A
NUMBER OF MUSICIANS HAVE TAKEN
A STAB AT RESCORING F.W. MURNAU’S 1922 SILENT VAMPIRE CLASSIC NOS- FERATU, including Hammer’s James
Bernard, metal band Type O Negative and Bernardo Uzeda (for the Murnau Foundation’s restoration). One recent attempt from new label November Fire gives Nosferatu a prog rock overhaul, plus one other additive: dialogue. Yes, Count Orlok
speaks! So do Ren- field and the rest of the cast, backed by sound effects and a new score crafted by Hobgoblin, a band comprised of members from Neurosis, Skinlab, Sacrilege B.C., and Re-Ignition. A dream project for Hobgoblin’s leader Strephon Taylor, it took two years to complete due to a number of factors: scheduling all the musi- cians from the various bands into the studio to record, and the complex chore of conforming a silent film to the sound realm. “I’ve always had the idea in the back of my mind
to not just rescore Nosferatu but to do the dia- logue,” explains Taylor, a first-time film composer who is also a major fan of German silent shockers The Golem and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Drawing from his years with the comedy band
SLOB, Taylor went back to Bram Stoker’s novel and created an English script that matched the origi- nal scenes performed by the German-speak- ing thespians. Each band member voiced a set of characters, and Taylor also handled a new narration, which replaced the excised interti- tles. Taylor’s approach is deliberately tongue- in-cheek, but
the band became surprised as their nascent music developed into a traditional horror score. Hobgoblin is ostensibly an homage to the Italian
prog rock/composing force Goblin, but in its Nosfer- atu one can also hear classical, thrash metal and fu- sion jazz. “Renfield’s Theme” is a perfect example of the band adapting a five-note sequence for rock and classical, then recombining it into a skittering jazz rendition in “Victims Dance,” using synth keyboards, organs and elastic bass. (The theme also cap- tures the essence of Renfield as a man who is completely delighted to be going crazy.) Ves- tiges of the script’s comical touches are also present in “The Dawn Harker Theme,” where Hobgoblin shackles mocking brass, wordless voices and a synth concertina to a waltz rhythm. A blend of ragtime and classical
piano solos in “Love Never Dies Nina Theme” gives the score
some lovely tenderness, and “Count Orlok” nicely captures the bloodsucker’s scheming nature with rap- ping organic percussion, deep bass notes and elec- tronic effects evoking a stalking cluster of evil. Orlok’s secondary theme, “Bringing Out the Dead,” is a catchy combination of heavy guitar and gothic
chorals,
remixed by Taylor with doom-laden lyrics for the film’s end titles. Taylor acknowledges
some Nosferatu purists won’t be happy with his radical augmentations that admittedly make the film feel rather weird. “I know exactly what it is:
we dubbed over a classic movie. There’s nothing more to it,” he explains. “I made it for people
A U D I O D R O M E 91 RM
who, one, haven’t seen the movie and, two, won’t sit through a normal silent movie.” For November Fire’s DVD, Taylor sourced Nosfer-
atu from a 35mm print and added appropriate colour tinting. Although no scenes were cut, the elimination of intertitles affects some of the pacing, which Taylor tried to soften with music and minor editorial tweaks. The new di- alogue also subjugates the score, which could’ve sup- ported the film on its own. (The soundtrack album preserves the lengths of each meaty cue and memorable theme.) YouTube is filled with Nosferatu clips overlaid with
rap, classical and alternative music. Even Goblin’s Claudio Simonetti performed his own score ex-
cerpts, live at the Paris Forum des Images in 2002. But it’s the addition of dialogue (at times deliberately humorous) that, for some, might make this 2010 version hard to digest. “I think it works,” says a confident
Taylor. “Most people I’ve shown it to have enjoyed it thoroughly, but I’ve had a few people saying, ‘You’ve peed all over this great classic.’” Before any- one starts grabbing pitchforks and torches, however, they should remember Werner Herzog’s 1979 re- make/homage, which is basically the same film, shot in
full colour, with dialogue and a prog rock score by Popol Vuh. An all-talking Nosferatu is a pretty
auspicious debut for a new film scoring entity, but Hobgoblin has good instincts, and the industrial score being written for their next venture, The Cabinet of Dr. Cali- gari, might provide the right balance
among fans and purists alike.
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