Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Nosferatu the Vampyre Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 21, 2014

Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht" a.k.a. "Nosferatu the Vampyre" (1979) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of the British Film Institute. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; audio commentary with Werner Herzog and Norman Hill; on-set documentary; and a collection of archival photographs, production photographs and stills from the film. The release also arrives with a 16-page illustrated booklet with a new essay by Laurie Johnson, full film credits and on set photographs. In English or German, with optional English subtitles for the German-language version of the film. Region-B "locked".

Mine...

From all the films that have been made about Count Dracula Nosferatu the Vampyre is the very best one. Without CGI effects and other fancy trickery, it forces the viewer to forget about the real world and for a short period of time believe the unbelievable.

The dreams we dream that feel so real that we can’t stop thinking about them are exactly like this film - at times they make the heart beat faster, other times they calm us down. The feeling is strange and confusing, never easy to describe with simple words, but impossible to forget.

The film begins with one such very intense dream. Lucy (Isabelle Adjani, Subway, Adolphe), the stunningly beautiful wife of Jonathan Harker (Bruno Gantz, Wings of Desire, Downfall), wakes up screaming. In her dream she has seen something terrifying, something her mind cannot rationalize. She does not know why, but she feels its presence and cannot stop thinking about it.

Soon after Lucy’s strange experience, Jonathan is sent deep into Transylvania to meet the elusive Count Dracula, who has expressed interest in purchasing a property in Wismar. On the way to the Count’s castle, Jonathan meets different people that urge him to turn back if he values his life. When he ignores their warnings, a few of them become nervous.

Dressed in black and looking unusually pale, the Count welcomes Jonathan in his eerily quiet castle. After he feeds him and signs his property papers, the Count locks him and heads to Wismar accompanied by thousands of gray plague-carrying rats.

The Count’s arrival in Wismar is one of the many incredibly atmospheric sequences in the film. His ship slowly enters the sleepy town and then stops. There is a dead man tied to the steering wheel. It is an early morning and there is no one around to see it. There is light fog and the sky is gray. The rats flood the streets and people begin dying.

The Count visits Lucy’s home and her purity and beauty awakens something deep inside him – a passion to live and love which only the mortals can experience. While the Count attempts to earn Lucy’s love, she approaches Dr. Van Helsing (Walter Ladengast, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser) and warns him that a great evil is behind the plague that is destroying their town.

Director Werner Herzog completed Nosferatu the Vampyre in 1979. The film is a remake of F.W. Murnau’s legendary 1922 film, but aside from the common characters they share and a few sequences which were shot at the same locations, the two could not be any more different.

I believe this is the best film about Count Dracula because it is the only one that does not conform to the old critical preferences for what a horror film should try to accomplish. It is a very original minimalistic period piece slowly building and sustaining a specific atmosphere, not a genre film trying to impress with cliches. The result is an incredibly dark yet indescribably beautiful cinematic poem, which once experienced is indeed impossible to forget.

Kinski is phenomenal as Dracula. It may sound sacrilegious, but I think that he is even better than the great Max Schreck. Adjani, one of the most beautiful actresses of her generation, is also outstanding as the emotionally devastated Lucy.

Note: In 1979, Nosferatu the Vampyre won Silver Bear Award for Outstanding Single Achievement (Henning von Gierke, for the production design) at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Nosferatu the Vampyre Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of the British Film Institute.

The following text appears inside the booklet provide with this Blu-ray release:

"The English and German versions of the film were scanned at 2K, using a combination of original negative and best available print materials, by Alpha-Omega Digital GmbH in Germany. Digital remastering was undertaken by the BFI at Deluxe Soho, and approved by Werner Herzog Film GmbH.

Scanning supervisor: Thomas Bakels (Alpha-Omega Digital GmbH)
Colorist: Steve Bearman (Deluxe Soho)
Remastering: Tom Barrett (Deluxe Soho)
Thanks to: Lucki Stipetic (Werner Herzog Film GmbH), Mark Bonnici and Graham Jones (Deluxe Soho)."

Please note that the screencaptures included with this review appear in the following order:

1. Screencaptures #1-23: English-language version
2. Screencaptures #25-33: German-language version.

BFI's Blu-ray release of Nosferatu the Vampyre uses as a foundation the same 2K restoration of the film which StudioCanal accessed when they prepared their Blu-ray release of the film for the German market. As the quoted credits above confirm, the restoration was completed at Alpha-Omega Digital GmbH and supervised by Mr. Thomas Bakels, who was also responsible for the terrific restoration and reconstruction of director Ernst Lubitsch's The Loves of Pharaoh. However, the basic characteristics of the two releases are not identical.

BFI's technical presentation of Nosferatu the Vampyre is unquestionably superior. Indeed, the high-definition transfer isn't plagued by the problematic denoising corrections that are visible on the German release and as a result the entire film now has a very strong and very pleasing organic look. There are different contrast and clarity fluctuations -- compare screencaptures #3, 8, and 10 -- but all of these fluctuations are inherited. To be perfectly clear, they are part of the film's image design/cinematography. (Some minor fluctuations also exist where different materials were used during the restoration). Rather predictably, grain looks very natural and image depth is excellent (see screencapture #2). Because of the manner in which the film was shot -- light is used in a variety of unique ways to create and sustain a very specific atmosphere -- some viewers may not be able to immediately spot the improvements, but during the daylight footage the difference is very obvious (compare screencapture #18 with screencapture #17 from our review of the German release and see how the digital smearing from the German release is replaced by fine organic grain resulting in substantially better image depth). Colors are stable, well saturated and always natural. There are no serious transition or stability issues. Lastly, I noticed a couple of tiny specks, but there are absolutely no large debris, cuts, torn frames, stains, or warps to report in this review. All in all, this is a very strong and very convincing organic presentation of Nosferatu the Vampyre which is guaranteed to please fans of the film and Werner Herzog's work. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Nosferatu the Vampyre Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0 (for the English-language version), German LPCM 1.0 and German DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (for the German-language version). There are optional English subtitles for the German-language version. There are no optional English SDH subtitles for the English-language version of the film.

The lossless English track serves the film the exceptionally well. The choir, in particular, sounds far better, but the trumpets and French horns also sound richer (listen to the long solos around 00.24.03 - 00.27.10). The dialog is clean and easy to follow, but there are small dynamic fluctuations throughout the film that are part of its unique sound design. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or distortions to report in this review.

The lossless German mono track is slightly better balanced that the English mono track, but the discrepancy is very small. The dialog is equally crisp, clean, and easy to follow.

Nosferatu the Vampyre Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for Nosferatu the Vampyre. Music only, with English text. (2 min).

• Stills - a collection of archival photographs, production photographs and stills from the film. With music. (4 min).

• Commentary - audio commentary with Werner Herzog and Norman Hill. This audio commentary was also included on Anchor Bay's old 2DVD release of Nosferatu the Vampyre. In English, not subtitled.

• On-set Documentary - this documentary also appears on StudioCanal's Blu-ray release of Nosferatu the Vampyre. In it director Werner Herzog explains why he decided to remake F.W. Murnau's classic film and discusses its unique atmosphere and themes. In English and German, not subtitled. (14 min).

• Booklet - a 16-page illustrated booklet featuring Laurie Johnson's essay "Of monsters, men, and rats: Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre"; a review of the film by Tom Milne (the review appeared in Monthly Film Bulletin, July 1979); and technical information.

Nosferatu the Vampyre Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I am enormously pleased with BFI's Blu-ray release of Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre. While it uses as a foundation the same excellent 2K restoration of the film that was completed at Alpha-Omega Digital GmbH in Germany, it looks drastically better than StudioCanal's release. There is a simple reason why -- it is free of the problematic digital corrections that were applied to the German release. BFI's Blu-ray release also comes with a strong lossless English track. Well done! VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.