Nosferatu the Vampyre

4.33
    Nosferatu the Vampyre
    1979

    Synopsis

    Jonathan Harker, a real estate agent, goes to Transylvania to visit the mysterious Count Dracula and formalize the purchase of a property in Wismar. Once Jonathan is caught under his evil spell, Dracula travels to Wismar where he meets the beautiful Lucy, Jonathan's wife, while a plague spreads through the town, now ruled by death.

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    Cast

    • Klaus KinskiCount Dracula
    • Isabelle AdjaniLucy Harker
    • Bruno GanzJonathan Harker
    • Roland ToporRenfield
    • Walter LadengastDr. Van Helsing
    • Martje GrohmannMina
    • Carsten BodinusSchrader
    • Beverly WalkerAbbess
    • Jacques DufilhoCaptain
    • Clemens ScheitzClerk

    Recommendations

    • 100

      The Guardian

      This is Herzog's journey to the heart of darkness, a film that specifically echoes his earlier offerings The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser and his South American odyssey Aguirre, Wrath of God.
    • 100

      Chicago Sun-Times

      Nosferatu the Vampyre cannot be confined to the category of "horror film." It is about dread itself, and how easily the unwary can fall into evil.
    • 100

      The Telegraph

      Werner Herzog's classic vampire movie Nosferatu will scare the living daylights out of you.
    • 88

      Slant Magazine

      Herzog’s idiosyncratic horror classic remains a vital conversation between two distinct generations of brilliant German filmmakers.
    • 88

      ReelViews

      A superior horror film that offers a greater sense of disquiet than any other Dracula motion picture. Nosferatu the Vampyre may not be scary in a traditional sense, but it is not easily forgotten.
    • 80

      Total Film

      Madness and death hang over Herzog’s Wagner-scored vision like a black cloud, while Kinski adds much poignancy to Dracula, the lonely immortal.
    • 75

      TV Guide Magazine

      Held together by the sheer power of Klaus Kinski's performance as the vampire, Nosferatu, the Vampyre evokes several scenes (practically shot-for-shot) from the Murnau classic while slightly altering some of the original's thematic structures.
    • 60

      Time Out

      There are lovely moments – the Carpathian landscapes are stunning, Kinski’s performance is compellingly vile, and it ends with a stirringly weird, Fellini-esque plague festival. But some of Herzog’s choices are simply confounding: Isabelle Adjani has nothing to do except look pale and worried, Walter Ladengast’s Van Helsing is so decrepit as to border on pastiche, and there’s a grey, plodding quality to the film which sidesteps oppressive, doom-laden inevitability and goes straight to slightly dull.

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