Nosferatu, a Symphony of Terror

Bram Strokers Dracula is Cinema’s 2nd most portrayed character in film history with 274 individual portrayals and still counting.  I do not profess to have seen all 274 of these movies but I have seen many.   So it was quite a thrill and shock for me when I sat down and viewed Nosferatu.   The very first film of the count.  By a German director named F.W. Murnau in 1922. 

A silent film that never got the blessing from Bram Stokers estate to film the story so the director and producers took privileges from the book.  They changed the name of the vampire from Dracula to Orlok and added some new touches to basically the same story.   For example the well-known trait that sunlight kills vampires was created by Murnau for this film and not from the Novel.  

After the closing credits I came to the unbending conclusion that this, the first filmed telling of the great vampire story, was also, to this day, the best one.   Nobody since has bettered the dark gothic horror of the vampire.  Not Corman, Herzog or Coppola.  The silent movie aspect of the film just adds to the atmosphere.   It oozes with foreboding and danger in every scene.  

We see the crazy insane servant of the count in a breathtaking performance by Alexander Granach who started the movie trend of the terrifying insane.  Mad murderous fiends they would be in many movie years to come.   In fact this masterpiece of silent and any cinema started pop culture myths of vampires that have lasted until today.   Creating other vampires from sucking the blood, the sucking of the blood being a symbol for premarital sex.   Coffin sleeping vampires and of course the vampire death by sunlight.

It is impossible to speak of Nosferatu without mentioning the unreal almost supernatural performance of Max Schreck whose last name means fear in German.   Shreck looks so much like a real monster that his makeup is unnoticeable.  We believe that the actor looked like a real vampire.  Orlok is a real living creature on the screen and even today sends shudders to all who watch this amazing film.   Since we as an audience have been force fed countless parody portraits of the count, some of them gory but fun and many tongue and cheek, it is a revelation to see this famous vampire as it was originally invented.  A monster.  A dangerous haunting monster.   There is nothing even faintly mild or mysterious about Orlok and Shreck.  They are not charming or handsome.   They are one and the same.  They are monsters prowling the earth carrying a horrible plague everywhere they go.  They are the real Dracula.  

Forget the fact that this is a 1922 silent move if you love horror and movies in general you must see this fantastic film.