The story also complete as it really does feel like you’re seeing the adaptation of Stoker’s novel from beginning to end. We get everything from the romance between two young lovers, to the mysterious Count Orlok, to the scared town and to the “defeat” of Orlok when he was so close to winning. This is a great story, as it should be, being pretty much ripped from the pages of a classic novel, so any concerns about the story (aside from the changing of names) can be explained away pretty easily. The adaptation was spot on, probably too much, and that’s probably the biggest reason it was sentenced to be destroyed.
Going with the theme of the story, the cinematography and the setting overall were great. It really captured the essence of the story being told. The small town of Wisborg look like your typical, smaller European town from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Wisborg was filled with paved roads, gothic style housing and residents that fit the bill to a tee. This also goes for Count Orlok’s castle as well. The homes were antique looking and filled with that Victorian style you’d expect to see. Not to mention the typical mindset of whatever the authority said goes, really makes it feel like a small town that completely trusts everyone. The costumes also worked really well in the realm of all of this. While Hutter looked like your typical aristocrat type, so did the rest of Wisborg. On the flip side Count Orlok and Knock were the creepy, dressed in dark and feeding on people, vampires you’d expect to see in your nightmares.
The editing, lighting and the sound and music fit together really well in Nosferatu. The editing, for a film this early is done well. The cuts were obvious, yes, but that is to be expected with films from this era. The editing in of the pages from the mythological book used to warm people was a great touch. Since there wasn’t speaking out loud and limited use of dialogue, the book informing us of the danger and lore of vampires was a welcome touch. It aided in both educating as well as creepy factor and story progression. Speaking of sound, since the film used an orchestra throughout you had to get a little used to an hour and a half of accompanying music. At times the music was overdone, while at others it added perfectly to everything going on. Adding onto all of this, the use of lighting was one of my favorite parts of the film. I loved the way they conveyed the time of day with a tented lens. Red for the morning, yellow for the evening and a greenish-blue for night time, set the film apart from a lot of the black and white films of its time. The use of natural light for a lot of the indoor scenes really showed how lighting has progressed from relying so much on it being daytime to get a certain shot.
