Nosferatu
HORROR-THON 2025 • BAD BLOOD
7/10
DIRECTOR: F.W. Murnau
STARRING: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenhim
RELEASED: 1922
RUNTIME: 1 hr, 35 minutes
WATCH ON: Prime Video, Shudder, AMC+, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Plex, YouTube TV, Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango at Home
SCARE LEVEL: Medium
RATS: Too many
This is the vampire movie that was supposed to be destroyed. It was an unauthorized version of Dracula; Bram Stoker’s widow sued, and a court ordered every print burned. Some copies survived, and here we are a hundred years later.
Hutter is a young real estate clerk in Germany with a happy marriage and a big new assignment. A wealthy count in the Carpathian mountains wants to buy a house in town, right across from Hutter’s. He travels out to close the deal.
Count Orlok turns out to be a bald, pale, rat-toothed, and very interested in a photo of Hutter’s wife, Ellen. Hutter wakes up with bite marks. Orlok heads for town by ship, along with a cargo of coffins and rats. When the ship arrives, the plague comes with it, and Ellen realizes she might be the only one who can stop him.
MY HUMBLE OPINION
I originally watched this in one of my film classes back in college, and decided to revisit it. Max Schreck as Orlok is still the scariest vampire ever put on screen. There’s no cape and no seduction, just long fingers, a hunched back, and a stare.
That shadow on the stairs is the image everyone remembers, and it earns it. A lot of the horror is just a shape on a wall.
It belongs right next to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari from my 2021 Horror-Thon. Same German silent era, same feeling that the whole world is slightly off.
The real horror is that Hutter sold Orlok the house across the street! Always vet the buyer.
FUN FACT FOR YOUR NEXT DINNER PARTY
All known prints and negatives were destroyed under the terms of a lawsuit settlement with Bram Stoker’s widow. The film only exists now through resurfaced second-generation reels from other countries.