Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Day 36 of Sobriety. When I was about 19 years old, I used to have a huge poster of Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre on my bedroom wall—right above my bed. I don’t think I have actually watched the movie since around that time, but I remembered it being excellent, so, with yet another remake impeding (courtesy of The Witch director Robert Eggars), I figured it was time to give it another view. I am quite a fan of Herzog in general, so Herzog + Dracula is a great combination for me, and I really enjoyed my re-viewing of Nosferatu . It’s a shame that Herzog was never tempted to turn his hand to horror again, but I suspect that the “horror” aspect—at least the supernatural element—was not really what appealed to him about remaking F. W. Murnau’s 1922 film (which Herzog acclaimed as the greatest film ever to come out of Germany). He has stated that he perceives his film to be a parable about the fragility of social order, and a study of the effect that an extern...