By Chris Snellgrove | Updated
Currently, Robert Eggers Nosferatu The remake turned out to be a bloody success at the box office, sparking endless debates among horror nerds about whether or not it was superior to the groundbreaking original film. However, true movie buffs know that best is the original remake, a modern horror classic that you can now stream for free. Werner Herzog, 1979 Nosferatu the vampire is available to stream for free, and watching it will transform you as surely as if you were bitten by the titular leech itself.
If you are already a Nosferatu demon, you will not be surprised by the plot of Herzog’s remake by streaming it: we follow the adventures of Jonathan Harker, a young real estate agent from the 19th century who must go to Transylvania to finalize a deal. Transylvania’s bogeyman Count Dracula wants to buy a house in Harker’s corner, forcing the young man to leave his beautiful wife at home. Before the credits roll, she may, unexpectedly, prove to be the last defense against this creature of the night before he can spread his body count across the rest of Europe.
How Copyright Law Turned Dracula Into Nosferatu
This may all sound very familiar for one very good reason: the 1979 film. Nosferatulike the original German film, is based on the Bram Stoker film Dracula.
The German film was made without permission from his estate, and Stoker’s widow Florence did not feel that F.W. Murnau’s earlier film made enough changes to the source material. She filed a lawsuit that resulted in most copies of the original. Nosferatu being destroyed.
Fortunately, some copies survived and by the time Herzog decided to create his own remake, Stoker’s previous copyrights had expired. This allowed him to name his monster in the 1979 version Dracula rather than Nosferatu.
Where to stream Nosferatu for free
The 1979 Nosferatu is now available to stream for free on Tubi, and unlike some of Tubi’s weirder horror films, it has a very strong cast, including Bruno Ganz (arguably best known for playing Hitler in the Oscar-nominated film Downfall) as Jonathan Harker. His wife Lucy is played by French cinema queen Isabelle Yasmine Adjani, who was previously the youngest nominee for Best Actress for her performance in The story of Adèle H.. But the real star of the series is Klaus Klinski, a true cinema legend and frequent Herzog collaborator who makes Count Dracula seem frightening, seductive and even sympathetic all at once.
Certainly, Klinski has managed to seduce critics with his brutal charisma: on Rotten Tomatoes, Nosferatu the vampire has an impressive 94 percent critical rating. In general, critics praised the film for its beautiful cinematography as well as a performance by Klinski that is intense even by his standards (seriously, he’s such an unpredictable and wild guy that Werner Herzog seriously threatened to kill him on the set of their previous film Aguirre, the wrath of God). And the public loved the atmosphere of Nosferatu well before its release on Tubi, as evidenced by the film’s good 83% Popcornmeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Which Nosferatu is the best? There is a clear choice
As for me, I cannot be clearer than to say that, as far as Murnau’s original film is concerned, Herzog’s Nosferatu is superior in every way. The settings are more sumptuous, the plot is more complex and the performances are more convincing. Horror icon Joe Bob Briggs released a double feature of the previous film and the first remake on Shudder in 1922, and watching these films back-to-back, I was amazed at how good the remake was, from the first frame in the final credits. (a relative rarity in horror).
When you look Nosferatu the vampire on Tubi, will you find it better than FW Murnau’s original or even Robert Eggers’ new remake? You won’t know until you bite your teeth and taste this spooky little morsel for yourself. Luckily, you don’t need to travel all the way to Transylvania to discover this fearsome demon… all you have to do is play and experience the heights of horror from your own not-so-haunted home.
NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE REVIEW NOTE
