouth. Max Schreck is an icon, one of the most effectively terrifying vampires I have ever seen.

The movie starts happily and... well, not very far off from something that could easily be a romantic comedy, and then... then the movie goes dark fast. It becomes disturbing, basically following the plot of Dracula, but having different character names because... well, Dracula was still copyrighted then, and F. W. Murnau kind of, sort of... well, stole the plot without permission.

Anyway, the film is dark, effective, and wonderful to behold for such an early movie. It really starts off the vampire genre in the best possible way. It is a little short and ends incredibly abruptly, but it also is one of the perfect vampire movies out there and should be enjoyed by everybody at least once in their lifetimes.