Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
The story of Nosferatu is similar to that of Dracula and retains the core characters including Jonathan and Mina Harker, the Count, but
omits many of the secondary players and changes all of the character's names. In some recent releases of Nosferatu, which is now in the public domain, the titles have been changed to use the Dracula versions of the character names. The setting has been transferred from England in the 1890s to Germany in 1838. The town called "Wisborg" in the film is in fact a mix of Wismar and Lübeck. Parts of the film depicting Transsylvania were also filmed in Slovakia. Nosferatu's castle, for instance, is Orava Castle in northern Slovakia, and other locations are in the High Tatras and on the Váh River around Strečno Castle.
In contrast to Dracula, Orlok does not make any other vampires but kills his victims, causing the town folk to blame the plague, which ravages the city. Also, Orlok must sleep by day, as sunlight would
kill him. The ending is also substantially different from that of
Dracula. The Count is ultimately destroyed at sunrise when the "Mina" character sacrifices herself to him. A more universal effect of the film is less obvious: the ending of Nosferatu single-handedly created the concept that vampires can be physically harmed by sunlight. While this was a common element of many other mythical creatures, pre- Nosferatu vampires disliked but could endure daylight. Count Dracula was not sun-sensitive and in one chapter of the novel, Dracula, the Count walks a London street by day. Since Nosferatu's release, vampire legends have quickly incorporated the idea of fearing, or being destroyed by, the sun.
characterization of Count Orlok as an evil entity bringing death and pestilence. In the late 19th century a number of Jews in the worst economic circumstance came to Germany seeking work and new lives. Like modern hispanics searching for better lives in the United States, these desperate people were often scapegoated as diseased. In some anti-Semitic quarters, the evil Count Orlok became a prototype of Jewish migrants whose arrivals in villages often coincided with outbreaks of disease. In the troubled times after the Great War, Germans were concerned about aliens invading the Fatherland and Orlok was seen by many as symbolic of foreigners - in this instance, Jewish people - "polluting" Germany following WWI. There is nothing in the
film itself which identifies Orlok as Jewish.
Today, his appearance is simply that of a creepy, skeletal vampire but however in 1922, anti- Semitic audiences in Germany saw the character as a Jewish prototype. This was the first and last Prana Film; the company declared bankruptcy after Bram Stoker's estate, acting for his widow, Florence Stoker, sued for copyright infringement and won. The court ordered all existing prints of Nosferatu destroyed, but copies of the film had already been distributed around the world. These prints were then copied over the years, helping Nosferatu gain its current reputation as one of the greatest movie adaptations of the vampire legend.
With the influence of producer and production designer Albin Grau, the film established one of two main depictions of film vampires. The "Nosferatu-type" is a living corpse with rodent features most especially elongated fingernails and incisors that are associated with rats and the plague and neither charming nor erotic but rather totally repugnant. The victims usually die and are not turned into vampires themselves. This is different than the more common archetype of Dracula as a charming aristocrat adept at seduction and whose bite turns his victims into new vampires creating bloodlines.
Murnau's Nosferatu is in the public domain, and copies of the movie are widely available on video (usually as poorly transferred, faded, scratched video copies that are often scorned by enthusiasts). However, pristine restored editions of the film have also been made available, and are also readily accessible to the public. The only complete, original copy is said to be owned by the German Max Schreck collector Jens Geutebrück.
This article was adapted from Wikipedia and has been edited and
updated by Francesca Miller.
