Nosferatu the Vampyre

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) is a remake of Murnau's 1922 film. For Werner Herzog it was more than homage; he considered Murnau's Nosferatu the greatest film ever to come out of Germany, and several of his shots are faithful reconstructions of images from it. Klaus Kinski's makeup imitates Max Schreck's 1922 look and took four hours to apply. He got on with the makeup artist Reiko Kruk; while Kinski fought with everyone including Herzog on other productions, those four hour sessions passed without an outburst. The most troubling part of the production is the rats. Rats imported from Hungary were dyed grey by submerging their cages in boiling water for several seconds, which killed roughly half of them, as a behavioural biologist hired by Herzog described. The authorities in Delft refused to allow 11,000 rats to be released in the town, and the shoot moved to nearby Schiedam. The film was made in two languages. At the request of the distributor 20th Century Fox, most dialogue scenes were shot twice, in German and then in English, with dubbing used for a few. In 2014 Herzog called the English version great but said the German one was the more authentic. It runs 107 minutes. Good for: vampire cinema, Herzog and Kinski, and remakes of classics. Less good for: the pace is very slow and the film produces sadness rather than fear. Once you know what was done to the animals, some scenes are hard to watch. Which language version you see noticeably changes how the performances feel.