NOSFERATU : A SYMPHONY OF HORROR

Freely inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel ‘Dracula’ (1897), Murnau’s ‘Nosferatu’ changed names and locations due to problems with the novel’s rights: after meeting real estate agent Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Waggensheim), the vampire Count Orlok (Maw Schreck), locked in his sarcophagus, is transported from his castle in the Carpathians on a ship to the port of Bremen in 1838, where the plague is spreading. Only the voluntary sacrifice of Hutter’s young fiancée will defeat the vampire, who is surprised by the light of dawn. The most important vampire film of all time renounces the manipulation of space, typical of expressionism, choosing the concreteness of natural scenery, using typically cinematic’s ways and a dense apparatus of metaphorical and symbolic references. The most chilling moments of the film are dedicated to the vampire, the shots that have consigned him to the history of the imaginary and the unconscious: the eye barred between the planks of the violated sepulchre, the spectral silhouette that rises rigidly from the coffin, the profile that stands out terrifyingly. A true masterpiece, it anticipated Dreyer’s ‘Vamyr’ and all the vampiric genre films that followed. The film was also remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog, with Klaus Kinski as Nosferatu.