Nosferatu

by Codi Coslet

F. W. Murnau’s 1922 expressionist film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens) was one of the first noted horror films. Nosferatu’s impact on the film industry is evident even today, especially given the many variations of vampire books, movies, and television shows. Starring Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, and Greta Schröder, Nosferatu is an eerie and iconic film from the German 1920’s which still resonates today.

Plot Summary

Nosferatu'''s main characters, borrowed quite explicitly from Bram Stoker's Dracula, are Thomas Hutter, Hutter’s wife Ellen, and Count (Graf) Orlok in the German version. (There are several variations on these names depending on the translation.) Hutter, a real estate agent in Wisborg, Germany, is assigned to sell the house directly across from his own, but must travel to Transylvania to meet the buyer, Count Orlok. Knock, Hutter's rather sinister boss, tells Hutter that the trip will be worth his while even if he must sacrifice some blood or pain (a clear foreshadowing of future events). Though Hutter is excited about the opportunity, his wife, Ellen, expresses unease about his being gone for so long.
Hutter departs after making sure that Ellen is safe with their friend Harding and his sister.

On his way to Count Orlok’s castle, Hutter stops at an inn for dinner.  He soon says the Count’s name aloud; hearing the dreaded Count Orlok mentioned by name causes every person in the inn to stop what they are doing and stare at Hutter in horror. They convince Hutter not to travel further until morning, claiming that evil becomes powerful during the night hours. On the nightstand in the room he stays in, Hutter finds an old book called “Book of the Vampire"; Hutter is unconcerned, laughs at the book, and throws it on the ground. The following morning, he resumes his journey by coach. However, once the sun begins to set, the coachman refuses to go any further and leaves Hutter to continue his journey on his own. As soon as he crosses a bridge, Hutter is greeted by a dark carriage which takes him to Count Orlok’s castle. The door to the castle opens and closes by itself, revealing Count Orlok waiting for Hutter.

Later that night at dinner, Hutter cuts his thumb with a knife. Orlok immediately becomes entranced by the droplets of blood, attempting to suck the wound, while Hutter pulls away in horror. The next morning, Hutter wakes to find two bite marks on his neck. He finally gets the Count to sign the papers for the house after Count Orlok notices a locket with a picture of Ellen (who, according to Orlok, has a lovely neck). That night, Orlok enters Hutter’s room, revealing to him that he is in fact the Nosferatu described in the book at the inn. Hutter falls unconscious while Ellen enters a trance-like state. The next day Hutter explores the castle and finds Orlok in his coffin. During the night, Hutter sees Orlok loading coffins onto a wagon; Hutter tries to escape by jumping out of his window, but is knocked unconscious and wakes in a hospital. From there, he begins his journey back to Wisborg.

Orlok travels to Wisborg as well, though he travels by ship in a coffin. The crew all begin to die after a coffin is opened and rats are found. One man realizes that Orlok is the cause of the deaths; he tries to kill Orlok, but fails and jumps into the sea. After all of the crew has died, Orlok takes over and steers the ship to Wisborg, where he takes his coffin to his newly purchased home. The town believes that the ship crew died of the plague, and thus begins to panic. Out of fear, the townspeople chase after Knock who is in a frenzy to get to his master, Count Orlok. Ellen, after reading the book Hutter found in the inn, realizes that she is the town’s only hope of being rid of the monster. Ellen opens her window, inviting Orlok into her room and gives herself to him. She sacrifices herself and distracts Orlok until dawn when he is destroyed.

Impact and Reception

Expressionist filmmakers often use the metaphysical to draw upon the audience’s emotions. Murnau was a master of this technique: “The metaphysical style is most vividly rendered by Murnau's obsessive use of point-of-view shots, which force a viewer to follow the characters into the abyss of their terrifying visions.”[1] However, Murnau did not simply use previously existing movie-making techniques: “Expressionist cinema is a cinema of objects and mists and obtrusive sets, of space obsessively filled. Murnau’s cinema, on the other hand, is primarily a cinema of empty space.”[2] The eeriness of space and shadows in Nosferatu is overwhelming. Murnau’s usage of shadows throughout the film continues to be replicated in cinema today. The camera angles and shadows utilized in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror classic Psycho, for example, are reminiscent of Murnau’s techniques. Hitchcock’s scene in which the killer’s outline and knife are shown as shadows directly recalls the scene in which Orlok’s shadow approaches the unconscious body of Hutter.

An overarching theme of Nosferatu's work is the menacing and supernatural figure of death, which Count Orlok represents. The quiet town of Wisborg appears to be a more or less typical small German town until the arrival of Count Orlok. Orlok brings death and disorder, very much like what World War I brought to Europe. Arguably one of the most disturbing facets of the film is the way in which Murnau juxtaposes the supernatural and the natural. Because of the strong supernatural forces in the film and the even stronger counteracting natural forces, “Nosferatu... is unimaginable except in natural settings.” (Perez Guillermo, 150). Given the fact that the film was produced in 1922, it is possible to take all of the imagery and instances of death within Nosferatu and place them within the context of post-World War I life. During World War I, unnatural death became a common occurrence, and Nosferatu ''showcases the impact this fact left on modern German culture.

The atrocities of World War I deeply affected the idea of death. Orlok, as the representation of death, can only be awake during the night. Evans Lansing Smith explains that when Hutter goes to meet Orlok, he “arrives just before midnight, thus linking the German Romantic affiliation between night, death, sex, and dream to the symbolism of the underworld.”[3]  The connections between vampires, night, death, sex, and the underworld are used in the vampire genre to this day. Vampires are often characterized as sensual and dark, only awake at night and lusting for blood. Though Orlok is not particularly sensual, he is lured by a beautiful woman to his death.

  1. ↑Richard Brody, “Silents Are Golden,” New Yorker 83.36 (2007): 30. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Dec. 2011.
  2. ↑Gilberto Perez Guillermo, “Shadow and Substance: F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu,” Sight and Sound 36.3 (1967: Summer): 151.
  3. ↑Evans Lansing Smith, “Framing the Underworld: Threshold Imagery in Murnau, Cocteau, and Bergman,” Literature Film Quarterly 24.3 (1996): 242. Academic Search Premier. Web. 15. Nov. 2011.

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