Nosferatu (1922)

For Halloween, the Harbour Lights Picturehouse cinema was showing the 1922 original version of the film 'Nosferatu'.
The film itself is silent, with an orchestral accompaniment to help express the emotions and actions that occur during the film. For instance, the string section would play a high-pitched held note during tense scenes (of which there were many) and, in one scene, trumpets were used to mimic the sound of a cockerel crowing. Music served as a very good replacement for the speech.

The film is narrated through German script which is translated into English through subtitles. The German script is carefully written out in old-style calligraphy which provides the film with the authentic, foreign horror story feel. This is also provided by the use of spelling within the English subtitles when the protagonist reads the small book he finds, containing words like 'vampyre' and 'ghastlie' instead of the modern English spellings.

One scene which has stayed in my mind since seeing the film is where Hutter, the protagonist, is walking towards Count Orlok's home after crossing the bridge which the carriage-drivers refused to go over. They would go no further than the bridge, and it soon turns out that Hutter suffers from visions after this point.
To portray the visions without speech or colour, part of the scene is done in negative film which strongly provides a sense of hallucination and it makes the viewer feel uneasy, despite the modern viewers being used to seeing much more developed hallucination scenes from modern cinema.

The use of shadows in the film is very interesting and they are mostly used during scenes with Count Orlok. In the sequence where Count Orlok is sneaking up to Hutter's wife, Ellen, his long, thin shadow is cast on the wall as you see him creeping up the stairs, and there is particular emphasis on his spindly fingers. When he enters the bedroom, his shadow almost consumes her and the shadow of his hand can be seen squeezing her heart, which shocks the viewers without straying from the PG rating of the film.

Although I grew tired by the 5th and final act of the film, it was very interesting to watch, and quite captivating during the first half, as well as being very well done for such and old film. I felt I had a lot to talk about the moment it ended.