13 Days of First-Time Frights: Nosferatu

13 Days of First-Time Frights is a series of reviews for October 2019 where Douglas Laman, in the spirit of Halloween, watches and writes about thirteen horror movies he's never seen before. These reviews will be posted each Tuesday and Thursday as well as the last three Wednesdays of October 2019.

Entry #10: Nosferatu

Remember kids, plagiarism is wrong...except if you're writer Henrik Galeen and director F.W. Murnau and the estate of Bram Stoker has refused you the rights to make your own movie adaptation of Dracula. Then, plagiarism is A-OK because you get movies like Nosferatu. That's actually how this horror classic came to be, upon being told they couldn't have Dracula, Murnau pulled a Bender and decided to "make my own [Dracula]...with blackjack! And hookers!" The result was something clearly derivative of Stoker's original Dracula text, but also had enough of its own visual flourishes to ensure that Nosferatu would etch its own unique place in cinematic history.


If you've ever read the original Dracula book or seen a classical Dracula movie, the narrative beats of Nosferatu should be unsurprisingly familiar. Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) is a mild-manner soul working for an estate agency who is sent off to Transylvania to meet with the mysterious Count Orlock (Max Schreck). Though his employers see Orlock as a new client full of money, locals who live near Orlock see hi mas a terrifying presence that Hutter should stay far far away from. Hutter eventually meets up with Orlock, who decides to buy the house across the street from Hutter after becoming fixated on Hutter's wife, Ellen (Greta Schroder).

Could Count Orlock perhaps be something more sinister than he seems? Could he, perhaps, just maybe, be the nefarious vampire known as Nosferatu? An indication of this being possibly the case is seen when Hutter cuts his finger and Orlock makes a mad dive for the blood gushing from the man's finger. That's quite unusual behavior if you ask me and is one of the many ways Orlock is unable to conceal his true nature as a bloodthirsty creature of the night. Still, those expecting Orlock to just be chowing down on people's necks like there's no tomorrow would be disappointed. Why would you be looking for such gruesomeness in pre-1960's horror anyway?

Instead, Orlock is more of the creepily manipulative sort as he tampers with Ellen from a great distance away while he leaves Thomas in a stupor that ensures he can't do anything to stop Orlock from traveling to London to suckle on his wife's blood. Nosferatu derives much of its horror from emphasizing how overpowered the human protagonists are by Orlock's assorted supernatural abilities. He's the complete opposite of the intentionally less polished killer in the Scream movies, Orlock is a figure meant to strike fear into your heart because of how totally and utterly intimidating he is in terms of his powers and abilities. That's why the shot of his shadow draped across the hall outside Ellen's room is so iconic, just seeing the outline of Orlock is enough to instill a sense of unease into a scene.

Another reason that shot is so well-known? It's just nifty to look at! F.W. Murnau was one of the all-time great visualists in the silent movie era of filmmaking (heck, his work in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans makes him one of the all-time greats in any era of filmmaking in my book) and his gifts in this department is put to great use in the domain of horror cinema. Murnau's ability to create a dynamic between characters and the sets they inhabit is especially potent in Nosferatu, having the meek real estate agent Thomas placed against the backdrops used for Orlock's intimidating castle really cements how thoroughly out of his depth this character is in this current scenario.

In terms of the visuals present in Nosferatu, it's also interesting to see how certain visual effects, like how a tomb containing Orlock floats its way onto a cart, are accomplished through a handful of still images that play out on-screen in a jagged manner reminiscent of La Jetee. I won't lie, occasionally these did yield a chuckle from me simply in how barbed the editing between these shots are. For the most part, though, they're successful in showing off an impressive level of innovation from people who were trying to make the impossible possible in the dawn of visual effects. Nosferatu was built on plagiarism, sure, but with that kind of VFX innovation, it certainly also brought its own flavor of originality to the table.