The CineFiles

Seriously, even just being himself, Klaus Kinski was terrifying. And Werner Herzog is also, er, off-putting. So this is a dream collaboration for remaking and honoring a film that Herzog himself considers to be one of the finest examples of German cinema ever made.

I saw this film on television when I was young (the perks of being an 80s latchkey kid) and it definitely stuck with me hard. It definitely holds up while also being very much of its time and place. I did discover recently that the animals used on set, particularly the masses of rats who stream into the city to herald the vampire’s arrival, were treated very inhumanely and many died. This really does change my feeling about the film as I love animals, rats in particular, and diminishes my otherwise ardent love of Werner Herzog quite a bit. It did really cause me to reconsider including this film in my #Drawlloween challenge, but I ultimately opted to put it in for its other redeeming qualities. Media is really tricky sometimes that way and I do try not to judge people for enjoying a thing that is problematic. I do think it’s important to at least acknowledge when wrongs are committed in the service of art and to demand better moving forward. I also promised the CineRats (my pet rats, Todd and Tarzan) their own comic in a few days as Bat-urday will now be RAT-urday, to balance the rodential karma.