Werner Herzog's 1979 remake of F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) isn't a bad film, per se: it's just lacking in originality. Not only does Herzog base the look of his Dracula on Murnau's vampire, but he copies scenes verbatim from the silent horror classic, sometimes the only difference being the addition of colour. I might not be a fan of Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 take on Bram Stoker's story, but at least he gave it his own style.
That said, Klaus Kinski was definitely made for the role of the rat-toothed bloodsucker performed by Max Schreck seventy-seven years earlier - the controversial star is his usual weird and wonderful self, playing the character as a tortured creature longing for death. Isabelle Adjani looks every inch like a silent movie star as Lucy, but is given very little to do, and Roland Topor as Renfield is quite irritating. White rats dyed grey stand in for real grey rats, but still look like white rats (the rodents apparently started to lick the dye off as soon as it was applied).
Herzog achieves a brooding sense of menace and funereal foreboding, largely thanks to his effective use of chiaroscuro and the excellently eerie score by Florian Fricke and Popol Vuh; the director also introduces the interesting idea that Dracula inhabits another plane of existence in Transylvania, his castle appearing as ruins to the villagers, but undamaged when Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) arrives at its door.
If you're a fan of all things Dracula, this version is worth checking out to see how Murnau's film might have looked if the technology had been available-just expect it all to feel very familiar.
5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.
That said, Klaus Kinski was definitely made for the role of the rat-toothed bloodsucker performed by Max Schreck seventy-seven years earlier - the controversial star is his usual weird and wonderful self, playing the character as a tortured creature longing for death. Isabelle Adjani looks every inch like a silent movie star as Lucy, but is given very little to do, and Roland Topor as Renfield is quite irritating. White rats dyed grey stand in for real grey rats, but still look like white rats (the rodents apparently started to lick the dye off as soon as it was applied).
Herzog achieves a brooding sense of menace and funereal foreboding, largely thanks to his effective use of chiaroscuro and the excellently eerie score by Florian Fricke and Popol Vuh; the director also introduces the interesting idea that Dracula inhabits another plane of existence in Transylvania, his castle appearing as ruins to the villagers, but undamaged when Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) arrives at its door.
If you're a fan of all things Dracula, this version is worth checking out to see how Murnau's film might have looked if the technology had been available-just expect it all to feel very familiar.
5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.