''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' (German: ''Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens'') is a 1922
silent German Expressionist
German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
directed by
F. W. Murnau
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter.
He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at t ...
and starring
Max Schreck
Friedrich Gustav Maximilian Schreck Eickhoff, Stefan. 2007 (6 September 1879 – 20 February 1936), Walk, Ines. 2006. known professionally as Max Schreck, was a German actor, best known for his lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the film ' ...
as
Count Orlok
Count Orlok (german: Graf Orlok), commonly but erroneously known as Nosferatu, is the main antagonist and title character portrayed by German actor Max Schreck (1879–1936) in the silent film ''Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens'' (1922). He ...
, a
vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
who preys on the wife (
Greta Schröder
Greta Schröder (27 June 1892 – 8 June 1980) was a German actress. She is best known for the role of Thomas Hutter's wife and Count Orlok's victim in ''Nosferatu'' (1922). In the fictionalized 2000 film ''Shadow of the Vampire'', she is port ...
) of his estate agent (
Gustav von Wangenheim
Gustav von Wangenheim (born Ingo Clemens Gustav Adolf Freiherr von Wangenheim; 18 February 1895 – 5 August 1975) was a German nobleman, actor, screenwriter and director.
Life
Wangenheim was born Ingo Clemens Gustav Adolf Freiherr von Wa ...
) and brings the plague to their town.
''Nosferatu'' was produced by
Prana Film
In yoga, Indian medicine and Indian martial arts, prana ( sa2, प्राण, ; the Sanskrit word for breath, " life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is s ...
and is an unauthorized and unofficial adaptation of
Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busine ...
's 1897 novel ''
Dracula
''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
''. Various names and other details were changed from the novel, including
Count Dracula
Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by som ...
being renamed Count Orlok. Although these changes are often represented as a defense against copyright infringement, the original German
intertitle
In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...
s acknowledged ''Dracula'' as the source. Film historian David Kalat states in his commentary track that since the film was "a low-budget film made by Germans for German audiences... setting it in Germany with German named characters makes the story more tangible and immediate for German-speaking viewers".
Even with several details altered, Stoker's heirs sued over the adaptation, and a court ruling ordered all copies of the film to be
destroyed
Destroyed may refer to:
* ''Destroyed'' (Sloppy Seconds album), a 1989 album by Sloppy Seconds
* ''Destroyed'' (Moby album), a 2011 album by Moby
See also
* Destruction (disambiguation)
Destruction may refer to:
Concepts
* Destruktion, a ...
. However, several prints of ''Nosferatu'' survived,
[ and the film came to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema and the horror genre.
]
Plot
In 1838, in the fictional German town of Wisborg,[ Thomas Hutter is sent to ]Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
by his employer, estate agent Herr Knock, to visit a new client named Count Orlok who plans to buy a house across from Hutter's own home. While embarking on his journey, Hutter stops at an inn where the locals become frightened by the mere mention of Orlok's name.
Hutter rides on a coach to a castle, where he is welcomed by Count Orlok. When Hutter is eating dinner and accidentally cuts his thumb, Orlok tries to suck the blood out, but his repulsed guest pulls his hand away. Hutter wakes up the morning after to find fresh punctures on his neck, which he attributes to mosquitoes. That night, Orlok signs the documents to purchase the house and notices a photo of Hutter's wife, Ellen, remarking that she has a "lovely neck." Reading a book about vampires that he took from the local inn, Hutter starts to suspect that Orlok is a vampire. He cowers in his room as midnight approaches, with no way to bar the door. The door opens by itself and Orlok enters, and Hutter hides under the bed covers and falls unconscious. Meanwhile, his wife awakens from her sleep, and in a trance walks onto her balcony's railing, which gets his friend Harding's attention. When the doctor arrives, she shouts Hutter's name, apparently able to see Orlok in his castle threatening her unconscious husband.
The next day, Hutter explores the castle, only to retreat back into his room after he finds the coffin in which Orlok is resting dormant in the crypt. Hours later, Orlok piles up coffins on a coach and climbs into the last one before the coach departs, and Hutter rushes home after learning this. The coffins are taken aboard a schooner, where all of the ship's sailors and captain die and Orlok takes control. When the ship arrives in Wisborg, Orlok leaves unobserved, carrying one of his coffins, and moves into the house he purchased.
Many deaths in the town follow after Orlok's arrival, which the town's doctors blame on an unspecified plague. Ellen reads the book Hutter found, which claims that a vampire can be defeated if a pure-hearted woman distracts the vampire with her beauty. She opens her window to invite Orlok in, but faints. Hutter revives her, and she sends him to fetch Professor Bulwer, a physician. After he leaves, Orlok enters and drinks her blood, but starts as the sun rises, causing Orlok to vanish in a puff of smoke by the sunlight. Ellen lives just long enough to be embraced by her grief-stricken husband.
The last scene shows Count Orlok's destroyed castle in the Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...
, symbolizing the end of his bloody reign of terror.
Cast
* Max Schreck
Friedrich Gustav Maximilian Schreck Eickhoff, Stefan. 2007 (6 September 1879 – 20 February 1936), Walk, Ines. 2006. known professionally as Max Schreck, was a German actor, best known for his lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the film ' ...
as Count Orlok
Count Orlok (german: Graf Orlok), commonly but erroneously known as Nosferatu, is the main antagonist and title character portrayed by German actor Max Schreck (1879–1936) in the silent film ''Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens'' (1922). He ...
* Gustav von Wangenheim
Gustav von Wangenheim (born Ingo Clemens Gustav Adolf Freiherr von Wangenheim; 18 February 1895 – 5 August 1975) was a German nobleman, actor, screenwriter and director.
Life
Wangenheim was born Ingo Clemens Gustav Adolf Freiherr von Wa ...
as Thomas Hutter
* Greta Schröder
Greta Schröder (27 June 1892 – 8 June 1980) was a German actress. She is best known for the role of Thomas Hutter's wife and Count Orlok's victim in ''Nosferatu'' (1922). In the fictionalized 2000 film ''Shadow of the Vampire'', she is port ...
as Ellen Hutter
* Alexander Granach
Alexander Granach (April 18, 1890 – March 14, 1945) was a German-Austrian actor in the 1920s and 1930s who emigrated to the United States in 1938.
Life and career
Granach was born Schaje Granoch in Werbowitz (Wierzbowce/Werbiwci) (Austri ...
as Knock
* Georg H. Schnell
Georg Heinrich Schnell (11 April 1878 – 31 March 1951) was a German actor who remains perhaps best-known for his role as shipowner Harding in ''Nosferatu, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens'' (1922). Georg appeared in over one hundred fi ...
as Shipowner Harding
* Ruth Landshoff as Ruth
* John Gottowt
John Gottowt (15 June 1881 – 29 August 1942) was an Austrian actor, stage director and film director for theatres and silent movies.
He was born as Isidor Gesang in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. Af ...
as Professor Bulwer
* Gustav Botz
Gustav Botz (4 August 1883 – 29 September 1932) was a German actor.
Early Life and Career
Botz was born on 4 August 1883 at Bremen, German Empire
Botz began his career in film business The Foreign Prince (1918), The Devil (1918), His Majest ...
as Professor Sievers
* Max Nemetz
Max Nemetz (7 September 1886 – 2 July 1971) was a German film and stage actor. He is best known for the role of the Captain in the 1922 silent film ''Nosferatu''.
Filmography
as actor:
*1921: ''The Graveyard of the Living''
*1921: ''Mari ...
as The Captain of The Empusa
* Wolfgang Heinz as First Mate of The Empusa
* as Mental Hospital Doctor
* as Sailor Two
* Guido Herzfeld
Guido Herzfeld (born Guido Kornfeld; 1870 – 16 November 1923) was a German stage and film actor. Herzfeld established himself in the theatre in the nineteenth century. In 1914 he made his film debut and went on to appear in over sixty films befo ...
as Innkeeper
* Karl Etlinger
Karl Etlinger (16 October 1879 – 8 May 1946) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1914 and 1946.
Selected filmography
* '' The Eternal Curse'' (1921)
* ''The Poisoned Stream'' (1921)
* '' The Films of Princ ...
as Student with Bulwer
* Fanny Schreck
Fanny Schreck (born Franziska Ott; 11 June 1877 – 11 December 1951), also known as Fanny Schreck-Normann, was a German actress. She was married to actor Max Schreck. Both husband and wife acted in their most well-known film, ''Nosferatu'', with ...
as Hospital Nurse
Themes
''Nosferatu'' has been noted for its themes regarding fear of the Other
In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other identify the other human being, in their differences from the Self, as being a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person; as acknowledgement of being real; he ...
, as well as for possible anti-Semitic
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
undertones,[ both of which may have been partially derived from the ]Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busine ...
novel ''Dracula
''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
'', upon which the film was based.[ Giesen 2019 page 109] The physical appearance of Count Orlok, with his hooked nose, long claw-like fingernails, and large bald head, has been compared to stereotypical caricatures of Jewish people from the time in which ''Nosferatu'' was produced.[ Giesen 2019 page 108] His features have also been compared to those of a rat or a mouse, the former of which Jews were often equated with.[ Giesen 2019 pages 108–109][ Magistrale 2005 page 25–26] Orlok's interest in acquiring property in the German town of Wisborg, a shift in locale from the Stoker novel's London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, has also been analyzed as preying on the fears and anxieties of the German public at the time.[ Magistrale 2005 page 25] Professor Tony Magistrale
Anthony Samuel Magistrale is a professor in English at the University of Vermont since 1983. He received a Bachelor of Arts, B.A. in 1974 from Allegheny College, and from the University of Pittsburgh an Master of Arts, M.A. in 1976 and a PhD in 19 ...
opined that the film's depiction of an "invasion of the German homeland by an outside force ..poses disquieting parallels to the anti-Semitic atmosphere festering in Northern Europe
The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe Northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other g ...
in 1922."
When the foreign Orlok arrives in Wisborg by ship, he brings with him a swarm of rats which, in a deviation from the source novel, spread the plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
throughout the town.[ Joslin 2017 page 15] This plot element further associates Orlok with rodents and the idea of the "Jew as disease-causing agent". Writer Kevin Jackson
Kevin Andre Jackson (born November 25, 1964 in Highland Falls, New York) is an American retired freestyle and folkstyle wrestler, and mixed martial artist. Following his competitive career, Jackson would become a wrestling coach.
During his i ...
has noted that director F. W. Murnau
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter.
He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at t ...
"was friendly with and protective of a number of Jewish men and women" throughout his life, including Jewish actor Alexander Granach
Alexander Granach (April 18, 1890 – March 14, 1945) was a German-Austrian actor in the 1920s and 1930s who emigrated to the United States in 1938.
Life and career
Granach was born Schaje Granoch in Werbowitz (Wierzbowce/Werbiwci) (Austri ...
, who plays Knock in ''Nosferatu''.[ Jackson 2013 page 20] Additionally, Magistrale wrote that Murnau, being a homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
, would have been "presumably more sensitive to the persecution of a subgroup inside the larger German society". As such, it has been said that perceived associations between Orlok and anti-Semitic stereotypes are unlikely to have been conscious decisions on the part of Murnau.
Production
The studio behind ''Nosferatu'', Prana Film, was a short-lived silent-era German film studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company or motion picture company that has its own privately owned studio facility or facilities that are used to make films, which is handled by the production ...
founded in 1921 by Enrico Dieckmann and occultist artist Albin Grau
Albin Grau (December 22, 1884 in Leipzig-Schönefeld – March 27, 1971) was a German artist, architect and occultist, and the producer and production designer for F.W. Murnau's ''Nosferatu'' (1922). He was largely responsible for the look and ...
,[ named for the ]Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
concept of ''prana
In yoga, Indian medicine and Indian martial arts, prana ( sa2, प्राण, ; the Sanskrit word for breath, " life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is ...
''. Although the studio's intent was to produce occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
- and supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
-themed films, ''Nosferatu'' was its only production, as it declared bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
shortly after the film's release.
Grau claimed he was inspired to shoot a vampire film by a war experience: in Grau's apocrypha
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
l tale, during the winter of 1916, a Serbian farmer told him that his father was a vampire and one of the undead
The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if alive. Most commonly the term refers to corporeal forms of formerly-alive humans, such as mummies, vampires, and zombies, who have been reanimated by super ...
.
Diekmann and Grau gave Henrik Galeen
Henrik Galeen (7 January 1881 – 30 July 1949) was an Austrian-born actor, screenwriter and film director considered an influential figure in the development of German Expressionism, German Expressionist cinema during the silent era.
Early years ...
, a disciple of Hanns Heinz Ewers
Hanns Heinz Ewers (3 November 1871 – 12 June 1943) was a German actor, poet, philosopher, and writer of short stories and novels. While he wrote on a wide range of subjects, he is now known mainly for his works of horror, particularly his trilo ...
, the task to write a screenplay inspired by the ''Dracula'' novel, although Prana Film had not obtained the film rights
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
. Galeen was an experienced specialist in dark romanticism; he had already worked on '' The Student of Prague'' (1913), and the screenplay for '' The Golem: How He Came into the World'' (1920). Galeen set the story in the fictional north German harbour town of Wisborg. He changed the characters' names and added the idea of the vampire bringing the plague to Wisborg via rats on the ship, and left out the Van Helsing
A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. There is some varying in the scope of the word across th ...
vampire hunter character. Galeen's Expressionist style screenplay was poetically rhythmic, without being so dismembered as other books influenced by literary Expressionism, such as those by Carl Mayer
Carl Mayer (20 November 1894 – 1 July 1944) was an Austrians, Austrian screenwriter who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1920), ''The Head of Janus'' (1920), ''The Haunted Castle (1921 film), The Haunted C ...
. Lotte Eisner
Lotte H. Eisner (5 March 1896, Berlin – 25 November 1983, Paris) was a German-French writer, film critic, archivist and curator. Eisner worked initially as a film critic in Berlin, then in Paris where in 1936 she met Henri Langlois with whom she ...
described Galeen's screenplay as "'" ("full of poetry, full of rhythm").[ Eisner 1967 page 27]
Filming began in July 1921, with exterior shot
Shot may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Shot'' (album), by The Jesus Lizard
*''Shot, Illusion, New God'', an EP by Gruntruck
*''Shot Rev 2.0'', a video album by The Sisters of Mercy
* "Shot" (song), by The Rasmus
* ''Shot'' (2017 fi ...
s in Wismar
Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city ...
. A take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.
Film
In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...
from Marienkirche's tower over Wismar marketplace with the Wasserkunst Wismar served as the establishing shot
An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...
for the Wisborg scene. Other locations were the Wassertor, the Heiligen-Geist-Kirche yard and the harbour. In Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...
, the abandoned Salzspeicher
The Salzspeicher (salt storehouses), of Lübeck, Germany, are six historic brick buildings on the Upper Trave River next to the Holstentor (the western city gate).
Built in the 16th–18th centuries, the houses stored salt that was mined near Lü ...
served as Nosferatu's new Wisborg house, the one of the churchyard of the Aegidienkirche served as Hutter's, and down the Depenau a procession of coffin bearers bore coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, either for burial or cremation.
Sometimes referred to as a casket, any box in which the dead are buried is a coffin, and while a casket was originally regarded as a box for jewel ...
s of supposed plague victims. Many scenes of Lübeck appear in the hunt for ''Knock'', who ordered Hutter in the ''Yard of Füchting'' to meet Count Orlok. Further exterior shots followed in Lauenburg
Lauenburg (), or Lauenburg an der Elbe ( en, Lauenberg on the Elbe), is a town in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the northern bank of the river Elbe, east of Hamburg. It is the southernmost town of Schleswig-Holstein ...
, Rostock
Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...
and on Sylt
Sylt (; da, Sild; Sylt North Frisian, Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian ...
. The exteriors of the film set in Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
were actually shot on location in northern Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
, including the High Tatras
The High Tatras or High Tatra Mountains ( Slovak: Vysoké Tatry; pl, Tatry Wysokie; rue, Высокі Татри,'' Vysoki Tatry''; hu, Magas-Tátra; german: Hohe Tatra; french: Hautes Tatras), are a mountain range along the border of norther ...
, Vrátna dolina image:Vratna dolina.jpg, 300px, Vrátna dolina (Vrátna Valley) as seen from the Poludňový Grúň (1,460 m) mountain
Vrátna dolina or Vrátna Valley is a valley in the Malá Fatra mountain range in Slovakia. It is situated 3 kilometers from the ...
, Orava Castle
Orava or Orawa may refer to:
*Orava (region), a region in Slovakia and Poland
*Orava (river) in Slovakia
*Orava Castle, a castle in Slovakia
*Orava (reservoir), a reservoir in Slovakia
* Orava County, a historic administrative county of the Kingdom ...
, the Váh
The Váh (; german: Waag, ; hu, Vág; pl, WagWag
w Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów ...
River, and the Starý hrad Castle. The team filmed interior shots at the JOFA studio in Berlin's Johannisthal locality and further exteriors in the Tegel
Tegel () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') in the Berlin borough of Reinickendorf on the shore of Lake Tegel. The Tegel locality, the second largest in area (after Köpenick) of the 96 Berlin districts, also includes the neighbourhood of ''Saatwinkel'' ...
Forest.[
For cost reasons, cameraman ]Fritz Arno Wagner
Fritz Arno Wagner (5 December 1889 – 18 August 1958) is considered one of the most acclaimed German cinematographers from the 1920s to the 1950s. He played a key role in the Expressionist film movement during the Weimar period and is perhaps ...
only had one camera available, and therefore there was only one original negative. The director followed Galeen's screenplay carefully, following handwritten instructions on camera positioning, lighting, and related matters. Nevertheless, Murnau completely rewrote 12 pages of the script, as Galeen's text was missing from the director's working script. This concerned the last scene of the film, in which Ellen sacrifices herself and the vampire dies in the first rays of the sun. Murnau prepared carefully; there were sketches that were to correspond exactly to each filmed scene, and he used a metronome
A metronome, from ancient Greek μέτρον (''métron'', "measure") and νομός (nomós, "custom", "melody") is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a regular interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats pe ...
to control the pace of the acting.
Music
The original score was composed by Hans Erdmann
Hans Erdmann (7 November 1882 – 21 November 1942) was a German composer. He produced several film scores for German films.
Selected filmography
* ''Nosferatu'' (1922)
* '' Le testament du Dr. Mabuse''/''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' (1933)
* ' ...
and performed by an orchestra at the film's Berlin premiere. However, most of the score has been lost, and what remains is only a partial adapted suite.[ Thus, throughout the history of ''Nosferatu'' screenings, many composers and musicians have written or improvised their own soundtrack to accompany the film. For example, James Bernard, composer of the soundtracks of many ]Hammer
A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as w ...
horror films in the late 1950s and 1960s, wrote a score for a reissue.[ Bernard's score was released in 1997 by Silva Screen Records. A version of Erdmann's original score reconstructed by musicologists and composers Gillian Anderson and James Kessler was released in 1995 by BMG Classics, with several missing sequences composed anew, in an attempt to match Erdmann's style. An earlier reconstruction by German composer Berndt Heller has many additions of unrelated classical works.][
]
Deviations from the novel
The story of ''Nosferatu'' is similar to that of ''Dracula'' and retains the core characters: Jonathan and Mina Harker, the Count, and so on. It omits many of the secondary players, however, such as Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brittonic languages, Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. An ...
and Quincey, and changes the names of those who remain. The setting has been transferred from Britain in the 1890s to Germany in 1838.[
In contrast to Count Dracula, Orlok does not create other vampires, but kills his victims, causing the townsfolk to blame the plague which ravages the city. Orlok also must sleep by day, as sunlight would kill him, while the original Dracula is only weakened by sunlight. The ending is also substantially different from the ''Dracula'' novel; the count is ultimately destroyed at sunrise when the Mina analogue sacrifices herself to him.][ The town called "Wisborg" in the film is in fact a mix of ]Wismar
Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city ...
and Lübeck
Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...
; in other versions of the film, the name of the city is changed, for unknown reasons, back to "Bremen".
Release
Shortly before the premiere, an advertisement campaign was placed in issue 21 of the magazine ', with a summary, scene and work photographs, production reports, and essays, including a treatment on vampirism by Albin Grau
Albin Grau (December 22, 1884 in Leipzig-Schönefeld – March 27, 1971) was a German artist, architect and occultist, and the producer and production designer for F.W. Murnau's ''Nosferatu'' (1922). He was largely responsible for the look and ...
. ''Nosferatu'' opened in the Netherlands on 16 February 1922 at the Hague Flora and Olympia cinemas. ''Nosferatu'' premiered in Germany on 4 March 1922 in the ''Marmorsaal'' of the Berlin Zoological Garden
The Berlin Zoological Garden (german: link=no, Zoologischer Garten Berlin) is the oldest surviving and best-known zoo in Germany. Opened in 1844, it covers and is located in Berlin's Tiergarten. With about 1,380 different species and over 20,2 ...
. This was planned as a large society evening entitled ' (Festival of Nosferatu), and guests were asked to arrive dressed in Biedermeier
The ''Biedermeier'' period was an era in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities. It began with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in ...
costume. The German cinema premiere itself took place on 15 March 1922 at Berlin's .[
]
The 1930s sound version ''Die zwölfte Stunde – Eine Nacht des Grauens'' (''The Twelfth Hour: A Night of Horror''), which is less commonly known, was a completely unauthorized and re-edited version of the film. It was released in Vienna, Austria
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
on 16 May 1930 with sound-on-disc accompaniment and a recomposition of Hans Erdmann
Hans Erdmann (7 November 1882 – 21 November 1942) was a German composer. He produced several film scores for German films.
Selected filmography
* ''Nosferatu'' (1922)
* '' Le testament du Dr. Mabuse''/''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' (1933)
* ' ...
's original score by Georg Fiebiger, a German production manager and composer of film music. It had an alternative ending lighter than the original and the characters were renamed again; Count Orlok's name was changed to Prince Wolkoff, Knock became Karsten, Hutter and Ellen became Kundberg and Margitta, and Annie was changed to Maria.[ This version, of which Murnau was unaware, contained many scenes filmed by Murnau but not previously released. It also contained additional footage not filmed by Murnau but by a cameraman ]Günther Krampf
Günther Krampf (8 February 1899 – 4 August 1950) was an Austrian cinematographer who later settled and worked in the UK. Krampf has been described as a "phantom of film history" because of his largely forgotten role working on a number of impo ...
under the direction of (also known as Waldemar Ronger), supposedly also a film editor and lab chemist. The name of director F. W. Murnau is no longer mentioned in the credits. This version, lasting approximately 80 minutes, was presented on 5 June 1981 at the Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française (), founded in 1936, is a French non-profit film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Based in Paris's 12th arrondissement, the archive offers ...
.
Reception and legacy
''Nosferatu'' brought Murnau into the public eye, especially when his film ''Der brennende Acker'' (''The Burning Soil
''The Burning Soil'' (german: Der brennende Acker) is a 1922 German silent film directed by F.W. Murnau. It was made the same year as Murnau's ''Nosferatu'' and released in Germany around the same time. The film follows the struggle over a plot ...
'') was released a few days later. The press reported extensively on ''Nosferatu'' and its premiere. With the laudatory votes, there was also occasional criticism that the technical perfection and clarity of the images did not fit the horror theme. The ''Filmkurier'' of 6 March 1922 said that the vampire appeared too corporeal and brightly lit to appear genuinely scary. Hans Wollenberg described the film in ''photo-Stage'' No. 11 of 11 March 1922 as a "sensation" and praised Murnau's nature shots as "mood-creating elements." In the ''Vossische Zeitung'' of 7 March 1922, ''Nosferatu'' was praised for its visual style.
''Nosferatu'' was also the first film to show a vampire dying from exposure to sunlight. Previous vampire novels such as ''Dracula'' had shown them being uncomfortable with sunlight, but not undeath-threateningly so.
The film has received overwhelmingly positive reviews. On review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 9.05/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "One of the silent era's most influential masterpieces, ''Nosferatu''s eerie, gothic feel—and a chilling performance from Max Schreck as the vampire—set the template for the horror films that followed." In 1995, the Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
included ''Nosferatu'' on a list of 45 important films that people should watch. It was ranked twenty-first in ''Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.
In 1997, critic Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
added ''Nosferatu'' to his list of ''The Great Movies
''The Great Movies'' is the name of several publications, both online and in print, from the film critic Roger Ebert. The object was, as Ebert put it, to "make a tour of the landmarks of the first century of cinema."
''The Great Movies'' was pu ...
'', writing:
The 2000 film ''Shadow of the Vampire
''Shadow of the Vampire'' is a 2000 Independent film, independent
metacinema, meta historical fiction, period horror comedy film directed by E. Elias Merhige, written by Steven A. Katz, Steven Katz, and starring John Malkovich and Willem Daf ...
'' is a fictionalized take on the making of ''Nosferatu''.[
]
Home video and copyright status
''Nosferatu'' only entered the public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
worldwide at the end of 2019, although it was always treated as such anyway. This led to the widespread distribution of a sped-up, unrestored black and white bootleg
Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to:
* Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially
* Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence:
** Moonshine, or illicitly made ...
copy.[ Beginning in 1981, the film has had various different official restorations, several of which have been issued on home video in the US, Europe and Australia. These versions, which are all tinted, speed-corrected and have specially recorded scores, are separately copyrighted.][
]
Remakes
A 1979 remake
A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...
by director Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...
, ''Nosferatu the Vampyre
''Nosferatu the Vampyre'' (german: Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, lit=Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night) is a 1979 horror film written and directed by Werner Herzog. It is set primarily in 19th-century Wismar, Germany and Transylvania, and was conce ...
'', starred Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski (, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski 18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991) was a German actor, equally renowned for his intense performance style and notorious for his volatile personality. He appeared in over 130 film roles in a c ...
(as Count Dracula, not Count Orlok).
A planned remake by director David Lee Fisher has been in development after being successfully funded on Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
on 3 December 2014. On 13 April 2016, it was reported that Doug Jones had been cast as Count Orlok in the film and that filming had begun. The film will use green screen to insert colorized backgrounds from the original film atop live-action, a process Fisher previously used for his remake ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (german: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari) is a 1920 German silent horror film, directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, ...
'' (2005).[ As of 2022, this version remains unreleased, with the last update coming from Jones in 2020.
In July 2015, another remake was announced with ]Robert Eggers
Robert Houston Eggers (born July 7, 1983) is an American filmmaker, director, and production designer. He is best known for writing and directing the historical horror films ''The Witch (2015 film), The Witch'' (2015) and ''The Lighthouse (2019 f ...
writing and directing. The film was intended to be produced by Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen
Lars Ramkilde Knudsen (born 21 February 1962) is a Danish researcher in cryptography, particularly interested in the design and analysis of block ciphers, hash functions and message authentication codes (MACs).
Academic
After some early work in ...
for Studio 8. In November 2016, Eggers expressed surprise that the ''Nosferatu'' remake was going to be his second film, saying "It feels ugly and blasphemous and egomaniacal and disgusting for a filmmaker in my place to do ''Nosferatu'' next. I was really planning on waiting a while, but that's how fate shook out." In 2017, it was announced that Anya Taylor-Joy
Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy ( ; born 16 April 1996) is an actress. She has won several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2021, she was featu ...
would be featured in the film in an unknown role. However, in a 2019 interview, Eggers claimed that he was unsure as to whether the film would still be made, saying "...But also, I don't know, maybe ''Nosferatu'' doesn't need to be made again, even though I've spent so much time on that." It was reported in September 2022 that Eggers' remake would be distributed by Focus Features
Focus Features LLC is an American film production and distribution company, owned by Comcast as part of Universal Pictures, a division of its wholly owned subsidiary NBCUniversal. Focus Features distributes independent and foreign films in th ...
, with Bill Skarsgård
Bill Istvan Günther Skarsgård (; born 9 August 1990) is a Swedish actor, producer, director, writer, voice actor, and model. He is best known for portraying Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the supernatural horror films '' It'' (2017) and ''It C ...
set to star as Orlok and Lily-Rose Depp
Lily-Rose Melody Depp (born 27 May 1999) is a French-American actress and model. Depp began her acting career with a small role in ''Tusk'' (2014), and went on to star in the period drama '' The Dancer'' (2016), in which she played Isadora Dunc ...
.
In popular culture
* The song "Nosferatu" from the album '' Spectres'' (1977) by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult ( ; sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American Rock music, rock band formed on Long Island in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, and best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", and "Godzilla ( ...
is directly about the film.
* The 1979 album ''Nosferatu
''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' (German: ''Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens'') is a 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife ...
'' by Hugh Cornwell
Hugh Alan Cornwell (born 28 August 1949) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and writer, best known for being the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for the punk rock and new wave band the Stranglers from 1974 to 1990. Since leaving the ...
and Robert Williams is a homage
Homage (Old English) or Hommage (French) may refer to:
History
*Homage (feudal) /ˈhɒmɪdʒ/, the medieval oath of allegiance
*Commendation ceremony, medieval homage ceremony Arts
*Homage (arts) /oʊˈmɑʒ/, an allusion or imitation by one arti ...
to the film, featuring a still from the movie on the front cover and a dedication to Max Schreck
Friedrich Gustav Maximilian Schreck Eickhoff, Stefan. 2007 (6 September 1879 – 20 February 1936), Walk, Ines. 2006. known professionally as Max Schreck, was a German actor, best known for his lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the film ' ...
.
* The television miniseries adaptation of Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's ''Salem's Lot
''Salem's Lot'' is a 1975 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It was his second published novel. The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem's Lot (or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, where he ...
'' (1979) took inspiration from ''Nosferatu'' for the appearance of its villain, Kurt Barlow
Kurt Barlow is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Stephen King's 1975 horror novel Salem's Lot''. The character is a powerful vampire who moves to the Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot with the intent to form a vampire colony of its ...
(Reggie Nalder
Reggie Nalder (born Alfred Reginald Natzler; 4 September 1907 – 19 November 1991) was a prolific Austrian film and television character actor from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. His distinctive features—partially the result of disfigurin ...
). The film's producer Richard Kobritz stated that: "We went back to the old German Nosferatu concept where he is the essence of evil, and not anything romantic or smarmy, or, you know, the rouge-cheeked, widow-peaked Dracula."
* The music video for Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
and David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
’s 1981 single "Under Pressure
"Under Pressure" is a song by the British rock band Queen and singer David Bowie. Originally released as a single in October 1981, it was later included on Queen's 1982 album ''Hot Space''. The song reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, ...
" incorporates footage from ''Nosferatu''.
* In the Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
version of the video game '' Uninvited'', when the player reaches the hallway, the narrated text compares the painting to the film ''Nosferatu''.
* French progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
outfit Art Zoyd
Art Zoyd is a French band formed in 1969, mixing free jazz, progressive rock and avant-garde electronica. Gérard Hourbette was the band's director and composer until his death in May 2018. Another key member of the band was Thierry Zaboitzeff, w ...
released ''Nosferatu
''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' (German: ''Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens'') is a 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife ...
'' (1989) on Mantra Records. Thierry Zaboitzeff and Gérard Hourbette composed the cues to correspond with an edited and unrestored version of the film.[
* In the Japanese manga series '' Berserk'', a legendary fighter named Zodd earns the title “Nosferatu” due to his supposed immortality. However, the character does not share any of the vampiric traits of Count Orlok.
* A 1993 episode of the children's anthology series '']Are You Afraid of the Dark?
''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' is a horror anthology television series. The original series aired on Nickelodeon from 1992 to 1996; the pilot episode aired respectively on YTV and Nickelodeon in 1990 and 1991. It led to two revival series, w ...
'' titled "The Tale of the Midnight Madness" is about a ''Nosferatu'' movie where the vampire can leave the film and enter the real world.
* Bernard J. Taylor
Bernard J. Taylor is a writer and composer of musicals and stage plays. His stage works have been produced around the world and translated into German, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish and Italian. He is also the writer of 14 novels and thre ...
adapted the story into the 1995 musical '' Nosferatu the Vampire''. The title character is called Nosferatu, and the plot of the musical follows the plot of Murnau's film, yet other characters’ names are reverted to names from the novel (Mina, Van Helsing, etc.).
* Count Orlok has made multiple appearances in ''SpongeBob SquarePants
''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...
'', most notably In the final seconds of the episode "Graveyard Shift
The shift plan, rota or roster (esp. British) is the central component of a shift schedule in shift work. The schedule includes considerations of shift overlap, shift change times and alignment with the clock, vacation, training, shift differenti ...
", where Count Orlok, erroneously referred to by the cast as Nosferatu, is revealed as the one responsible for flickering the lights.
* The 2000 film ''Shadow of the Vampire
''Shadow of the Vampire'' is a 2000 Independent film, independent
metacinema, meta historical fiction, period horror comedy film directed by E. Elias Merhige, written by Steven A. Katz, Steven Katz, and starring John Malkovich and Willem Daf ...
'', directed by E. Elias Merhige
Edmund Elias Merhige, known as E. Elias Merhige (, pronounced like ''marriage''; born June 14, 1964), is an American film director born in Brooklyn, New York City.
Work
Merhige is known to mainstream audiences for his work on the 2000 film ''Shad ...
and written by Steven A. Katz
Steven Katz (born October 8, 1959) is an American writer best known for his work on ''Shadow of the Vampire''. He received a B. A. in English and Art History from Brown University in 1982 and an M. A. in English from Columbia University in 1984 ...
, is a fictionalized account of the making of ''Nosferatu'' in which Max Schreck
Friedrich Gustav Maximilian Schreck Eickhoff, Stefan. 2007 (6 September 1879 – 20 February 1936), Walk, Ines. 2006. known professionally as Max Schreck, was a German actor, best known for his lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the film ' ...
is portrayed as an actual vampire whom F.W. Murnau
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director, producer and screenwriter.
He was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at t ...
allows to kill his actors and crew on film in order to create a sense of "realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
*Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a move ...
". It stars Willem Dafoe
Willem James Dafoe (; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Willem Dafoe, various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, in addition to receiving nominations for ...
as Schreck and John Malkovich
John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Aw ...
as Murnau. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
at the 73rd Academy Awards
The 73rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best of 2000 in film and took place on March 25, 2001, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / ...
.
* An operatic version of ''Nosferatu'' was composed by Alva Henderson in 2004, with libretto by Dana Gioia
Michael Dana Gioia (; born December 24, 1950) is an American poet, literary critic, literary translator, and essayist.
Since the early 1980s, Gioia has been considered part of the literary movements within American poetry known as New Formalis ...
, was released on CD in 2005, with Douglas Nagel as Count Orlok/Nosferatu, Susan Gundunas as Ellen Hutter (Mina Harker), Robert McPherson as Eric Hutter (Thomas Hutter/Jonathan Harker) and Dennis Rupp as Skuller (Knock/Renfield).
* On 28 October 2012, as part of the BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
"Gothic Imagination" series, the film was reimagined on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
as the radio play ''Midnight Cry of the Deathbird'' by Amanda Dalton directed by Susan Roberts, with Malcolm Raeburn playing the role of Graf Orlok (Count Dracula), Sophie Woolley as Ellen Hutter, Henry Devas as Thomas Hutter and Terence Mann as Knock.
* In the 2015 film ''Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
''Me and Earl and the Dying Girl'' is a 2012 debut novel written by Jesse Andrews. The novel was released in hardcover by Amulet Books on March 1, 2012, and in paperback on May 7, 2013.
Plot
Greg Gaines is a senior at Benson High School in P ...
'', the protagonists make a number of home movies with one titled 'Nose Ferret 2', a homage to ''Nosferatu''.
* Orlok makes an appearance as an incidental antagonist in Jonathan Green's ACE gamebook ''Dracula: Curse of the Vampire''.
* The 2018 album ''Thunderbolt
A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hell ...
'' by Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
contains the song "Nosferatu (The Vampire's Waltz)" based on the film.
* The 2022 ''Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'' spin-off straight-to-DVD '' P.R.O.B.E. Case Files: Vol 2'' featured short film ''Living Fiction'', using footage of and tributing ''Nosferatu'', previously released as a video download on BBV Productions
BBV Productions is a UK-based video and audio production company founded in 1991, specialising in science fiction drama. The company has expanded to include publishing of novels and scripts associated with its productions.
Origin
Company co-foun ...
website in 2021.
* The 2022 album We Are the Apocalypse
''We Are the Apocalypse'' is the seventh studio album by Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral. The album was released through Century Media Records on 18 March 2022. The album is the first to feature the band's new drummer, Jalomaah, and bass p ...
by Swedish black metal
Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...
band Dark Funeral
Dark Funeral is a Swedish black metal band from Stockholm, founded by guitarists Blackmoon and Lord Ahriman in 1993. They emerged during the second wave of black metal.
Their lyrical themes have traditionally pertained to Satanism and anti-Chr ...
contains the song ''Nosferatu'' which is a nod to the film.
See also
* List of German films of 1919–1932
This is a list of the most notable films produced in Germany of the Weimar Republic era from 1919 until 1932, in year order. This period, between the end of World War I and the advent of the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, is considered an early rena ...
* Gothic film
A Gothic film is a film that is based on Gothic fiction or contains Gothic elements. Since various definite film genres—including science fiction, film noir, thriller, and comedy—have used Gothic elements, the Gothic film is challenging to defi ...
* Vampire films
Vampire films have been a staple in world cinema since the era of silent films, so much so that the depiction of vampires in popular culture is strongly based upon their depiction in films throughout the years. The most popular cinematic adaptati ...
References
Bibliography
* (1921-1922 reports and reviews)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
*
''Nosferatu'': History and Home Video Guide
at Brenton Film
*
{{Authority control
1922 films
1922 horror films
Articles containing video clips
Dracula films
German black-and-white films
German Expressionist films
German horror films
German silent feature films
German vampire films
Gothic horror films
Films adapted into operas
Films directed by F. W. Murnau
Films based on horror novels
Films of the Weimar Republic
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films set in 1838
Films set in castles
Films set in Europe
Films set in Germany
Films set in Transylvania
Films set on ships
Films shot at Johannisthal Studios
Films shot in Slovakia
Unofficial film adaptations
Silent adventure films
Silent horror films
1920s German films
1920s German-language films