Vampires!

It's my birthday today! Wahey!

Anyway, on to vampires. Last weekend I watched Nosferatu, Dracula (1931) and I read "The Vampyre" (which, as I'm sure you'll all know, is the short story by Polidori with the vampire Lord Ruthven).

Nosferatu: Max Schreck gives a phenomenally creepy performance as Count Orlok - which is not helped by the film being old (I watched it on Google video, seeing as the film is in the public domain) and all flickery. Coincidentally "Schreck" is the German word for "horror". It was also the first silent movie I've seen. Renfield is also a little creepy in this movie. I wasn't a big fan of the castle in this movie though. However I did like this movie.

Dracula (1931): I liked this movie (moreso than Nosferatu) - I really liked the sets for Dracula's castle and Carfax Abbey (I like castles in general though). What I didn't like was the complete lack of musical score (apart from the music for the opening credits) - I feel it made the movie slightly less atmospheric than it could have been. Renfield (Dwight Frye) was awesome - I felt he captured the character rather well. Lugosi is brilliant as Dracula. If you haven't seen this movie, go and do so now!