Herzog’s Nosferatu: The Vampyre Strikes Back

As much as I love Max Shreck’s portrayal of Count Orlok in 1922’s Nosferatu, the “vampire” has long been one man to me (unless Bill Skarsgård  changes matters!): Klaus Kinski. Kinski, of course, was Werner Herzog’s greatest frenemy. Their on-set battles were legendary, as was Kinski’s violent personal life. Who else could have played Count Orlok in the German New Wave filmmaker’s Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)?

What makes his performance stand out, however, is not his aggression or rage. Quite the opposite. There’s something wide-eyed and childlike about Kinski’s Orlok. He looks confused, perplexed that, as it turns out, he is a vampire, has to drink blood.

His speech is similar, and I can’t help but wonder if here he’s taking something from Lugosi’s Dracula. Kinski’s delivery is slow and soft, hypnotic but not seductive. He lisps with tranquility and clarity—his sexual threateningness is almost incidental.

Kinski’s fangs hang in his face and look almost as if they don’t work. He seems repulsive, repulsed, and—in an odd way—harmless. He isn’t scary, not strictly speaking. But because we know he is a vampire he seems perverse. What frightens more than a monster who lumbers around, failing to be scary, hiding, perhaps, all the more because of his seeming innocence?

Only a few more days until Eggers’ version releases. For now, however, the count remains Klaus Kinski.