The Best Nosferatu Is Free To Stream Right Now
Right now, Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu remake is proving to be a bloody hit at the box office, and this has kicked off endless debates among horror nerds about whether or not it is superior to the groundbreaking original film. However, true movie buffs know that the best version is the original remake, a modern horror classic you can now stream for free. Werner Herzog’s 1979 Nosferatu the Vampyre is available to stream for free, and watching it will transform you as surely as if you were bitten by the titular bloodsucker himself.
If you’re already a Nosferatu fiend, you won’t be surprised by the plot of Herzog’s remake when you stream it: we follow the adventures of Jonathan Harker, a young real estate agent in the 19th century who must travel to Transylvania to finalize a deal. Transylvanian boogyman Count Dracula wants to buy a home in Harker’s neck of the woods, forcing the young man to leave his beautiful wife back home. Before the credits roll, she may unexpectedly prove to be the last defense against this creature of the night before he can stretch his body count throughout the rest of Europe.
How Copyright Law Turned Dracula Into Nosferatu
This may all sound very familiar for a very good reason: the 1979 Nosferatu, like the original German film, is based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The German movie was made without permission from his estate, and Stoker’s widow Florence did not feel that the earlier F.W. Murnau film made enough changes to the source material. She filed a lawsuit that led to most copies of the original Nosferatu being destroyed.
Fortunately, some copies survived, and by the time Herzog decided to create his own remake, the earlier Stoker copyright 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 free to stream on Tubi, and unlike some of Tubi’s weirder horror movies, it has a very solid cast, including Bruno Ganz (arguably best known for playing Hitler in the Academy Award-nominated film Downfall) as Jonathan Harker. His wife Lucy is played by French screen queen Isabelle Yasmine Adjani, who previously became the youngest Best Actress nominee for her performance in The Story of Adele H. But the real star of the show is Klaus Klinski, a bona fide film legend and frequent Herzog collaborator who makes Count Dracula seem equal parts frightening, seductive, and even sympathetic.
Certainly, Klinski managed to seduce the critics with his brutal charisma: on Rotten Tomatoes, Nosferatu the Vampyre has an impressive 94 percent critical rating. In general, critics praised the film for its beautiful cinematography as well as a Klinski performance that is intense even by his standards (seriously, this is a guy who is so unpredictably wild that Werner Herzog earnestly threatened to kill him on the set of their earlier movie Aguirre, Wrath of God). And audiences loved the vibe of Nosferatu long before its Tubi release, as evidenced by the film’s healthy 83 percent Popcornmeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Which Nosferatu Is Best? There’s One Clear Choice
As for me, I can put it no plainer than to say that, with respect to Murnau’s original movie, Herzog’s Nosferatu is superior in every way. The sets are more lavish, the plot is more complex, and the performances are more compelling. Horror icon Joe Bob Briggs aired a double feature of the earlier movie and the first remake on Shudder in 1922, and watching these films back-to-back, I was awestruck by how much better the remake is from the first frame to the final credit(a relative rarity in horror).
When you watch Nosferatu the Vampyre on Tubi, will you find it better than F.W. Murnau’s original or even Robert Eggers’ new remake? You won’t know until you sink your teeth in and taste this spooky little morsel for yourself. Fortunately, you don’t have to travel all the way to Transylvania to experience this fearsome fiend…all you have to do is hit play and experience the heights of horror from your own not-so-haunted home.
NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE REVIEW SCORE
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