JP Nunez
When you think about the pantheon of great horror icons, who comes to mind? Freddy? Jason? Dracula? All great picks, but I’d like to add another name to that list, one that doesn’t always get the recognition he deserves: Count Orlok, the vampire in the 1922 silent classic Nosferatu. While the film is universally regarded as one of the most influential horror films of all time, I think a lot of us don’t realize just how important Count Orlok is to the history of the genre.
But, if you really dive into his legacy, you’ll begin to see that horror would be completely different without him, and that’s not an exaggeration. Even after 100 years, he’s still haunting filmmakers’ dreams and shaping their imaginations. So, let’s take a look at some of the different monsters Count Orlok has influenced over the past century and see just why he looms so large in the horror pantheon.
Direct Descendants
To begin, we have what we can call Orlok’s direct descendants. These are vampires who don’t simply happen to look and act like Count Orlok. Rather, their films require them to harken back to the OG count. There are only two we really need to talk about. First, there’s Count Dracula from the 1979 classic Nosferatu the Vampyre, Werner Herzog’s gorgeous remake of Nosferatu.
As most horror fans know, Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of the novel Dracula. To avoid legal troubles, the film changed all the characters’ names and some of the plot details (although they ran into problems anyway). But, by 1979 the Dracula story had passed into the public domain, so when Werner Herzog remade Nosferatu, he was able to change all the names back to what they were in the novel.
Most notably, Count Orlok became Count Dracula once again, though Herzog kept Orlok’s signature look. Sure, the two vampires aren’t exactly the same, but the numerous similarities are impossible to miss. For example, they both have bald heads, fangs that protrude from their mouths, long fingernails that would make Freddy Krueger jealous, and big, pointy ears.
Those unique features make this Dracula unlike any version of the character audiences had ever seen before. So, at first, it might make you scratch your head a bit. But, if you know your horror history, it’s not surprising at all. This isn’t any old Dracula movie. It’s a remake of Nosferatu specifically, so it makes perfect sense that its vampire would basically just be Count Orlok with a different name.
Next, let’s jump ahead about 20 years to the 2000 gem Shadow of the Vampire, a fictionalized account of the making of Nosferatu. In this movie, the actor who plays Count Orlok, Max Schreck, is actually a vampire in real life. Unsurprisingly, he looks almost exactly like his 1922 counterpart. He has pretty much all the characteristics that make Orlok stand out among his bloodsucking peers. Once again, given the story, we wouldn’t expect anything different.
Orlok Look-Alikes
Admittedly, that first category was pretty small, so let’s expand our scope a bit. In addition to vampires who need to look like Count Orlok, there’s also a whole host of others who resemble the count even though they could’ve looked completely different. Some of them stick more closely to the Orlok template than others, but they can all trace their visual styles back to the same source. In fact, this look has become so common that it’s often recognized as a standard trope in film, TV, and other media.
Now, there are a ton of examples we could look at from this category. For the sake of brevity, let’s focus on just one: Kurt Barlow from Tobe Hooper’s classic miniseries Salem’s Lot, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Interestingly, in the book, Barlow looks like a normal human being.
However, when the novel was adapted for the small screen, he changed and took on a much scarier, more demonic look. In other words, Hooper made him look like Count Orlok. Barlow has the bald head, the protruding fangs, the pointy ears, and the long, claw-like fingernails. So, once again, the influence is impossible to miss. He looks almost like he could be Orlok’s son (or at least a close relative!), and he’s not alone in that regard.
Once you begin to search for more examples of this classic look, you’ll begin to see them just about everywhere. For instance, the Reapers from Blade II, Petyr from What We Do in the Shadows, and the Master from Jakob’s Wife are all made from that same mold, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Count Orlok is a legit vampiric archetype, and if the past decade is any indication, his influence won’t be going away any time soon.
Every Vampire Ever
If we stopped there, we’d already have a strong case for putting Count Orlok in the pantheon of great horror monsters, but we’re just getting started. As iconic as his look has become over the last 100 years, that’s not even close to the count’s biggest influence on the horror genre. He hasn’t just influenced the vampires who look like him. He also played a key role in shaping the vampire mythology we all take for granted today.
Everybody knows vampires can’t go out during the day. Exposure to sunlight will kill them just as surely as a wooden stake through the heart. While there are a handful of exceptions, like the Twilight series and Dracula in Blade: Trinity, that’s pretty much Vampires 101…right? Well, not exactly.
That idea actually comes from Nosferatu. Count Orlok dies when he’s hit by the rays of the rising sun. However, before his iconic demise, sunlight wasn’t normally considered fatal to vampires. In fact, in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula can openly walk around during the day. Granted, sunlight weakens him a bit, but it definitely doesn’t kill him.
So, once again, we see Orlok’s legacy looming large even today. He hasn’t just influenced individual vampires who share some of his notable characteristics. He also helped shape the very fabric of the vampire subgenre. If that’s not enough to put him in the horror pantheon, I don’t know what is.
Other Monsters
But, we’re not done yet. Like the best horror characters, Count Orlok’s reach extends well beyond the bounds of his particular subgenre. He’s influenced countless monsters and villains in all kinds of movies. So, in this final section, we’re going to widen our scope one last time and look at the horror genre as a whole.
Again, we could spend pages and pages on this section alone, so let’s limit ourselves to just one example: the Lamia from Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell. While this demon doesn’t share any of Orlok’s physical characteristics, there is one thing he does that comes straight out of Nosferatu. At one point in Drag Me to Hell, Christine is being tormented by the Lamia in her house, and she locks herself in her room to get away from the creature. However, her plan doesn’t work. The demon walks up to her door, and its feet cast a shadow into the room. Initially, you think Christine is safe, but after a few seconds, the shadow unnaturally extends itself across the floor and tries to grab her.
It’s a pretty creepy scene, and if you know your horror history, the ties to Count Orlok are just about impossible to miss. There’s a famous scene in Nosferatu where Orlok walks up a staircase to bite one of his victims, but you don’t actually see him. Instead, you only see his shadow, and at first, it just looks like some cool cinematography. The focus on Orlok’s shadow instead of Orlok himself makes for a great shot. But, you soon learn that there’s more to this moment than just captivating camerawork.
When Count Orlok reaches his victim’s door, you still only see his shadow, though from this angle you should be seeing him as well. That you don’t implies something truly spine-tingling: in this scene, Orlok’s shadow is him, just like the Lamia’s shadow is it in Christine’s room. So, Sam Raimi didn’t come up with this idea on his own. He got it from Nosferatu, putting a bit of Count Orlok into his own demon.
As you can probably guess, the Lamia isn’t alone in that regard. Numerous other horror monsters owe similar debts to Count Orlok, including Freddy Krueger, Mr. Babadook, and the creatures in The Descent. Simply put, Orlok’s influence is everywhere. As I said before, without him the entire horror genre, not just the vampire subgenre, would be radically different from what it is today.
You can even see his influence outside of horror films like in the choreography for Michael Jackson’s Thriller or the way Mr Burns from the Simpson’s moves.