Notes from the Last Drive-In: S4E4 – ‘Nosferatu’ X 2
Welcome back, boys and ghouls, to Haunted MTL’s Notes from The Last Drive-In. This week Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl get a little German with a pair of horror classics. Jawhol! We have been treated to 1922’s Nosferatu and 1979’s Nosferatu the Vampyre.
But how was the show this week? Did the episode’s theme click a bit better than the previous two episodes? Let’s find out with this review and recap of Shudder’s The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, season 4, episode 4.
Nosferatu (1922)
Nosferatu is F.W. Murnau’s 1922 vampire horror film that loosely adapts Bram Stoker’s epistolary novel Dracula. The film is a silent German expressionist horror film that stars Max Schreck, Greta Schröder, and Gustav von Wangenheim. The film, set in 1838, follows estate agent Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim), who travels to Transylvania to secure the final documents allowing for client Count Orlock (Max Schreck). Orlock seeks to move to Wisborg into a house across the street from Hutter’s, where his wife Ellen (Greta Schröder) awaits his return.
In many ways, the idea of reviewing Nosferatu is pointless because the film has been dissected and evaluated to undeath for over a century now. Thanks to copyright law, the film is widely distributed and can even be found, fully embedded, in its own Wikipedia entry. I am not sure how much I could add to the discourse surrounding the film beyond what has already been said for a hundred years.
I do not think Nosferatu is a perfect film. It can be pretty close at times, but the film we see these days reconstructs something we’ll never be able to truly experience again, cobbled together from salvaged prints. Florence Stoker’s irreparable harm to the preservation of the art is well documented. As a result, we’ll never quite capture the fundamental, ethereal experience of what Nosferatu was. Nosferatu isn’t quite a Dracula adaptation, and yet it is, occupying a strange and uncanny space between adaptation and parody that does not entirely succeed in either direction. However, the middleness of the film allows it to work as well as it does. The story may not be as complex as Stoker’s own, but neither is it as messy. This is the Laconic Dracula, boiled down to the essentials, warts and all.
The character of Thomas Hutter is useless in the film beyond being a plot device. The real struggle is between Ellen and Orlock, but even that goes a metaphysical route that is somewhat sloppily handled. With that said, Schröder and Shreck are excellent in their respective roles. While the story has many weaknesses, it is the elements in telling the story where the film makes its mark.
F.W. Murnau’s direction is terrific. His work with his cinematographers Fritz Arno Wagner and Günther Krampf resulted in a film that, despite its antiquity, feels modern in so many regards, codifying cinematography and staging we still see centuries later. Cross-cutting alone in this film is impressive in what it does for the pacing.
Of course, the film still occupies that rough, transitionary period between the film as its form and the film as a form of recorded play; some performances are overly broad. Some shots are treated flat, stage-like, such as the finale in Ellen’s bedroom. But these are the last vestiges of a bygone era.
I could talk about many aspects of Nosferatu, but it’s all been done before to such a degree that I can probably link this NY Times article that would cover a lot of what I would say.
Joe Bob-servations on Nosferatu (1922)
Joe Bob’s approach to the night was more of a history crash course than usual. This was even down to the fashion choices of Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl, decked out for a time in Neidermyer clothing, only for Joe Bob to slider progressively further into “pimp” as the night progressed.
If the night had a phrase representing the tone, it would have been “Fuck Florence Stoker,” given her role in nearly wiping away a cinema classic from history. The host segments revolved around the history of German film, a heady topic for most nights. We also dove into Joe Bob’s views on German Expressionism and the film’s legacy. With that said, Joe Bob’s thoughts on whether Nosferatu is a German Expressionist film seem counter to the established view. I wonder if he may be going against the grain to ruffle the feathers of film nerds.
The skit involving a silent film-style seance to contact the cast of the film goes predictably off the rails with the addition of John Brennan and concludes with Darcy biting the neck of Joe Bob. So it was what you would expect for the Drive-In‘s take on a silent film, goofy and affectionate. It wasn’t the best skit of the night, either, which was most impressive about the night as a whole. The best skit belonged to the second film of the night: Nosferatu the Vampyre.
Final Thoughts on Nosferatu (1922)
A cinema classic that is more than a movie, Nosferatu is a captivating work by F.W. Murnau that, despite some issues, still stands as a beautiful and creepy film 100 years after release. The fact we can even enjoy an approximation of the original experience today is not something one should take for granted.
Joe Bob gave the film four stars, which is well deserved. The film is every bit as praiseworthy as it gets. I feel some elements of the film, holdovers from earlier conceptions of what film was, that make Nosferatu a transitionary piece, and some of those legacy elements left in place run counter to the innovation of the film overall. I would give Nosferatu four-and-a-half out of five Cthulhus.
(4.5 / 5)
Best Line: “Nosferatu. Does this word not sound like the midnight call of the Bird of Death? Do not utter it, or the images of life will fade – into pale shadows and ghostly dreams will rise from your heart and feed your Blood.” – Title Card
Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Werner Herzog did something that many would consider unthinkable in 1979, and no, it was not remaking 1922’s Nosferatu; it was making a better version. Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night), known as Nosferatu the Vampyre today, is one of those rarified films where the remake outshines the original. Written and directed by Werner Herzog, this German horror film is a stylized remake of F.W. Murnau’s original and seemingly amalgamated the texts of Nosferatu and Dracula into something arguably different. The film stars Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, and Roland Topor.
The plot is similar to that of the 1922 film but expanded upon with a new ending and extended sequences of travel.
And yes, while there is a German version and an English version, I suggest the German version. Subtitles will not hurt you.
So, this may be a controversial statement. I prefer this remake of Nosferatu to the original, and I think what Werner Herzog achieved in the film is faithful to the spirit and structure of the 1922 film and filled it in, adding and embellishing in the right spots to make the movie feel more whole. I am sure this will get me in trouble, but Nosferatu (1922) is the outline, whereas Nosferatu the Vampyre is the final draft. The film takes more directly from Dracula than the original, using the actual names of characters from the novel. Instead of Count Orlock, we have Count Dracula and our Jonathan Harker. Not everything is one-to-one; we get a combination of the characters of Lucy and Mina from the novel as a way to condense the film.
Frequent Herzog collaborator Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein’s cinematography is outstanding. The interplay of light and darkness within the film unsurprisingly reflects the struggle of the humans against the demonic vampire. It gives the film the shadowy appearance as a throwback to the high contrast of the 1922 prints. The film also has a strong eye toward places, with the natural landscapes of the Balkans serving as a stunning and creepy indication of how out of his depth Harker is. The city of Wismar in the film is often torn between being a lovely sight of civilization and one of utter menace; all it takes is a change of angle and lighting. The castle, an external ruin but an internal maze, becomes a character itself.
The score, handled by musical collective Popol Vuh is eerie and fitting and plays wonderfully set to the intercutting journeys between Harker and Dracula. The usage of the Georgian folk song “Tsintskaro” may not make sense at first, but when heard in the film becomes clear.
The performances across the board are excellent; in the time since Nosferatu, acting in the film had become more naturalistic. Klaus Kinski is fantastic as Count Dracula. His moments of conflict with Isabelle Adjani’s Lucy, a carryover from the original film, are some of the most compelling aspects of the film. Even the third wheel, Harker, in this version, has a somewhat more active role in the movie but never quite steps in the way of the focus: Dracula and Lucy. Hell, even the ESP-type connection between them makes a little more sense.
Joe Bob-servations on Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
There were a great many anecdotes and jokes about the wacky world of Werner Herzog during the host segments. All of them were very much appreciated by me, as someone who has a great deal of fascination with the filmmaker. This inevitably culminated with a rather epic and long skit full of Herzogisms about the nature of beer, the drive-in, and the universe itself. Austin Jennings did a fantastic job with his Herzog impression and the direction of the associated imagery. It was an incredible moment and possibly my favorite skit on the show ever.
The anecdotes on Herzog and the making of the film were, of course, fantastic. The “frenemy” relationship between Herzog and Klaus Kinski resulted in several hilarious and strange stories shared during the night, including the possible desecration of real mummies. In truth, Herzog should be a guest on the show. It doesn’t even need to be one of his movies. A conversation between Herzog and Briggs would be legendary.
Final Thoughts on Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre is a richer film than Nosferatu. It fills the gaps within the original and uses the evolving language of film to do what I think F.W. Murnau would have done had the technology and understanding of cinema of 1979 been available to him in 1922. This might best be exemplified by the film’s opening credits, depicting mummies. They have little to do with the film itself, but if we’re aiming for Expressionism, the howling expressions of the desiccated dead do a lot to set the movie’s tone as a whole.
I’ve not even mentioned that this film has recorded dialogue as opposed to the silent nature of the 1922 version because I believe a silent-film edit of Herzog’s version would be on par with or better than Murnau’s.
Joe Bob Briggs gave the film four stars. I agree. I would give Nosferatu the Vampyre five out of five Cthulhus.
(5 / 5)
Best Line: “The absence of love is the most abject pain.” – Count Dracula
Haunted MTL Drive-In Totals
We have our official totals from Shudder, as usual.
As for our totals, we have:
- 1 Joe Bob Cosplay
- 2 Darcy Cosplay
- 7 Crash landings by Murnau
- 4 utterances of “thee-ate-er”
- 11,000 Rats
- $896 Thousand Budget
- Giggling Madmen
- Crew Butchery
- Actor Blinding
- Rat Die Fu
- Seance Fu
- Pimp Joe Bob
- Gratuitous Herzogisms
- Pimp Shoes
- Vampire Joking
- Turtle Joking
Episode Score for The Last Drive-In: S4E4 – Nosferatu and Nosferatu the Vampyre
This is one of the best nights we’ve had on the show. Easily in the top five for me. I know I have been a bit critical of the theming of the past two episodes, but the show bounced back excellently this week. It was almost as though this pairing was tailored specifically for me and my style of vampire story. Overall it was an amazing night, and Joe Bob, Darcy, John, and Austin assembled something special.
It was a fitting tribute to one of cinema’s earliest and most distinct monsters, and he is still as scary as he was a century ago. I would give this episode five out of five Cthulhus.
(5 / 5)
With that, we are done until next time. Please join us again next week for another review and recap. What did you think, though? Why not share your thoughts in the comments about the show and the two films shown. Did you have a favorite?
Please join us on Twitter next Friday as we live-tweet with the rest of the Mutant Fam during The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs.
Want more of the Vampyre?
Please do yourself a favor and use our sponsored link to pick up a copy of Shadow of the Vampire (2001), an excellent companion piece to the films covered in this article.
We’ve reached the final episode of American Horror Stories, season three. After the ups and downs of the season, I didn’t know what to expect. I felt that we were due a big finish, Killer Queens. But I feared we were in for a big letdown.
As it turns out, The Thing Under The Bed was neither.
The story
We begin our story with a little girl named Mary, who is scared of something under her bed. She sneaks out of her room, only to be caught by her father and sent back to sleep. And of course, there is something horrible waiting for her under her bed.
This scene cuts away to a woman named Jillian. She has strange dreams, including one about Mary. But her husband, Mark, doesn’t want to hear about it. He’s only interested in a little lovemaking because he wants a baby. Jillian doesn’t, which makes total sense because she’s already married to one. But her irritation with her childish husband goes away when he goes away. And by goes away, I mean he’s sloppily devoured by something vicious under their bed.
What worked
In short, this episode just worked. The acting was professional and believable. The cinematography and lighting work were wonderful, adding spooky effects and startling moments without impairing visibility.
Best of all, the story was solid. There were no plotholes to be found. Our main character, Jillian, was relatable and sympathetic.
This was maybe my favorite part of the story. I thought Jillian was a remarkably sympathetic character. She was dealt a hand she never asked for, having her husband slaughtered in their bedroom. I don’t think she missed him, so much as she was afraid of the legal ramifications of being caught with literal blood on her hands.
Then, when it would have been safest for her to just lay low and save up for a good defense attorney, she instead goes into unlikely hero mode. She does her best to save people, putting herself in legal and physical danger. It’s hard not to root for her.
It’s also a little hard not to root for the antagonist, too. I don’t want to ruin the twist for you, so I’m going to tread lightly here. But it’s great when you have an antagonist who might be off their rocker, but also maybe has a point.
What didn’t work
I can only really think of one complaint with this episode. And that is how frequently one character says the word Chickadee. And if you’ve seen the episode, you know what I am talking about.
I get it, he has a pet name for his daughter. It’s adorable. It’s meant to convey that the two of them have a healthy loving relationship and I get it. We all get it. Blind monks get it. But the fact remains that no parent on Earth calls their kid by their pet name every single time they speak an individual sentence to them. It was just too damn much.
All in all, this was a good episode. It was a classic story, turned on its head, told by professionals from start to finish. And I hope that if there is another season, we see more stories like this one. But after the efforts put into this season at large, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last we see of American Horror Stories.
(4 / 5)
If you’ve watched enough short-form horror anthology shows, you’ll notice that some stories are mainstays. Each show seems to put on the same sort of episodes, with the occasional surprising storyline that we’ve never (or at least rarely) seen before.
Leprechaun was an example of a repeated story—the story of a greedy thief whose punishment far outweighs the crime.
The story
We begin our story in 1841, with a drunk man leaving the bar one late night. He’s distracted by something glowing at the end of the well. When he reaches down for the glowing thing, he falls in. Moments later, he screams.
We then cut to the modern day. The well is still there, and now it’s surrounded by a dying town. In this town lives a young man named Colin. He’s married, his wife is pregnant, and he’s out of work. Like many of his friends.
Desperate for cash, Colin and his friends decide to rob a bank. They put together an Equate version of Ocean’s Eleven, and break in one night. But, of course, they find that the gold is nothing more than bait. And the creature waiting for them is something they never expected.
What worked
The first thing I want to point out is how real this episode felt. At least to anyone currently living in the same small town they grew up in. These characters felt like guys I went to school with. Guys I would see at the bar.
I appreciated the real anger and frustration these characters are feeling. Especially Colin. He’s bitter, and maybe he has a right to be. He did exactly what he was supposed to do to succeed. He went to school and invested in his career, and yet now he’s out of work and struggling to support his family. I probably don’t need to tell you how that feels. Because of this, we can all kind of understand why he was tempted to rob a bank.
I also want to talk about the fact that this was, as I said, an often-explored story. That can be a bad thing, but it can also be a good thing. This story is told over and over because it’s a good story. A relatable story. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
What didn’t work
That being said, this version didn’t try to do much to break out of the mold.
Because we have seen this story so many times, most of us could tell the story themselves. I would have expected something new, or some twist. But, in the end, the story didn’t bring anything new to the discussion.
Maybe because of this, the ending left a lot to be desired. Trapped in the basement of the bank, everyone just sort of stares at everyone else, until the thieves give up. And that’s it. The ending wasn’t scary, shocking, or funny. It was just sad, on multiple levels.
Overall, this was an okay story. It was entertaining, if not surprising. I would compare this episode to homemade macaroni and cheese. Everyone’s got their own version, they’re all pretty good, and none of them are exciting.
There’s just one episode left in this season of American Horror Stories. Let’s hope they’ve saved the best for last.
(3.5 / 5)
It happened. It finally happened. We got another good episode of American Horror Stories.
The story
We begin our story late at night, with a hospital security guard named Malcolm. He is frightened one night when he sees a woman with a distorted face in the hospital parking lot.
We then joined an RN named Claire. She’s doing her best to explain to a struggling mother that the hospital will not be able to treat her son with cancer because she can’t afford the treatment.
Not like she’s happy about it.
Fortunately, Dr. Nostrum, played by the legend Henry Winkler, swoops in at the last moment to tell the mother that her son qualifies for a special place in his cancer treatment clinic.
Claire is lamenting the fact that she became an RN to help people, but it feels like she isn’t doing anything good. Then, she and her friend Lilly stumble upon the same woman who menaced Malcom the night before.
While Claire is trying to figure out what’s wrong with this woman, she brutally slaughters an orderly and vanishes into the hospital. But not before struggling to say two words to Claire. Ward X.
What worked
I want to start by praising the effects of this episode. Because they were fantastic. Aided by the black and white filming, the bloody and distorted faces of Alice and her fellow victims are nightmarish. They look like a horrific version of Lockjaw taken to a terrifying extreme.
I also want to discuss the fantastic work of Henry Winkler. He is an absolute legend and never has a bad project.
Winkler’s character in this episode was exactly what we’d expect from him. He seems genuinely warm and kind, concerned about others’ well-being. Even when he’s planning to kill Claire, he comes off as such a caring guy.
Finally, I want to talk about the historical significance of this story. Because, like I always say, the scariest stories are the ones based on truth. And I’m sorry to say, this story has a basis in truth.
Mankind has a dark and twisted history when it comes to medical advances. Most doctors and scientists are good, moral people who abide by the first line of the Hippocratic oath, to first do no harm. Some, historically, are little more than monsters in white coats. Consider the Tuskegee Experiment, Unit 731, and the horrific acts of Josef Mengele. If you’re going to look up that middle one, be warned that it is NSFL.
While this episode of American Horror Stories was a work of fiction, it wasn’t that far off. I don’t think many of us want to admit how close to real life it was. This is the gift of good horror, to force us to come face to face with the worst aspects of humanity. To acknowledge them, accept them, and change them.
All in all, this was a perfect episode. The acting, the effects and the story were all top-shelf. And it’s certainly a story that will stick with you.
There are just two episodes left in this season of American Horror Stories. Let’s hope that they reach closer to the quality of X, and away from the dull and dismal episodes that began the second half of this season.
(5 / 5)
