Monday, October 31, 2011

The Movie I Can't Watch

My mother-in-law and I talk about film a lot. An ongoing discussion seems to be that she doesn't like horror movies - or creepy, scary, or anything like that of the kind. She's often puzzled that I do like them. The argument that comes up most frequently is why would someone want to be scared. The point is I don't want to be scared. I wouldn't watch these things if they truly scared me. In fact, there is one movie I will not watch because it does absolutely terrify me.

Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror ~ This 1922 classic of German silent horror is perhaps one of the greatest and most enigmatic and most legendary of all horror films - and I have made a conscious effort not to view it for years, as when I have, it's given me nightmares, when I was able to finally get to sleep that is.

I'm not sure if it's the imagery of the horrifying Max Schreck who played the vampire Graf Orlok or not. I am able to watch movies that emulate the visuals like the remake from 1979, or "'Salem's Lot," or even Shadow of the Vampire, which is about the making of this film. So it just must be the wonderful shadowy direction of F.W. Murnau, and Max Schreck himself. Oddly enough, Graf Orlok only appears on screen for nine minutes, but it's enough. No matter how you cut it, Schreck is scary here. The Renfield character played by Alexander Granach is also pretty fearsome as well.

Nosferatu is an unauthorized filming of Bram Stoker's "Dracula," thus why so many names are changed while the story remains much the same. Because of an ugly lawsuit, Stoker's widow had every print and negative of the movie destroyed. Luckily (depending on your outlook), copies reappeared in other countries around the world. It has since fallen into the public domain, and has been accompanied by several wonderful soundtracks, including one by Type O Negative.

I had mentioned the shadow work previously. It is some of the best ever in film history in my opinion, and the German silents were masters of the artform. And still, I won't watch it. I love watching old movies on the big screen, which is why I'm such a big fan of the Silver Screen Classics on the local Rave, but notably I once turned down a chance to see Nosferatu in a theater, it scares me that much. I probably won't even look at the pics supporting this blog entry.

Happy Halloween.

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2 comments:

  1. Great post! I picked Nosferatu as one of my Top 5 Horror Classics of all time http://shar.es/byLlv Some people kind of scoff because it's a silent film, but I've actually seen this on the big screen and it scared the heck out of me.

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  2. There are two horror movies I've seen only once and I know for a fact I'll never watch them again as the both of them simply freaked me out too badly. The first one is Todd Browning's FREAKS. I saw this on PBS way back in the 80's on a Saturday night and Moly Hoses it did a number on my head.

    The second is REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. And if anyone says this isn't a horror film then a suggest they need to expand their parameters of what a horror film is. I didn't sleep right for two or three nights after watching that movie.

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