Podcast: The Horror Pod Class Episode 117: Nosferatu
Tyler: Its Nosferatu Night everybody! Tonight on the Horror Pod Class we are going to spend some time talking about what we have been watching and reading, we will help you find some free genre content on the internet and finally we will spend the remainder of the episode exploring the seminal vampire film Nosferatu.
What Have We Been Watching
Tyler: The Vigil (SOOOOOOO GOOD). Gearing up for SXSW.
So, I was wrong and “Watch and Wake” by M.T. Anderson is in Gothic! not The Restless Dead, and it doesn’t appear to be anywhere to read online but the Amazon link to the book is here and you can apparently buy it for … a cent: https://www.amazon.com/Gothic-Ten-Original-Dark-Tales/dp/0763622435/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Orrin: I finally watched a movie that came out in the last ten years and caught Gretel & Hansel! So only, like, a year and two months late to the game.
Dark Corners of the Web: The Elmwood Strain
Essential Question: While Nosferatu has a place in the pantheon of horror classics does it also include some troubling anti-Semitic imagery.
IMDB Summary
Vampire Count Orlok expresses interest in a new residence and real estate agent Hutter’s wife.
Directed by
Writers: Henrik Galeen
So, the antisemetic reading is definitely one that has been applied to Nosferatu, and one that I don’t think it is necessarily proof against, but as I was re-watching it this time, I was reading it heavily as queer, which makes sense, given that Murnau was closeted at the time this was made.
http://www.back2stonewall.com/2017/10/nosferatu-1922-horror-film.html
Also, of course, it’s a movie about an epidemic, made during a pandemic. So there’s that, for us right now especially.
GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
https://www.academia.edu/2205991/NOSFERATU_Murnaus_Use_of_Expressionism_in_his_Film
- High angles.
- Deep shadows/chiaroscuro lighting.
- Extreme camera tilting.
- Impossible sets.
https://www.movementsinfilm.com/german-expressionism
Dr. Caligari, Der Golem, Metropolis,
Ebert Writes
“Here is the story of Dracula before it was buried alive in clichés, jokes, TV skits, cartoons and more than 30 other films. The film is in awe of its material. It seems to really believe in vampires. … Is Murnau’s Nosferatu scary in the modern sense? Not for me. I admire it more for its artistry and ideas, its atmosphere and images, than for its ability to manipulate my emotions like a skilful modern horror film. It knows none of the later tricks of the trade, like sudden threats that pop in from the side of the screen. But Nosferatu remains effective: It doesn’t scare us, but it haunts us.[31]
4 movies like Nosferatu
Shadow of the Vampire, Salem’s Lot (Miniseries 1979)
Nosferatu (1979), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Anonymous Letterboxd User for Nosferatu
Next time: Split Second (1992)
Tyler has been the editor in chief of Signal Horizon since its conception. He is also the Director of Monsters 101 at Truman State University a class that pairs horror movie criticism with survival skills to help middle and high school students learn critical thinking. When he is not watching, teaching or thinking about horror he is the Director of Debate and Forensics at a high school in Kansas City, Missouri.