Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror *** (2023, Doug Jones) – Classic Movie Review 13,235

Doug Jones is tremendous as the vampire Count Orlok in David Lee Fisher’s astonishing-looking 2023 remake of the 1922 silent classic Nosferatu.

Director David Lee Fisher’s 2023 remake of the 1922 silent classic Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horrors has been long in the making. It was successfully funded on Kickstarter back in 2014. In 2016 Doug Jones was cast as Count Orlok and filming began on what amounts to a sound version of the original. In 2023 the long wait was finally over. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror premiered at the Emagine Theater in Novi, Michigan, in November 2023, and was finally released in September 2024.

Doug Jones is tremendous as Count Orlok, truly weird and creepy, moving mysteriously and menacing, especially carrying that darned coffin, his usual bed for the night of course. It’s good to keep comfy. The makeup and the movement are wonderful. You’d never know it was Doug Jones, and you’d never know it wasn’t an actual vampire. I was going to say a real vampire, but I’m not absolutely sure if vampires are actually real. Let’s just say they are. We’ve seen enough of them on the screen. It’s like Sherlock Holmes. He’s real too, eh?

And the film looks an absolute treat. It’s quite astonishing visually, and cinematographer Christopher Duddy’s work is eye-boggling, totally awesome, in black and white and occasional colour. Eban Schletter’s score is pretty good too, keeping in the right antique mood and style.

And I’m happy to give a shout out to Calder Greenwood (Production Design), Paula Elins (Costume Design), Mo Meinhart (makeup department head), Benjamin D Ploughman (special makeup effects artist) and Erica Preus (key makeup artist). All of them true creatives.

On the downside some of the acting (though not all) by the main actors is fairly feeble, though to be fair its over-ripe flavour may be deliberate in homage to silent acting styles, and the actors are battling some dodgy dialogue that needed a bit of pruning and honing. All the actors look right though, so they are a good visual fit.

And, then again, what’s the point? The purpose of the whole idea is totally mysterious. What’s the purpose of it at all when we have the F W Murnau Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horrors and in such great condition now? Ah yes, some folks won’t watch silent movies, and here everybody talks.

Nevertheless, David Lee Fisher’s version is very likeable when you get into the loving, jokey spirit of it, and it emerges as good campy, spoofy fun, an entirely enjoyable 90 minutes of vampire entertainment. If it looks like an animated graphic novel, with plenty of Gothic style and expressionist images galore, well why not? Super! Is it meant to be campy and spoofy? I’m not sure.

Here are the tech specs. The film uses green screen to insert colourised backgrounds from the original film atop live-action, a process Fisher used for his 2005 remake of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

It was released on video on demand via Amazon Prime Video in September 2024 and on streaming though Apple TV+ on October 18, 2024.

Time to rewatch the 1979 remake Nosferatu starring Klaus Kinski and the fictionalised version of the making of the original, Shadow of the Vampire with Willem Dafoe.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,235

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