Huh. Turns out that “Nosferatu” premiered 100 years ago yesterday. It remains one of the best – certainly one of the creepiest – vampire movies. It is responsible for some of the common tropes of vampires; prior to this movie, sunlight did not kill vampires, only weakened them. After this movie, vampire go POOF when sunlight hits them.
Max Schrecks portrayal of Count Orloc (Dracula) is damned otherworldly, and to my mind was always one of the more accurate to the Bram Stoker novel. Bela Lugosi did a fine enough job turning vampires into “romantic” figures, but up through Stoker and Nosferatu, vampires were undead beasts of filth and corruption, fundamentally different sorts of things to what vampires are now generally portrayed as. There was nothing redeemable or respectable or admirable or desirable about vampires, and “Nosferatu” knocked it out of the park getting that right.
It’s a shame that the 2000 film “Shadow of the Vampire” has not been released on Blu Ray, though it’s available on DVD. It’s a fictionalization of the making of “Nosferatu” starring John Malkovich as director F.W. Murnau and Willem Freakin’ Dafoe as Max Schreck. It is substantially awesome.