In this eternal return in which the Hollywood industry is installed, it is time to update the primal vampire, the first bloodsucker in the history of cinema, the immortalthe 'Nosferatu' of F.W. Murnaufrom 1922. David Eggersthe renowned director of 'The Witch', is in charge of 'tuning' a story that at the time was nothing more than a barely concealed reinterpretation of the 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker in order to save copyright. But almost as fascinating as what was narrated in that fundamental work of silent cinema was what happened behind the cameras, since legend has it that its protagonist, the German actor Max Schreck, was really a vampire.
'Nosferatu': Behind the black legend of the most terrifying vampire in cinema
One of the main differences between the fictional Dracula and the one Murnau created was the appearance of his creature, renamed Count Orlok. The aristocratic and refined bearing of Stoker's vampire was blurred in this hairless version, deformed like a revived corpse and with repulsive animalistic features. So disturbing was the characterization of the actor who brought him to life that rumors spread like wildfire during filming.
The German interpreter used makeup and the sharp prosthetic fangs throughout the filmingwhich made the rest of the cast uncomfortable. Furthermore, like any method actor worth his salt, Schreck did not allow himself to get out of character at any time. On the recording set she behaved like a spectral apparition that always appeared from the shadows and that never ate or interacted with the other colleagues.
Schreck demanded that addressed him as Count Orlok and when on one occasion Murnau called him by his real name he even came close to biting him. At another time during filming captured a black cat and threatened to suck his bloodcausing panic among the rest of the actors and production team, who avoided being alone with him at all times.
Murnau himself must have been so fascinated by the extravagant behavior of the secretive actor that he decided to play along and spread the idea that I paid him in liters of blood. That unleashed the imagination of the entire team, who invented all kinds of 'hoaxes'. Since the director would have paid him a juicy extra so that in the last scene bit the main actress on the neck until actually Schreck had never existed and it was only the pseudonym of the renowned actor Alfred Abel.
After the premiere, the producers continued to raise the possibility that the actor was a vampire. To this day there is still an aura of mystery and terror around Schreck (a surname that means 'fear' in German), also fueled by the lack of data about his life. In reality it was a obsessive theater actor who specialized in strange characters and who couldn't care less about fame. He himself had an introspective and solitary personality, which only gave more verisimilitude to the legend. He died of an acute myocardial infarction in 1936..
the movie 'Shadow of the Vampire' (2000) would bring this macabre story to the big screen, addressing the filming of Murnau's masterpiece. The characterization of Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck would earn him an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actor. Surely the reserved German performer never dreamed that he would have so much popularity posthumously. After all, like a good vampire, he has managed to cross oceans of time.
