Nosferatu The Vamypre 1979:

Let’s firstly start off with showing y’all the trailer shall we?

Before we get any further into this review I thought I’d mention why I’m reviewing this film all of a sudden. We’ll besides the fact I reviewed the 1922 back on October 25th of 2024, and just recently posted my Nosferatu 25th 2024 review in January. The other reason is that I just recently found out about this 1979 remake.

Before now I never heard of this film, and by God, I wish I’d heard of this film earlier. I found a free version on YouTube and decided to give it a watch, I actually really enjoy this remake.

Compared to the 2024 remake this one is the closest to being faithful and accurate to the 1922 version, however there’s a bit of a Caviot. In this film, the director decided to use the names from Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel.

So instead of Count Orlock we now once again have Count Dracula, instead of Thomas Hutter we now have Jonathan Harker.

Instead of Ellen Hutter, we got Mina Harker, instead of Herr Knock we got Renfield. And we finally got Van Helsing.

So the way I see this remake is it’s the best of both, it’s a remake of the 1922 Nosferatu and an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Combining both, keeping respect to the novel.

It’s one of the better directions to have gone for this remake, sometimes for a remake u shouldn’t always follow 1 by 1 recreation of the original. U should add something unique to the remake (no that mustache on Count Orlock in 2024 doesn’t get a pass even though I know what they were basing his design on).

Btw this isn’t the first or last remake of Nosferatu we’ll probably ever get, because if any y’all remember they had Nosferatu appear in an episode of Are You Afraid Of The Dark? That design was very much different from the 1922 design but also the same, which lent itself to be unnerving.

What I enjoyed most about this film is they kept the design of Count Orlock more faithful to the 1922 film, granted he looks a tad very tad bit different but still.

Also, there are some differences, for instance, the entire ending is different but in a good way. Will explain that in spoilers, in this film Count Orlock isn’t just evil, he’s a tortured soul who feels lonely because he wishes to feel love, but he knows he can’t ever do that because he’s a creature of the night and his thirst for blood is stronger.

Let’s get the rating out of the way so we can get into spoilers, overall I found myself enjoying this film. Granted this one won’t be for everyone because there are slow moments of Dracula just breathing slowly and staring, it does get a little annoying but besides that. Sometimes the acting comes off as Hokey.

So I’ll give this film a solid 8/10, warning spoilers ahead y’all been warned. Btw here are several images of each iteration of Count Orlock so y’all can see the comparisons.

So in this remake things kinda start off faster than usual, Jonathan Harker goes to his job and Renfield tells him that he’s to go today to Transilvania to meet Count Dracula to move him into an abandoned house he picked for the Count already.

Also, Renfield is already nuts, he’s laughing Hysterically. He’s making Quips such as oh the traveling might cost u some blood heheheheheh.

Yeah that sort of nuts, so he goes to tell his wife. Then he heads on out to a village where he bumps into some gypsies who try to warn him that night to not go to the castle, they sit in front of a campfire inside where they tell him of a story that people vanish up there.

That there is no castle, all that’s left is some ruins, but he decides to go up there any way the next day. He tries to get a ride but no one will ride him up there so he instead walks up to the ruins. Also yes this castle this time is a ruin.

But every shot of inside the ruin is the castle fully intact, I actually like that visual. So he goes inside, and Count Dracula welcomes him in and offers him food. He’s been a nice host.

While Dracula is reading through the papers, Harker is cutting bread and then he accidentally cuts his finger. In every iteration of Nosferatu, hutter always cuts his finger when cutting bread.

Anyways Dracula tries to go over and suck Jonathan Harker’s finger just like in the original 1922 Nosferatu film.

He wakes up the next day with bite marks on his neck, he ends up locating Dracula in a coffin via a hole in the coffin lid. Just like the original.

Also just like the original Count Orlock or Dracula becomes Affectuated by Harker’s wife when he notices a image of her in the necklace around Harker’s/Hutter’s neck.

He eventually sees Count Orlock head to the docks in his coffin on horseback so he can go to the new home he now owns.

So Harker has to escape so he jumps through the window, and he’s found by some kid. He’s brought back to his home, but he doesn’t recognize his wife. He says who’s she, ooooff.

BTW there are some odd decisions in this film such as Nosferatu standing and breathing heavily, or a weird scene of 3 people sitting at a table enjoying themselves eating, outside while piles of rats are surrounding the outside floor.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, anyways Dracula gets to Germany on the boat, and he kills everyone on board off-screen. The captain is found tied to the wheel. When the boat randomly docks at the city.

Then rats come off the boat so now the city is infested with rats. So the film now decides to do some things differently, for example, Mina Harker has slightly more screen time and dialog than the original film (yes I know the 1922 film is silent).

Harker gets Amnesia and no longer recognizes his wife, spoiler alert by the end of the film he becomes a vampire. Yeah, this ending goes nuts, also this film does have Van Helsing which the original Nosferatu film didn’t.

Also again shots of Nosferatu standing and breathing heavily while looking sad, it does make u feel bad for him because he’s all lonely. I like the direction the film goes in because it does humanize him a bit more.

Also yes the rats are in this film, they bring the plague. People are dying, also Renfield escapes the Asylum and is told by the Count to help him spread death on this town.

Anyways come to the end of this film u know how it ends, Mina sacrifices herself by letting Count Dracula suck her dry until the sun comes out and kills him

Except in this film, the sun doesn’t kill him, it just paralysis him. So Van Helsing comes in and has Harker tied to a corner by surrounding him in a circle of salt, he then walks up to Count Dracula and uses a stake in the heart to end him.

Just then the cops show up and arrest Van Helsing for killing the Count. Why? Idk, because uh human rights? Oh, and Jonathan Harker is now a vampire.

The film ends with him riding away in the desert while the sun is out because that makes so much sense. No wait it doesn’t because if the sun paralyzed Count Dracula then why’s it not doing anything to vampire Harker? Eh, never mind I didn’t say this ending was perfect. It is a fun ending but it ain’t perfect.

Anyways the end, I actually do recommend checking out this film it’s worth a watch, I had a fun time watching it and reviewing it. Hope y’all enjoyed the review.