Nosferatu The Vampyre (1979)

Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) has a considerable reputation, with some critics deeming it better than F.W. Murnau's original. Yet this viewer found it underwhelming. Despite creative imagery and a pitch perfect Klaus Kinski, Herzog's movie largely feels like a pale imitation. Only in later passages does Nosferatu take flight.

Herzog adheres to Murnau's story while restoring Bram Stoker's character names. Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) goes to Transylvania to sell land to Count Dracula (Klaus Kinski). Dracula returns to Harker's hometown of Wismar, where he takes up residence while spreading disease. Harker returns but seems traumatized (or worse) by his encounter with Dracula. That leaves Harker's wife Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) to confront the vampire.

Nosferatu starts slowly. Herzog recreates the original iconic line by line, often shot-for-shot: the trip through the Carpathians, Harker's tense dinner with Dracula, Lucy sleepwalking, Dracula's shipboard rampage. To be sure, Herzog's artistry is unmatched: Jorge Schmidt-Reitwein provides languorous photography, complemented by Popol Vuh's classics-inflected score. Yet it seems more tasteful homage than original movie. When a remake adheres so closely to the original it can't help feeling superfluous.

Fortunately, Nosferatu gradually gains momentum. Once Dracula arrives in Wismar, Herzog grafts his own vision to the material. He expands on Murnau's rat motif, with hundreds of teaming creatures decimating the town. Herzog stages surreal scenes as Wismar descends into funerals and anarchy, a pagan saturnalia presided over by rodents. In one darkly humorous passage, a surviving official demands Van Helsing's arrest - even though there's no town council to pass laws or no police to inform them!

Herzog stakes his ground by subverting pieces of Dracula lore. Professor Van Helsing (Walter Landengast) is a skeptical busybody who poo-poohs Lucy's warnings. Renfield (Roland Topor) mainly annoys Dracula, who sends him on a ghoul's errand to Latvia. More striking is the fate of our nominal protagonist: Harker grows weaker and weaker, Dracula apparently casting an amnesia spell on him to get in with Lucy. But Lucy won't be had, becoming the heroine by default. It leads to a low key but disquieting finale.

Klaus Kinski owns the film. Besides his striking makeup job, Kinski gives an usually muted, sensitive performance. He mixes Max Schreck's ratlike wraith with the tragic angst of most Draculas: he laments his inability to age, die or be loved, an ugly monster with an incurable curse. It's an interesting fusion that serves Nosferatu well, allowing Kinski one of his most unique performances.

Kinski's costars, unfortunately, don't measure up. Bruno Ganz, an actor rarely lacking in passion, is understated to the point of dullness. Even Harker's end revelation adds little. Isabelle Adjani does well in a role mainly requiring beauty and bafflement. Walter Landengast and Roland Topor prove awkward comic relief; Herzog doesn't know quite how to handle their alternate characterizations.

Despite some striking moments, Nosferatu the Vampyre isn't the sum of its parts. Those seeking a different take on this familiar story might enjoy it.