Nosferatu Background

Nosferatu wasn't just a good film, the background behind the movie is also quite chilling.
Nosferatu is a Romanian word that means Vampire.

In 1916 Albin Grau got the idea to shoot a Vampire based film while serving for Serbia during World War 1.  He would become the co-founder of Prana Film with Enrico Dieckmann to bring Grau's vision to light they hired screen writer Henrik Galeen and director F.W. Murnau.  There would be a couple things that blocked Grau's vision of creating a Vampire based film.  Grau wanted to film a movie based on Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.  Bram Stoker chose not to sign over the rights to Albin so Albin Grau had to make a couple changes.  Grau changed the names of the movie to Nosferatu instead of using Dracula and the name of the main character was changed to Count Orlok.  Those changes however were not enough and the widow of Bram Stoker would file a copyright infringement claim and the film was ordered to be destroyed along with the prints of the movie and Grau was forced to file for bankruptcy which would shut down Prana Film.  Nosferatu would be the only film from Prana Film.

Luckily, the film had already made its way to the United States before this copyright claim was placed.  The United States had rights for Dracula to be in the public domain in the United States and multiple copies of Nosferatu would be made which helped bring this movie back from the dead.

Because of an extremely low budget only one camera was used to film the entire movie.  Since there was only one camera that was used only one negative.

The symphony for Nosferatu was written by Hans Erdmann and was performed by an orchestra during the production.  Most of the score for the orchestra was lost so the only original performance is the performance that was heard in the movie.

Here's a list of the cast for Nosferatu:
Max Schreck as Count Orlok
Gustav von Wangenheim as Thomas Hutter
Greta Schröder as Ellen Hutter
Alexander Granach as Knock
Georg H. Schnell as Shipowner Harding
Ruth Landshoff as Annie
John Gottowt as Professor Bulwer
Gustav Botz as Professor Sievers
Max Nemetz as The Captain of The Empusa
Wolfgang Heinz as First Mate of The Empusa
Hardy von Francois as mental hospital doctor
Albert Venohr as sailor two
Eric van Viele as sailor two
Guido Herzfeld as innkeeper
Karl Etlinger as student with Bulwer
Fanny Schreck as hospital nurse

Nosferatu was filmed in 4 locations.  The silent film was filmed at the Orava Castle, the Salzspeicher, After Hafen, and Marienkirche.  The Orava Castle is located in  Oravský Podzámok, Slovakia, the Salzspeicher is located in Lubeck, Germany, After Hafen is located in Wismar, Germany, and Marienkirche is the St. Mary's Church in Berlin, Germany. 

Top Five Songs about Nosferatu

Songs About Nosferatu That I Liked

When I was searching for a simple symphony song that was played throughout the movie Nosferatu I came across hundreds of songs that had to do with Nosferatu.  For a movie that was royalty sued for copyright infringements and being made in 1922 this German silent symphony horror film sure was popular.  Now, I ended shortening my list of songs that I liked that had to do with the story line of Nosferatu and here's my list:
5. The symphony by a.P.A.t.T.
Now, I'm no big fan of symphonies but this symphony is practically part of the history of Vampires so how could this not be on the list?  To leave out the symphony of what was not only the first Vampire film but also among the list of better Vampire films to be made would be a shame.  Without this symphony we wouldn't have this movie.

4. Nosferatu by Blue Oyster Cult
This song came out in 1977 and became a hit.  The line only a woman can break his spell or pure in heart, who will offer herself is what makes this a wonderful love song about the film.

3. Nosferatu by Twiztid
This song is the perfect song to listen to if you haven't seen this film.  The group explains the vampire perfectly.

2. Teenage Nosferatu Pussy by Rob Zombie
His lyrics in this song flow with cohesion and meaning of desire and primitive drive

1. Nosferatu by Bloodbound
I'm going to be honest I never really heard of Bloodbound before I started to look up songs about Nosferatu and boy was I glad I came across this song. You have a song that's not only about this vampire, but you also have a song that makes you want to rock for hours.

Nosferatu Playlist

Welcome to Vampire Movie Reviews

Here at Vampire Movie Reviews I'll be reviewing different movies with Vampires and I'll also be reviewing Vampire songs.  I'll be uploading videos along with pictures and articles every week about different movies.  If you're a fan of Vampires, horror movies, movies about Vampires, or all three you'll love this blog.