Real estate agent Hutter is sent on a lucrative opportunity to the Carpathian mountains to sell some local property to the mysterious Count Orlok. Despite protests from the local villagers, Hutter presses on insisting on meeting Orlok's midnight carriage to take him to his castle. Soon, however, he will discover the true nature of his host, as the count makes his way back to the agent's home to claim his betrothed, and feed off of and kill anything in his path. Although it was an unauthorized and altered rendition of Bram Stoker's classic novel, F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" remains the definitive and most influential Dracula movie. Max Schrek's performance, which has taken on mythical proportions, remains one of the most eerie, as Murnau opted for a grotesque rather than debonair look. For the time in which it was shot, "Nosferatu" is also an excellent looking film, that flows surprisingly well for an early silent film. I wouldn't call this film scary (although Schreck's first appearance and the closing seduction sequence are pretty chilling), but are any of the Dracula movies really that terrifying. The Bram Stoker adaptations are more about style, and with this initial offering Muranau set the tone for everything that followed and crafted a monstrous creature that none could match.
