“Nosferatu” (FW Murnau, 1922) is a renowned classic. While I have a deep love for German Expressionism and F.W. Murnau’s films (only two original sentences left), a silent, slow-moving film about a vampire that doesn’t even look that frightening by today’s standards, is a hard sell for modern audiences. Despite this, because it is silent, some experimentation can be done with it, resulting in “Radiohead X Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror”. I had previously seen “Nosferatu”with a synchronised orchestral soundtrack built for the film, so I was curious what this rendition would be like with music produced separately.
I unfortunately missed the first 10-or-so minutes of the film because of the tonally appropriate yellow-warning winds slowing down the buses to Dún Laoghaire. This meant that I had to sit down in the Pavillion Theatre and be immediately immersed in the droning synth of Radiohead’s Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac(2001) albums. I had not listened to either album previously, but the atmosphere they created was certainly haunting. This suited the eerie beginnings of “Nosferatu” as Hutter traveled up to Count Orlock’s castle through shadowed woods and towns. I found myself initially incredibly focused on the film with the music only adding to it as ambiance. About halfway through, unfortunately, this changed.
While the way the album blends together made it feel like one long soundtrack, it was at points noticeable that it was not built for the film. The atmosphere, while being perfect for the horror elements, often fell flat in moments of action or comedy causing their tone to be entirely misread. One of my favorite parts of the original film is the almost-slapstick way Orlock attempts to sneak around the busy city carrying an enormous coffin and looking both ways before he crosses the street. This moment was completely misread as serious by the audience of the theatre I was in which led to some nervous laughter and confused glances instead of gleaning the genuine laughter it deserves.
One aspect of the screening I found to be a step up from the original was its use of color tactfully added into the original film. If you were watching the movie for the first time, its addition was so seamless you might have not even noticed it. The color gradient was used sparingly, often used to highlight themes of desire, highlighting Orlock or the werewolf’s eyes red and pulsing on beat with the Radiohead songs being played. While this addition was certainly not subtle for a person who has seen the film before, I felt it greatly added to the film and contributed to the overall themes positively.
While Radiohead was the correct band to choose to capture the atmosphere of a film like “Nosferatu”, I found the choice of playing two of their albums in order a confusing one. While movie scores are not something people listen to on a daily basis, they do serve the purpose of enhancing the viewing experience. The use of Radiohead was occasionally interesting and innovative, and occasionally distracting and confusing, detracting from the more tonally diverse moments in the film and leading to only one atmosphere throughout.
