A Gothic Industrial Mix - DVD

Nosferatu is one of the first two horror movies I ever bought. I still have that videotape, with a soundtrack by Clubfoot Orchestra.

It's a great movie with some images that are still pretty haunting, if not quite scary, today. The best DVDs in terms of image quality and extras for NTSC Region 1 are probably the ones by Kino and by Image.

As silent movie aficionados say, silent movies weren't really "silent," having pretty much always been accompanied by an organist or small orchestra. To this day there are still revivals of Nosferatu with live accompaniment, particularly around Halloween.

It can be interesting to listen to different musicians' ideas of what appropriate accompaniment might be. Apart from the various videotape and DVD releases of Nosferatu, which usually feature some sort of original score (though occasionally with "canned" classical music haphazardly applied), a number of artists have recorded soundtracks for Nosferatu which they have released separately. You would have to synchronize the audiocassette or CD with your videotape or film of the movie. I remember seeing some reviewed and/or advertised in the music magazine Alternative Press.

The first version of it I had watched that had a gothic music soundtrack was the DVD Nosferatu: The First Vampire with music by Type O-Negative. It's not bad. I just watched this one, Nosferatu: A Gothic Industrial Mix (Nosferatu: A Tale of Gothic Horror as the opening titles have it) with "music by Rozz Williams of Christian Death and Electric Hellfire Club." Again, not bad. I'm not very familiar with gothic music. Stylistically, it can vary pretty widely, sounding similar to rock, or techno, or heavy metal, etc. The music for the "Gothic Industrial Mix" is more what I would describe as ambient. Most of it is pretty relaxing music one could fall asleep to, if so inclined. Though primarily instrumental, occasionally there are voices as either vocals or vocal samples.

Cleopatra Home Video did add opening and end titles to the movie. The intertitles (aka title cards) are not theirs, but are from whatever print of the film they used. Curiously, their opening titles give the actors' names beside the character names from the original German version (Count Orlok, Hutter, Knock, etc.). However, the DVD rear box cover and the intertitles use the names of the characters from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, of which this was an unauthorized adaptation. Those intertitles originate evidently with an American re-release of Nosferatu, but how long ago they were created, I'm not sure - but Cleopatra is not at fault for them.

The print of the film used is not bad, probably on par with other inexpensive public domain releases of the movie. It features the usual faults, such as the top of Nosferatu's head being cropped off when he stands bolt upright in his coffin.

The DVD has no extras except for a chapter selection. As with a number of DVDs whose menus feature only two options ("play movie" and "scene selection"), the selected option is a different color than the deselected one. However, unless you know which color is the color used for highlighting, it's impossible to know which is selected! In such cases, it's better to have an icon appear next to the selected option.

If Gothic you want, then Gothic this is- a pleasant diversion from all the modern, glam, vampire poseur films. Filmed in 1922, Nosfartu is an historic, horror masterpiece. Without fast-action fight sequences, without high-tech special effects, without even dialogue (remember this was filmed in 1922) the film simply exudes gothic ambiance. The score from Cleopatra Records is the perfect audio backdrop to the visual stimulus; And, the music is continuous throughout the film (good thing, this is a silent movie otherwise). You may also want to buy "Bram Stoker's Dracula (Coppola)" and "Shadow of the Vampire" as they yield more storyline and provide a (fictional?) documentary prelude to Nosferatu. The three films together comprise an interesting trilogy (or shall we say, orgy) of vampire cinema. Having recently viewed these two other films made the viewing of this film far more meaningful. This is no ordinary movie; don't expect to be entertained in an ordinary manner. Nosferatu is more 'feel' and 'attitude' than blatant bite-my-neck action. After several viewings you may find yourself listening to the soundtrack as primary entertainment, while the movie visuals provide secondary allure. On the complaint side- there were no printed materials included with the DVD-- no track listing, no historical by-lines. Nor does the DVD have any additional features. For these small omissions, "Nosferatu" falls slightly short of perfection, but rates a great 4 out of 5 stars.

Seems like a good idea at first, to combine old visual with a modern audio.

Anyhow - it doesn't work. The 1920's interpretation has it's time-stamp, which is unique, unrepeatable, unreachable at any other time ...

Adding an industrial mix sounds to me just like a poor wash-pan-attempt of a couple of people, to parasite on a classic. Very simmilar to the puppets' "Hard Day's Night" given in Prague for foreigner.

My personal recomendation is - just walk it by.

I've ben force to rate i 1 star. IMHO - zero would suit better.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 10 reviews  2.7 out of 5 stars