Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)

Realtor Hutter is sent to a remote castle, high in the mountains af Carpathia, to help a Count (Schreck) with some legal matters. Hutter lerns that the Counts name, Orloc, is feard in neighboring towns and when at the castle he is kept locked in a tower and awake at odd hours by his host. Orloc after seeing a picture of Hutters wife, Ellen, leaves the castle one night. Fearful for his wife Hutter escapes from his prison and travels back to Bremen, Germany. When back in Bremen he learns Orloc is already there an tells his wife of his ordeal. She discovers that she alone can bring him to his fate, so she lures the demonic creature to his demise, by the rays of the morning sun.

The movie is the first known movie made after the story Dracula, by Bram Stoker, though nams and places ar changed. The movie is a key work in Geraman expressionism where Murnau puts great detail in every shot and lets them linger for awhile so that the audience may enjoy. The disturbing force of the cinemaphotography, though great on own, ows much to the skills of Max Schreck who in his role seems possessed. Schreck was so convincing to his fellow actors that some avoided any contact with him. So stories have passed through time that Schreck was in fact a real vampire and just been following his instincts as such. The movie Shadow of a Vampire shows the making of Nosferatu from that point of view.

Many theories about the movie are also from a political point of view, such as looking at Count Orloc as a representation of Lenin and the "plague" carrying rats as the communist threat. This notion of the movie as German propaganda movie against communism is not shared by everyone.