There was a time when vampires didn't shine in the light of day and grant interviews to Christian Slater. They were menacing undead best avoided – Count Dracula in particular. This was especially true in the case of the vampire film Nosferatu, released in 1922.
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The film took inspiration from the story of Dracula, changing the characters' names to avoid legal action. This plan failed and a lawsuit was filed by Bram Stoker's estate following the release of Nosferatu. As a result, all copies of the film were destroyed.
However, one copy has survived. This unique copy has been reproduced, again and again, over generations, and over the years it has become a cult classic. But is the vampire film Nosferatu (1922) really good?
The history of vampires
Thomas Hutter is a go-getter real estate agent, so enthusiastic he resembles a maniacal version of Emmet from The Lego Movie. His boss Knock is (literally) overjoyed because the wealthy Count Orlok wants to buy a house nearby – which means a big commission. Hutter must leave his wife and go on a business trip to get the Count's signature on the dotted line, with an obligatory stop along the way where the locals advise him not to continue. In the purest tradition of horror films, he ignores this and embarks on a frightening bus journey to Orlok Castle.
Orlok turns out to be really scary. For example, during dinner, Hutter cuts his thumb and the Count tries to suck it for him. Is it a gastronomic convenience, an ominous omen of coming danger, or a disturbing fetish? No matter, Hutter doesn't want to know. However, when he wakes up the next morning, his neck bears the now familiar bite marks. As the Count signs the papers, the real estate agent suspects his client of being a vampire. Before long, coffins are being shipped to the new estate, the Count is leaving Carpathia for Germany, and our hero is trapped in the castle.
On Orlok's voyage, the sailors experience the typical experience of Dracula, rats and the “plague”, and are all dead by the time the ship docks. The townspeople investigate this oddity, while Orlok avoids renting a moving truck by transporting his coffin home himself. The body count rises and the townspeople believe there is an outbreak of epidemic proportions, but who will save them? Hutter is in pieces and his boss Knock is in a mental institution. So it's up to Ellen, Hutter's wife, to do the work…
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Yes, the plot of Nosferatu (1922) is almost identical to that of Stoker's Dracula. Only the names are changed and the ending modified. For this film, Dracula became Count Orlok, Harker became Hutter, Mina became Ellen, etc.
Nowadays, due to changes in copyrights and the fact that this film should not exist at all, some copies are altered, some dialogue cards are changed and the names are changed again… so Hutter is Harker, Ellen is Mina and… and one wonders why people bother changing a classic. However, Count Orlok remains Count Orlok even in these versions, and the alterations do not change the story or the quality of the work in this case.
Yes, the plot is almost identical to that of Stoker's Dracula.
As for the original Dracula story, Nosferatu (1922) retains most of the important points, but gets rid of several supporting characters and the entire last act. Instead of an exciting carriage race against the setting sun, we see a rushed conclusion. So much so that when the ending appears, we say: “What?! Is that it?!”. But the same can be said of Tod Browning's 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi. In terms of artistic merit, this is a stunning and highly inventive film despite the limitations of the era and production.
Nosferatu (1922) is an old silent vampire horror film that won't appeal to everyone. Some of the performances are incredibly over-the-top, but they had to be. It was the beginnings of cinema and it was necessary to physically compensate for the absence of sound. The film isn't particularly scary either.
But Max Schreck as Count Orlok… the man was truly gifted.
He is frightening and disturbing, and his performance is just like the film: moody and so effective that the impact stays with you. Like the film, while it doesn't have the brilliance of more modern versions, it's the classic you can't ignore.
Of all the vampire films, Nosferatu (1922) was the first, and it is a legendary work of cinema. It may not have the sparkle of more modern films, but it is unmissable.
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Nosferatu: 100 years later
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the release of an iconic vampire film, Nosferatu, a film that redefined the course of the horror genre and introduced one of the most iconic antagonists of the silent era.
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror tells a fascinating story with its intrigue and convoluted behind-the-scenes legal difficulties. It's hard to believe today, but there was a time when Nosferatu – just like the creature in the movie – had almost disappeared from the face of the Earth.
Many of us remember this film as one of the first depictions of the modern vampire myth, establishing many of the “rules” that would become common in the genre for years to come. However, an even more complex drama unfolded behind the scenes – a situation that nearly left the world without Nosferatu to remember.
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A familiar story
The story of Nosferatu (originally released in Germany under the title Nosferatu – Eine Symphony des Grauens) may seem similar to that of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
Nosferatu begins in the fictional German town of Wisborg, where Thomas Hutter, a lawyer, is sent by his employer to a remote castle in Transylvania to meet a new client. This mysterious client turns out to be Count Orlok, an enigmatic individual who seems to exercise malevolent authority over the region's inhabitants.
Before meeting his new client, Hutter stops at an inn in Transylvania, where he notices that the villagers are terrified at the mere mention of Orlok's name. After meeting Graf Orlok, Hutter understands why so many locals are afraid of this man: his rat-like features and strange behavior make the young real estate agent believe that the count may not be human at all .
Unbeknownst to Hutter, Orlok follows him to Wisborg, where he establishes his new residence, very close to that of Hutter. To make matters worse, the strange Orlok falls in love with the real estate agent's young wife, Ellen Hutter.
After a series of mysterious deaths in Wisborg in Orlok's wake, Ellen finds a book that confirms her suspicions about the Count's true identity. Knowing that her life is in great danger, Ellen discovers that a vampire can be defeated by a beautiful, pure-hearted woman.
Orlok ends up attacking Ellen, mortally wounding her. Luckily, Ellen has the last laugh, as Count Orlok vanishes when exposed to direct sunlight right after his final banquet.
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Redefining horror
At the time of its release, there were few other films that dared to do what Nosferatu had accomplished in the genre. While other expressionist horror films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari shared a similar visual identity, Nosferatu took the concept of horror films to a new artistic level.
Director F. W. Murnau – then relatively unknown in the industry – and artist Albin Grau set out on a simple mission: to film an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula for German audiences. Much like the aforementioned Dr. Caligari, this was a recurring theme in German silent films of the era, including the legendary The Golem: How He Came into the World – a film in which Greta also appears Schröder (who plays Ellen in Nosferatu).
Grau's production company, Prana Film, is responsible for bringing Murnau's film to life. Nosferatu will be the studio's first and only film, however, due to the painful legal battle that followed the film's release – we'll get to that in a minute.
Renowned occultist, Albin Grau wanted to introduce his passion to cinema. To this end, he designed Count Orlok as an imposing creature – in fact, most of the film's horror comes from the vampire Count Orlok's sinister appearance. German actor Max Shreck was chosen to play the role of the terrifying creature.
Filming took place mainly in Germany, while some more exotic locations – such as Transylvania and the rest of the Carpathians – were filmed in northern Slovakia.
Shreck's vampire makeup, along with the rest of the film's special effects, received widespread acclaim upon the film's release. This praise was short-lived, however, as it suddenly turned into a long series of accusations of copyright infringement when Florence Balcombe Stoker became aware of the film's popularity.
Legal issues
F. F. W. Murnau's film Nosferatu was the subject of complaints from some groups upon its release. Some critics pointed out that the character of Count Orlok was a vile caricature of the Jewish people – an issue of growing concern in the years before Germany launched World War II.
For some, the vampire's bald head and its association with the plague (and the subtext of vampirism as a venereal disease) were clear indicators of Murnau's anti-Semitism. English writer Kevin Jackson would later come to Murnau's defense, saying the director had always protected Jewish artists, including actor Alexander Granach, who plays Knock in Nosferatu.
From the start, Murnau's film was intended to be the story of Dracula. However, Stoker's widow, Florence Stoker, did not want to sell the film rights to Grau. Oddly enough, Stoker's novel was already in the public domain in the United States, but a German court ruled that the rights to Dracula could not enter the public domain until fifty years after Stoker's death (d. 1912).
Making an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's story seemed to be the only way for Murnau and Grau to make their film – and so they did. They hired screenwriter Henrik Galeen to make a German version of Dracula. Galeen took inspiration from Stoker's story, even reusing some characters from the original novel, such as Jonathan and Mina Harker. The names of these characters were changed, however, mainly to appeal to German audiences.
Other notable characters were omitted from Nosferatu, such as Doctor Abraham Van Helsing.
Bram Stoker's widow noticed the similarities and took the matter to the British Incorporated Society of Authors. Shortly after, a court ordered the destruction of all copies of the film.
It was a dark time for cinema history, as we nearly lost one of the most influential films ever produced.
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Orlok's Legacy
It goes without saying that not all copies of Nosferatu burned. This iconic horror film influenced much of modern vampire mythology, adding more to what Stoker's novel had already established. Besides holy water and religious symbols, vampires now had another deadly enemy: sunlight.
Now that the silent vampire film Nosferatu (1922) has entered the public domain, projects like Robert Eggers' remake of Nosferatu are being welcomed with open arms by fans of horror and vampire films.
Over the years, new remasters of the film have been made, some including new versions of the soundtrack or even sound effects. In 1979, Werner Herzog directed Nosferatu the Vampire, a stylized remake of Murnau's original that is widely considered the best modern version of the film.
It seems that every critic, from Roger Ebert to the Vatican, has recognized Nosferatu's modern sense of what a horror or vampire film should be. This silent film gave us some of the most enduring aspects of modern vampires in cinema, like their tendency to prey on small towns and their fear of sunlight.
Today, 100 years later, let's not forget that we all have F. W. Murnau's unauthorized adaptation to thank for creating one of the most iconic cinematic monsters of all time.
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