NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR

Over the years, Dracula has become synonymous with good-looking, tall, dark and suave figures with a cape. When the time came to make a film adaptation of Bram Stoker's book, German film maker F.W. Murnau conceived a vision of a monsterous, lurching, rodent-like menace that would strike fear in the hearts of many. The film was titled Nosferatu.

Jonathan Harker is a real estate agent who is perfectly happy living with his wife, Nina. They live out a benevolent, oblivious existence, until Harker's seemingly insane manager, Renfield, sends Harker to the Carpathian Mountains to close an estate deal with the mysterious Count Dracula.

Harker leaves his wife for the Carpathians. He encounters several superstitious people along the way. They warn him that they must not visit Count Dracula, that he must not travel at night, or enter the "land of the phantoms." He is given the Book of the Vampires that explains the legend of vampirism, and pushes on to Dracula's castle, and is greeted by the grotesque-looking Count Dracula.

Dracula, being a good host, feeds Harker his evening meal. Just has Harker is cutting himself a slice of bread, the clock chimes. Harker cuts himself, and Dracula is drawn to the single drop of blood dripping from Harker's thumb. He lunges for Harker, and chases him across the room in front of the fireplace. Harker sits down, wary of his odd host. Harker falls asleep, only to wake up the next morning with strange marks on his neck.

Harker closes the deal with Dracula for a house across the street from his own home. Dracula is aroused to the sight of Harker's wife, Nina, in his careless exposure of a locket. With each night, Harker feels the horrible presence of Dracula in his room. He is weakened by Dracula's nocturnal feedings. Lusting after the blood of Harker's wife, Dracula heads to Harker's home town in his coffin drawn by horses. Other coffins accompany the Count's casket, filled with soil and rats...

Harker, in a very frail state, makes his way towards home in an attempt to beat Dracula home. Dracula's caskets are loaded onto a large ship headed towards Wismar. As time goes on, all of the ship's crew are murdered and drained of their blood. As the ghost ship rolls into the harbor, fear strikes in the hearts of the locals. As the rats from Dracula's coffins disperse throughout the town, the captain's log is read by the town's leaders. The log reads that his crew had disappeared one by one, and that because of illnesses that befell the other members of the crew, he feared the plague.

During the night, Dracula unboards the ship, carrying his coffin to his new home. Harker returns in an ill state. Nina, curious as to what has caused Jonathan to become so weakened, reads the Book of the Vampires. She learns that in order to break the vampire's spell over her husband and those suffering illness as a result of Dracula, she must offer her blood freely to the Count, keeping her at her side until the sun rises.

Night descends, and Nina leaves her bedroom window open. Dracula waits eagerly at his window, clutching the rails of the window like a spider on his web. Dracula enters Nina's room, and sinks his fangs into her neck. She embraces his feeding, and the rooster makes his daily crow...

Much like a fairy tale, Nosferatu is a very simple, yet effective, story about the power of love. Nina's love for Jonathan conquered all, and undid the evil of Dracula's conquest.

The names of the characters in Nosferatu were changed to avoid problems with Stoker's estate. Jonathan Harker was renamed Hutter, Dracula became Count Orlock, Renfield was renamed Knock. Prints of the film vary in length, dialogue cards and even bear tinting during certain shots. Regardless of the version of the film the viewer sees, Nosferatu remains the first, and most inspirational, vampire film of all time.

Starring Gretta Schroeder † Max Schreck † Directed by FW Murnau

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