Some history – Nosferatu is considered the first vampire horror movie. It was a loose adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which landed them in hot water. the Stoker estate sued them for using Bram’s story. They changed the name to Nosferatu and the film has become a classic in its own right.
A problem with most of the silent movies is that the music was played impromptu at the showing of the film. Most of the time it was organ, but that wasn’t a definite. What we have now is many different musical scores with different restorations. I’ve watched several versions each with a different score and different type/level of restoration. Depending on what you like, you can probably find one that fits. Whether that’s one that is more cleaned up or one that is grainy. Choose an organ soundtrack or chamber quartet.
VERSIONS:
Internet Archive with music by Hans Erdmann – This one is my favorite because it seems the closest to the original, including the Overture at the beginning and broken into Acts. It has a bit of a sepia/orange tint to it in spots and faded in others, but it fairly clean. The text cards in between scenes are done in different styles, so I’m not sure which are more original.
https://archive.org/details/Nosferatu1922HD
Doolan score – This one is nice and clean, it looked beautiful. Some updated interstitials made it a bit jarring at times – mostly in the font. Some different text at the beginning and it several other spots. Not sure why. Didn’t care for all the music, especially the female vocal parts.
Unknown – had a cut that looked like the original with very little actual restoration. Lots of organ, but doubt it’s the original organ music. I did like this version with the music. The film was grainy and had the weird movement of old movies that had a different frame rate. The interstitials seemed like the originals, though it seemed many were cut out. I will update if I can find out more about this version.
Nosferatu in Color – I’m never a fan of colorized movies. This one looks even worse than others, in my opinion. There are even some different cards between some scenes compared to the other 2 versions.
Nosferatu: One Dark Night Edition – this one has music by Neil Zaza. I know of Neil because he is from my area and studied at University of Akron for music just a few years before I did, so he was well known. I’ve seen him in concert several times. But I don’t care for this version and the music soundtrack he added. Some may like it, but it doesn’t seem to fit. I prefer non heavy metal guitar for my silent movies. Many of the text cards seem to be Neil’s personal interpretation.
1979 Nosferatu, the Vampyre – this is basically a remake of the original by Herzog. Not a silent film, its obvious this was a passion project for Herzog. He recreates many of the scenes verbatim from the original. The 30 minutes or so are difficult to watch. Too many lingering shots, too much of Jonathan walking or riding (like Hobbits) and the music is too 70’s ethereal. It gets better, but never better than the original.
The Vampyr
Shadow of the Vampire – this is a very unique piece. It is designed as a documentary of the filming of Nosferatu with Murnau played by John Makovich and Orlok played by Willem Dafoe. It is designed to seem like a behind the scenes documentary of the filming of the original silent film. they not only intersperse some old clips, they recreate them and merge them into the documentary. Not only that, it treats the vampire as a real vampire, not an actor. Great piece and they do such a wonderful job, you can believe it is a real documentary that was made at the time of the original filming. Definitely worth a watch.
