The Haunting of ‘Nosferatu’

Although there are various versions of the story of Dracula throughout the years, especially on the film adaptation, nothing beats the first vampire film – Nosferatu (1922). It is considered a classic and probably the most frightening vampire in its own right. Nosferatu was made during the silent era of filmmaking and also considered as one of the best examples of German Expressionist film. The film is an unauthorized and unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula.

When Knock (Alexander Branach) tells his fellow real estate agent named Hutter (Gustav Von Wangenheim) that Count Orlok (Max Schreck) is interested to a buy a property in his town, he eagerly goes to Transylvania to meet the elusive Count to formally close the deal. “I’m going to travel to the country of thieves and ghosts,” he says to his wife Ellen (Greta Schroeder). Hutter is oblivious on who is he dealing with and eschews the eerie signs that he encounters when traveling to the castle of Count Orlok. When he later realized the true character of Count Orlok, it is too late for him to act and becomes crippled by fear.

Since he is too terrified to face Count Orlok, Hutter is not successful in stopping the vampire in unleashing terror. Ellen becomes the film’s heroine, as she sacrifices herself to kill Count Orlok. “Nobody can save you unless a sinless maiden makes the Vampire forget the first crow of the cock,” as the Vampire handbook suggests.

The mysterious deaths of young individuals easily caught the attention of the public. People begin to call it a plague which is caused by rats. The Great Death, as they call it, arrives in Wisborg, killing gradually its people. Nobody knows that Count Orlok caused this plague and it serves as his camouflage for his arrival. This is reminiscent of the Black Death (or the Bubonic plague) that kills millions of people in Europe. Just like what Count Orlok does to his victims, the plague did not choose its victims – poor and rich, young and old, men and women.

Since this film was made 98 years ago, it still gives the right amount of fear, especially the image of Count Orlok, who likes to lurk in the dark and waits for his prey to suck his/her blood. It is not the usual jump scare that we have seen countless times in horror flicks. It haunts you as though you have a vivid nightmare that sticks in your mind after you wake up from it.