13 Nights of Shocktober: Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 1: Silent Night,
“Does this word not sound like the midnight call of the Bird of Death?”

Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror (1922)

It is not an exaggeration at all to state that German director F.W. Murnau’s silent film Nosferatu is one of the most influential horror films of all time. It is one of the first vampire films and one of the first film adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Murnau could not get permission from Bram Stoker’s widow to adapt the novel for the screen so he changed some plot points and the names of the characters. Count Dracula became Count Orlok and the setting became Wisborg instead of England. Despite the changes, the plot of the film will be instantly recognizable to anyone that’s read the novel or seen any movie version of Dracula. Nosferatu along with Murnau’s 1928 drama Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans cement his status as one of the early master filmmakers. 

Some of the most iconic images of horror cinema and the silent era are found in this film. If you’ve never seen Nosferatu, or even if you don’t watch horror films, you would recognize scenes or images of Max Schreck as the monstrous vampire, Count Orlok. This vampiric count is unlike any other portrayal of Dracula that has ever been put on screen. This vampire is not a seducer, lover, tragic figure, or antihero. Orlok is the vampire as Monster. He is hideous and frightening in appearance. There is no allure to this vampire. He is simply an unstoppable force of evil. Orlok is oddly thin, stiff, pale and ghostly white, with features only resembling those of a human. He wears an overcoat, not a cape, buttoned tight, and moves slowly. His fluid movements resemble those of a snake. There are too many memorable shots of Orlok to list but I’m sure you’d recognize the shot of his monstrous silhouette moving up a flight of stairs with his thin arm outstretched, knifelike fingers leading the way. In another shot Orlok rises stiff as a board out of his coffin. Every time we see him is eerie and chilling. Orlok is the most frightening vampire I’ve seen on film.

F.W. Murnau wanted Nosferatu shot outside of the studio in real, existing locations because he thought the film would be more frightening if it took place in the real, recognizable world. However, there are traces of German Expressionism, a visual style that rejected realism and sought to portray the world in a skewed and dreamlike way, in Nosferatu's eerie imagery and atmosphere. The night scenes are tinged in blue, which was a common way for silent movies to signify a night scene, but it also adds to the overall eerie tone of movie. The font of the intertitles is skewed slightly so even these add to the atmosphere of the film. The stop motion effects look dated but still effective. This movie uses atmosphere and eerie, unearthly imagery to engage and frighten the viewer. The scene of Orlok loading up his carriage with coffins, then getting in one of the coffins, followed by the lid moving on its own to seal him in, and then the carriage taking off on its own is genuinely eerie and creepy to watch. The film is sped up so that Orlok moves with an inhuman speed. There is no violence or gore in this movie, but there are plenty of spooky and creepy scenes. If you are skittish of horror movies but still want to watch something spooky this Shocktober, Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror is a great film to watch once the sun goes down.