Nosferatu in Venice (1988)

Too much of everything

Really Surprised!

Good movie but grossly overrated

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I'm a tremendously massive fan of the works and persona of Klaus Kinski, but apparently I should praise myself lucky that I never had to work with him or maybe even meet with him person. Kinski allegedly was an incredibly arrogant individual and literally an impossible person to interact with professionally. During this particular period – the late 80s – he also was at the heights of his violent temper, which (nearly) ruined all the movies he starred in. Director David Schmoeller made the ironic short film "Please Kill Mr. Kinski", based on the disastrous experience that he had with him during "Crawlspace" in 1986 and even the long-running professional relationship with the acclaimed director Werner Herzog got destroyed in 1987 during the filming of "Cobra Verde". According to the documentaries Herzog and Kinski got into several vicious fights and openly threatened to kill each other. Also this "Nosferatu in Venice" suffered enormously from Kinski's eccentric quirks. He chased away the initially hired director Mario Caiano, he physically assaulted two of the lead actresses and he refused to cut his hair or wear any make-up. And yet, it's a Kinski film and I'd move heaven and earth just to see it! I liked "Nosferatu in Venice" a lot, but not exactly because it's a good film… I'm much more fond of the whole idea and concept of the film. What a brilliant idea to set a vampire movie in the wonderful city of Venice! And not just any ravenous and mad-as-hell vampire, but a melancholic vampire figure like Nosferatu! That's just fantastic. The story initially follows Prof. Catalano, who's searching for the mysteriously vanished Nosferatu, but at the same time the professor is convinced that he is fed up with his immortal and roaming existence. Deep in the basement of a Venetian family mansion there is a tomb, and the heiress thinks that Nosferatu is buried here. They hold a séance to awaken him, but he resurrects somewhere on a tropical island. Nosferatu promptly travels to Venice, hoping to find love and eternal peace. "Noferatu in Venice" is slow-brooding and talkative, and thus definitely not recommended for the nowadays new generation of horror/vampire movie fanatics that swear by fancy computer-generated effects and monstrous transformations. This movie thrives on macabre atmosphere, moody set-pieces and sober cinematography. The plot is very messy and often doesn't make a lick of sense, and yet it's captivating from start to finish. This is also a very unconventional vampire story. Kinski's Nosferatu doesn't suck the blood from the virgin's necks, but he impales old ladies on fences and tears off the lips of jealous boyfriends. Kinski doesn't have to do a lot apart from demonstrating his naturally sinister charisma. The cast contains another two phenomenal actors, Donald Pleasance and Christopher Plummer, as well as a couple of beautiful actresses, like Barbara De Rossi.

Nosferatu in Venice (1988) ** (out of 4) Klaus Kinski returns to the role of Nosferatu in this Italian film that was originally suppose to be a follow-up to Herzog's 1979 film. After various production issues including two director's being fired, the film ended up pretty much being 100% on its own with the only connection to the earlier film being Kinski. In the film, vampire hunter Paris Catalano (Christopher Plummer) travels to Venice, the last known location of the vampire Nosferatu (Kinski). Catalano tries to locate the whereabouts of the vampire who he believes has a desire to finally die. This is a rather interesting failure that has a lot going for it but it's obvious the production issues caused a lot of problems especially during the first part of the movie. The film starts off very ambitious as it centers on the Plummer character in current times but we then have several flashbacks to the earlier days of Nosferatu and how he became who he is. This was an interesting idea but it never really works for several reasons and one of them is a bizarre rock score that doesn't fit anything we see. Another reason these flashbacks never work is because at times it's hard to follow what exactly is going on and why certain flashbacks might be happening. Then, around the fifty-minute mark, something strange happens and the film actually turns extremely entertaining as Nosferatu finds himself in current times and falling in love with a young black lady who might just hold the key to his eventual death. Yes, Kinski drove several directors away from the film and this is partly to blame of the uneven film but you also have to give him credit because he turns in a great performance. He has his long blonde hair flowing and there's no chalk make-up so we get to see this Nosferatu in a very human-like state and the actor makes us feel sorry for this person who simply won't die. I found Kinski really intense throughout the film and this certainly spills over for several entertaining scenes but I think the romantic side works the best. Plummer is also pretty good in his rather thankless role and we even get Donald Pleasence in a role but he's pretty much wasted. Barbara De Rossi and Anne Knecht are both good as the ladies in the pack. Augusto Caminito, Mario Caiano, Luigi Cozzi and Maurizio Lucidi all did some work on the film but it was Caminito who ended up shooting the majority of the film. Even Kinski was apparently in charge of directing his scenes so who knows what was really going on with this production. It's certainly a very troubled movie but at the same time there's just so much here that does work in the end. We get some rather strong atmosphere and being 1988 and from Italy, there's much more sex, nudity and blood than normal, which is a plus. I doubt art house fans are going to enjoy this thing but if you're a horror fan and like Kinski then it would be worth your time to check this out. It's certainly not going to replace the Herzog film but it's an interesting little movie.

Late, great wacko fruitbag iconoclastic actor Klaus Kinski gives a marvelously threatening, overwhelming, terrifyingly bestial and sometimes even strangely touching performance as Nosferatu, an evil, indestructible, all-powerful vampire who preys upon an affluent aristocratic family in Venice, Italy during the bleak, hopeless, fear-ridden time of the Black Death. Dedicated dying vampire hunter Christopher Plummer and pious, self-righteous priest Donald Pleasence make a futile and foolhardy stand against the foul, parasitic, yet anguished subhuman creature of darkness.Under Augusto Caminito's able, stately, subdued direction "Nosferatu in Venice" bravely explores mankind's stark fear of and inability to accept his own mortality as well as man's profound, but impractical desire to somehow transcend said mortality. But as the eternally tormented Nosferatu proves immortality can be more of a burden than a blessing, because he and all others like himself are perpetually cursed to endure the suffering of countless mortal others. Tonino Nardi's beauteous, misty, breathtaking cinematography and Luigi Ceccarelli's wondrous, elegant, potent orchestral score prodigiously contribute to the considerable substance of this frighteningly (and, yes, even fascinatingly) morbid, oddly affecting, soulful beauty of a film. The movie's unflinchingly desolate, flesh-crawling, funereal ambiance, relaxed, lulling pace, pervasively nonchalant air of insurmountable nihilism, and somewhat disjointed narrative isn't for every taste, but viewers who are willing to accept this disturbing, challenging, gripping and powerful feature on its own macabre and twisted terms should find it to be very rewarding. Kinski's forceful and singularly wicked presence alone distinguishes this picture as an extraordinary work; few other actors can even begin to convey the same harrowingly tangible sense of extreme unbreakable demonic menace that Kinski effortlessly exuded. A gallant, tough-minded, thematically rich and grotesquely lovely addition to the vampire horror genre.

This is an extremely boring version of the classic Dracula legend that should be removed from the shelves of the video stores. Save your $2.95 and rent Bela Lugosi's "Dracula" or Christopher Lee's "The Horror of Dracula".