“Nosferatu” and the birth of the undead

ONE HUNDRED years ago, in March 1922, the first major film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” had its premiere in Berlin. Not that it was called “Dracula”. The film-makers hadn’t asked for permission to adapt the famous vampire novel of 1897, so they changed the characters’ names. Jonathan Harker, the estate agent who ventures to Transylvania, was renamed Thomas Hutter (and played by Gustav von Wangenheim). Harker’s fiancée, Mina, became Hutter’s wife Ellen (Greta Schröder). Count Dracula is Count Orlok (Max Schreck). And the film, directed by F.W. Murnau, luxuriated in the shiver-inducing title “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror”.

No one was fooled. Stoker’s dogged widow, Florence, sued the producers for copyright infringement, and the courts ordered all copies of the film and negatives to be destroyed. If it weren’t for a stray print that turned up in Paris, one of the masterpieces of Weimar cinema would have been lost for ever. (Today viewers can stream it on Shudder, a service dedicated to horror and thriller titles.)

A century on, “Nosferatu” is still revered for its experimental techniques—shooting on rugged locations as well as in a studio; using stop-motion animation and fast-motion footage—and for the glut of horror-movie conventions it established. The film includes villagers in a tavern who warn the hero not...