We’re back! In this week’s episode of “I Vant to Vatch Your Feelm!” we are discussing that most terrifying supernatural creature: the Willem Dafoe. No one knows how long the Willem Dafoe has haunted the dreams of humankind but people everywhere are horribly fascinated by this creature of myth. In Japan, he is known as “Dafoe Willem.” In France, they warn their children about “Le Willem Dafoe”; in Germany, peasants used to whisper tales of “Der Willem Dafoe.” Why is this blood-freezing creature of legend so prevalent? Why do so many superstitions tell us that he cannot enter a dwelling if there is a pink-painted Hostess Twinkie nailed to the door? Why does he fear an autographed copy of any Nora Roberts novel published before 1998? How does he subsist only on chocolate-covered escargot? We may never know . . . but we do know that he stars in this movie as a much less frightening creature, a strange actor who may or may not be a simple vampire, in this fictionalized story of F.W. Murnau’s filming of his most famous hit, 1922’s “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.” Join us and LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU! IT’S WILLEM DAFOE! Ha ha ha, gotcha!
Poll question: which do you enjoy more: supernatural monsters like vampires or science-based monsters like mutants or aliens?
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I do love this movie but even as an “alternate history” film, it takes too many detours from real life, especially at the end. Murnau is one of the most amazing filmmakers ever. I will try not to write an entire book about it but Mephisto is amazing and was used as a reference for Disney’s Night on Bald Mountain sequence in “Fantasia” and there is a restored version out there. Nostferatu also has a wonderfully restored version on you tube and for sale through Kino that looks amazing. His drama, “The Last Laugh”, will make you forget it’s a silent film and “Sunrise” has cinematography that modern films don’t come near.
I have a thing for supernatural monsters over “science-based” ones but I do like them to have rules that make sense for the type of creature they are and at least give a nod to their folkloric origins if they have any. Egger’s Nostferatu and The Witch take that sort of folkloric detail to a new level.
Oh by the way… Last year’s Nosferatu IS a Christmas movie so your theme is safe!