"a reverse-negative image of Nosferatu's carriage clattering through a forest; majestically disquieting sequences of a pestilential ship gliding across the frame; the vampire toting his coffin through the deserted streets of a German town; his shadow seeping along the wall of a stairwell, bony fingers outstretched. Film societies, symphony orchestras, and alternative venues show "Nosferatu" on a regular basis, especially around Halloween."
"Although "Nosferatu" came out five years before sound came in, the composer Hans Erdmann supplied a score that ensembles could play at larger theatres. Much of Erdmann's music later disappeared, and the surviving fragments, humidly late-Romantic in style, don't suggest a lost masterpiece. In the absence of a fixed soundtrack, hundreds of alternatives have been devised, variously, by classical composers, film composers, rock bands, doom-metal groups, jazz ensembles, and noise collectives."
F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu remains a seminal silent-horror film defined by striking visual motifs: reverse-negative carriage shots, a pestilential ship, a coffin-bearing vampire, and a seeping shadow. The film's title emphasizes musicality and a cinematic sense of rhythm. Hans Erdmann provided a contemporaneous score for large theatres, but much of that music has been lost and surviving fragments read as humidly late-Romantic rather than monumental. In the absence of an authoritative soundtrack, performers have created hundreds of alternative accompaniments across genres, including classical, rock, doom-metal, jazz, and noise; organ accompaniment is frequently prized.
Read at The New Yorker
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