Nosferatu the Vampyre

Herzog’s take on the Dracula legend by way of the F. W. Murnau original finds das Vampyre in the form not of a dashing castle-bound lover, but an ashen-faced, desiccated Klaus Kinski, spreading death, dread, and disease amidst a small German town. A film seemingly encased in cold grays and rain-stained stone, Nosferatu is one of Herzog’s most hauntingly beautiful films, or at least his most beautifully haunting, thanks to Kinski’s sinister alabaster sheen and seducer-from-the-grave aura. Herzog’s first release for a major Hollywood studio (and shot in two versions, German and English), Nosferatu was a surprise hit (“Second to Superman in Paris!” reads our 1979 note for its US premiere).