Why You Should Watch 'Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'

A classic of the horror genre, and a pioneer in film...

With the recent film Nosferatu, directed by Robert Eggers, having released just last year on Christmas Day, there is a whole slew of new fans for this classic movie monster, yet most of these new fans have never seen the original film that Eggers remade.

This is why you should watch the 1922 classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror:

Directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the title character, this silent film has terrified generations of movie watchers, but just because a film is a classic or influential does not mean it is actually any good. I stand by that train of thought for film, comics, video games, and books, yet the 1922 Nosferatu is truly a film that stands up to the test of time, and in this recommendation I will try to remain as spoiler free as possible.

Following Thomas Hutter, this film creates the suspense of Count Orlok, also known as Nosferatu, for much of the first act, with stories being told and Hutter repeatedly having the feeling of being watched. And when we finally see Count Orlok, he does not disappoint, with impressive make-up both for the time and even now. But where Nosferatu truly shines is in its lighting and in its adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Murnau’s mastery over light and shadow is an absolute wonder, with some of the best scenes including Nosferatu coming up the stairs which is often used for movie posters, and when Nosferatu first appears in the doorway of Hutter, my personal favorite shot in the film, with the vampire’s shadow slowly encompassing his fearful victim. This usage continues as Nosferatu boards a vessel to London, and begins to stalk Ellen Hutter. I will not reveal more, but I will say this: the way shadow is used to represent danger, fear, and create suspense has been used by many directors and films since.

Think Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story when the Sharks and the Jets are soon to come to blows, or Casablanca wherein the shadows represent whenever a character is in darkness. Think Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark or Tim Burton’s Batman, where the villains are shrouded before being revealed, showing their danger symbolically before showing it in actuality. See also Orson Welles’ introduction in The Third Man. Each of these films, either directly or indirectly, were inspired by this original German horror. However, even if you are not a fan of film history, as said before this film can stand on its own without the legacy it has left, and that is because even with all of these films I have listed, Nosferatu still remains the master of light and shadow, compared even to the 2024 remake.

But more than this filming technique which assisted greatly in creating an iconic and terrifying monster, the characters, plot, and pacing are all also superb in this film. Those all, however, come from what inspired this film: Bram Stoker’s Dracula. When F. W. Murnau originally began work on Nosferatu, it was meant to be a straight adaptation of the famed 1897 novel that has been the greatest inspiration for vampires ever since its release, and yet the filmmakers were unable to secure the rights to Dracula, leading to the creation of a “new” character, Count Orlok.

From Nosferatu being able to turn into a wolf, to him acting as his own carriage driver and servant, the deaths of the crew of merchant vessel, the hunting after Ellen Hutter, and the torment of Thomas Hutter, this film is arguably the most accurate adaptation of Bram Stoker’s work ever created, certainly the most accurate to the original novel’s tone and pacing, leaving the horror of the titular vampire to be slowly revealed, building the terror he creates with precision, the intensified fear when the vampire reaches what was meant to be the safe haven of the main character, and eventually ending in a bombastic way, which of course the endings to Nosferatu and Dracula are vastly different. In fact, it is when Hutter returns to London that the greatest changes to the novel are made, adding mainstays to vampire lore, but a change acted upon due to the lack of Dracula’s rights.

While Universal Studios’ Dracula played by Bella Lugosi and Francis Ford Coppola’s interpretation played by Gary Oldman are both iconic and should be praised in their own right, if you were or are seeking as accurate a retelling of Bram Stoker’s tale as possible, F. W. Murnau has yet to be beaten. Not even Christopher Lee’s iconic performance better represents the true Dracula. Yes, replace Harker with Hutter, Doctor van Helsing with Professor Bulwer, and so on and so on, yet the respect the filmmakers had for the original story is prevalent throughout, and no one who has seen the film could argue that it was a soulless knock off of Dracula. Though I would not dare to say it is original, I will never allow anyone to say it is soulless, as for a film about an undead creature of the night, Nosferatu has a greater heart than most vampiric stories.

If I have yet to convince you to watch this film, then let me leave you with these final words: if you refuse to give Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror a chance, then you are only depriving yourself of something truly great.