- Director: F.W. Murnau
- Writers: Henrik Galeen, Bram Stoker
- Stars: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes
Synopsis
Act 1: 1838
Nosferatu
“Does not this word sound like the call of the death bird at midnight? Take car you never utter is, lest life’ pictures fade into pale shadows, and ghostly dreams rise from your heart and feed on your blood.”
A man named Hutter and his wife Ellen are at home doing normal things. Later, he gos to work, and his boss, Mr. Knock, wants to send him to Transylvania to meet Count Orlok, who wants to buy a house locally. So Sutter is soon off “to the land of ghosts.”
He arrives in the town in the Carpathian Mountains and the men at the inn warn him not to go to Orlok’s castle since there’s a werewolf roaming the forest. He reads a booklet in his room that explains all about vampires; apparently, the Gideons used to be a lot more interesting. The next morning, they drive until nearly sunset, but the driver refuses to continue and leaves Sutter in the road not too far from the castle. Orlok comes to pick Sutter up in a carriage.
Act 2
Sutter eats and cuts himself, and Orlok gives him a scare. They talk all night, and when morning comes, Orlok says he has to go sleep. Sutter wakes up to find he has marks on his neck that looks like a bite; he blames the big mosquitoes.
That night, Orlok sees a locket with Ellen’s picture in it. “Your wife has a lovely neck,” he says. He buys the house right across the street from theirs. Meanwhile, at home, Ellen starts behaving strangely at night. She has some kind of a mental link with Orlok, as he can see her now.
Sutter explores by day, and he finds Orlok sleeping in a coffin. Later, he sees Orlok piling boxes of dirt on the back of a wagon. We next see Orlok heading down the river on a raft with his six boxes of earth.
Act 3
Professor Bulwer explains to Sutter that Orlok had been seen loading coffins on to a ship; he’s going somewhere. Bulwer then gives a demonstration of carnivorous plants. Bulwer compares the plant to a vampire. Meanwhile, back in civilization, Mr. Knock has gone “full Renfield” and landed himself in the asylum, where he eats flies. A plague breaks out in town, and the only symptom is marks on the neck. Also, Ellen gets Hutter’s messages, and she’s worried about the bite marks, knowing those aren’t from mosquitoes.
Meanwhile, Sutter starts to recover and hops aboard the fastest ship he can find. We see what happens to the crew aboard Orlok’s ship.
Act 4
Orlok’s ship arrives in town, and he wastes no time in getting his coffins unloaded in his new home. Sutter also returns home about the same time. There’s an investigation into what happened aboard the ship; why is the whole crew dead? Maybe it was the rats carrying plague? The city a lockdown into effect and orders everyone to stay inside.
Act 5
The fear of the plague overtakes the town, and eventually, Mr. Knock is blamed. He strangled the guard at the asylum, so people think he is the vampire. They find Knock sitting on a rooftop, and they all throw rocks at him. Eventually, they catch him and put him back in his cell. That night, Orlok calls for Ellen to come to him, and she passes out. Orlok sneaks in and bites Ellen, but then he hears the cock crowing. Orlok looks out the window as the sun rises, killing him.
Ellen wakes up, and she’s fine now. Nope; she keels over dead. Everyone is sad.
Commentary
It doesn’t rush the story, but it also doesn’t feel overly long. It’s essentially an adaptation of “Dracula” without the licensing rights. Actually, Bram Stoker’s estate had nothing to do with this, and after they sued, every available print of Nosferatu was destroyed. If it weren’t for an unauthorized copy some fan kept, this would be a lost film. The bit at the end with sunlight killing vampires came from this film; it was added so that it wouldn’t seem too similar to the Dracula book, although it was really obviously the same story.
The “werewolf” looks an awfully lot like a hyena, which may have been unusual enough in the early 1900s to be considered scary. The same could be said for Bulwer’s Venus flytraps. A flesh-eating plant? How unique! Almost all the “night” footage was filmed in the daytime with a blue filter; this is pretty obvious, but they probably had no way to actually film in the dark at this time.
No one actually killed Orlok; he just died from his own incompetence. Orlok needed a wristwatch. You’d think after centuries of being a vampire that he wouldn’t get so distracted that he’d forget the sun was about to come up. Must’ve been the jet lag from his trip.