It's only by sheer luck that we even know Nosferatu exists as a film today, let alone be able to actually watch it. When F. W. Murnau's film was released in 1922, Bram Stoker's heirs filed a lawsuit against the film's creators, citing that the film infringed on copyright laws by adapting Stoker's Dracula novel without his family's consent. Claiming that Nosferatu only managed to escape detection beforehand due to changing the names of important characters (i.e. Count Dracula became Count Orlok), a court ruled that all copies of the film should be destroyed. Harsh but true. Fortunately, a single print of the film survived, allowing audiences the opportunity to watch Max Shreck's extremely unsettling vampire performance. This vampire incarnation had no superhuman strength, powers of flight or transformation to scare its audiences, what it did have was extremely iconic imagery. Like the picture above adorning this entry, it was the moments in the film when you could only see a silhouette, shadow or glimpse of the monster that were truly unsettling. The most famous scene of the Nosferatu quietly skulking up the stairs still evokes the feeling of uneasiness when watched or even just looked at. Shadow Of The Vampire mimicked this flattery by suggesting that Nosferatu was so convincing and realistic that there was no actor playing the monster but that it was the real deal.
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
