Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht 1979

Vincent Canby, New York Times: It's funny without being silly, eerie without being foolish and uncommonly beautiful in a way that has nothing to do with mere prettiness. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: The acting is too eccentric and the narrative drive too weak to satisfy fans of the genre, but Herzog's admirers will find much in the film's animistic landscapes and clusters of visionary imagery. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Nosferatu the Vampyre may not be scary in a traditional sense, but it is not easily forgotten. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: To say of someone that they were born to play a vampire is a strange compliment, but if you will compare the two versions of Nosferatu you might agree with me that only Kinski could have equaled or rivaled Max Schreck's performance. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: There's a grey, plodding quality to the film which sidesteps oppressive, doom-laden inevitability and goes straight to slightly dull. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: This is a pinnacle of horror cinema: atmospheric, rhapsodic and -- especially in the slow-burn confrontations between Lucy and her otherworldly inamorato -- achingly transcendent. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, Village Voice: Between the hordes of stowaway rats that accompany Dracula's arrival, and a town-plaza dance of folly by doomed survivors (a Herzog addition), it's like being present at the birth of a medieval legend. Read more

Gary Arnold, Washington Post: A maddening case, this Herzog: Beneath the klutzy dramaturgy and simplistic ideology there's a genuine cinematic poet who occasionally breaks out. Read more