Love of Vampires

Vampire books, movies and lore…

Nosferatu – the vampire movie that started them all…

I was completely unaware of the controversy that surrounded this film when it first came out in 1922 (the release date for the US was in 1929).

When you watch the film, it is definitely a familiar story – in fact, it is a dead ringer for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  Some of the major differences were that it was set in Germany instead of London and the names of the characters were changed.

Yes, because the rights to Bram Stoker’s Dracula were never acquired by the film makers, Stoker’s widow sued for copyright infringement.

That being said, it was an interesting film to watch.  Though I have to admit I had a hard time not speaking my own silly dialogue (hey, silent films are hard to watch sometimes!)

Count Orlok, in my humble opinion, is one of the most terrifying vampires ever to grace the screen.  His more rat-like features, long and pointy fingers and horrifying stare were definitely giving me the creeps.  Being extremely tall, he seemed overbearing and definitely a monster of the night.  While as my view of the Dracula story always seemed to have a romantic side to it (a small one at least), there was nothing romantic about this vampire.

There were a couple of interesting vampire concepts in this story that were different than the traditional Dracula and other vampire stories.  Count Orlok did not make vampires – instead his victims died and the deaths were blamed on a plague.  He had qualities of a rat, unlike most vampires who are associated more with bats.

All in all I think that the story wasn’t as good as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, as the screen play writers did deviate from the plot by leaving out key characters (Van Helsing, for one) and ultimately changing the ending.  But I must say that this film is a treasure – Count Orlok was terrifying.  The actor, Max Schrek, created a true fiend – perhaps what the vampire was always suppose to be, a monster.

VVVv (3 1/2 fangs for Nosferatu)

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 3:02 pm and is filed under Vampire movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.