Nosferatu (1922)

NOSFERATU

1922 • F.W. Murnau

Cast:  Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim

Screenplay: Henrik Galeen based on Dracula by Bram Stoker 

Producers: Enrico Dieckmann, Albin Grau

Cinematography: Fritz Amo Wagner

94 Minutes • 1.33:1 • Germany

Film Arts Guild

Is this your wife? What a lovely throat.

The original epic horror film. Even though this silent film is over a century old, it doesn't fail to deliver chills in ways that modern horror films wish they could. The story is familiar and is a fun adaptation of the classic Dracula story. Schreck is especially creepy as the title character and the camera work was way ahead of its time.

Henrik Galeen’s story of Nosferatu is loosely based (read: ripped off from) on Bram Stoker’s original novel Dracula.  At the time of production, Bram Stoker’s estate had not given permission to Murnau to shoot the film, so they worked around it by changing names and a few events. So... Max Schreck portrayed "Count Orlok" instead of "Count Dracula."   A real estate agent visits the reclusive Count Orlock in Germany to sell him some land but notices a series of unusual events surrounding his visit.  Sound familiar?

Murnau is one of cinema’s pioneer filmmakers.  His sense of visual style was groundbreaking.  F.W. Murnau would later go on to direct a series of pioneering films, most notably the Oscar-winning film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.  One of the first feature-length horror movies, Nosferatu is to the horror film genre what Metropolis was to the science fiction genre… extremely influential.  The shot composition was ahead of its time, especially this iconic image:

I mean… LOOK at that image.  Even 90 years later it is still chilling.  Many of the influences that Nosferatu had can be seen in modern horror films.

You can’t talk about this film without mentioning Max Schreck as Count Orlock.  One of the great screen presences… few on-screen vampires have been more chilling.  Gary Oldman, Bela Lugosi, and Christopher Lee have all played excellent Draculas, but Schreck is the original on-screen vampire.  Unlike Dracula, Orlock is not a charming, sophisticated aristocrat.  He looks like the demon he is, and Schreck’s portrayal is so alarmingly disturbing that it still sends chills down your spine.  80 years later the making of this film was fictionalized in a film called Shadow of the Vampire starring Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck who, in the story of the film, is actually a vampire.  (Also a good watch, by the way.)

A beautiful horror film.

It will cost you sweat and tears, and perhaps... a little blood.