Count Orlok

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Count Orlok is the vampiric antagonist of the silent film Nosferatu and its remake Nosferatu Phantom of the Night, and is one of the most iconic villains of horror - rivalling Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman in this regard, he is also notable for being more faithful in many ways to the traditional representation of vampires in folklore, being a hideous demonic creature rather than an attractive gentleman.

Nosferatu was made before the advent of sound in cinema and as such Count Orlok didn't speak - though he made his presence known by his ghoulish body language and dramatic gestures - in a famous scene his terrible shadow is seen on the wall of a home as he climbs the stairs, hunched and deformed.

Also Count Orlok is responsible for the myth that vampires turn to dust if caught in direct sunlight - which arguably makes him one of the greatest influences in modern vampire lore.

Story

In the film Count Orlok poses as a nobleman from the Carpathian Mountains who moves to the (fictional) city of Wisborg in Germany - he brings death with him as a result of his vampiric nature. He lives in a ruined castle high in the mountains and local townsfolk refuse to go anywhere near this castle, save for the film's protagonist, the young Thomas Hutter, the assistant of a Wisborg estate agent, who travels to his castle to show properties for sale in Wisborg.

The famous staircase scene.

Orlok conceals himself in one of his soil-filled coffins and is loaded onto a ship bound for Wisborg. On board the ship, he kills every crew member until only the captain and his first mate remain. Later when the first mate goes to the cargo hold to investigate, Count Orlok rises from his coffin, terrifying the first mate who jumps overboard in fear. The captain ties himself to the wheel of the ship when Count Orlok creeps up on him and kills him.

Upon his arrival in Wisborg, he spreads disease and plague, forcing the local authorities to declare a quarantine and provoking hysteria amongst the citizens.

A

Another iconic scene, in which Nosferatu approaches a doorway.

t the end of the film, Orlok attempts to attack Hutter's young wife Ellen in her room, but is caught unaware by the rays of the rising sun, which burn him away in a cloud of smoke.

Inspiration

Count Orlok was an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker's famous Count Dracula - however due to the studio being unable to obtain rights to Dracula they opted for making their own character, in the end the two vampires would become very different beings as Dracula would become known for his gentlemanly charm and cunning while Count Orlok would come to embody the much more demonic, diseased side of vampire lore (ironically Count Orlok is actually much more faithful to true vampire mythology than Dracula - save for the weakness to sunlight, which was added to the film and later became a staple of vampire fiction).

Characters Inspired By Count Orlok

Count Orlok has inspired an entire subspecies of vampire known as Nosferatus (in honor of the film) - these beings tend to be more monstrous looking and vicious than the more humanlike vampires seen in other fiction: they are also normally more demonic than normal vampires too, midway between a vampire and a mutant.

• The Master (This Buffy villain was a prime example of a Nosferatu in popular culture and was obviously inspired by Count Orlok.)
• Olrox (Count Orlok's Castlevania counterpart, who looks the same and has the same name (albeit mistakenly romanized) and shares it's origninal counterpart's similarities with Dracula.)
• Freddy Krueger (Although it seems strange at first the slasher icon Freddy Krueger was inspired by Count Orlok - most likely the talon-like hands.)

Trivia

Nosferatu as seen in SpongeBob. Here, he appears more friendly.

* Count Orlok appeared on the episode "Graveyard Shift" episode of the television series Spongebob Squarepants trying to scare them by flicking the light switch on and off, being referenced as "Nosferatu."

• Count Orlok is argueably also the first vampiric image in film, preceding even that of Dracula.