| Count Orlok | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Ethnicity | Romanian |
| Allies | Knock |
| Enemies | Thomas Hutter Professor Bulwer |
| First appearance | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens |
| Created by | F. W. Murnau |
| Portrayed by | Max Schreck Klaus Kinski |
Count Orlok (ger. "Graf Orlok") is a fictional character portrayed by Max Schreck in the silent movie Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. He was based on Bram Stoker's character, Count Dracula.
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In Nosferatu, Count Orlok is a vampire from Transylvania, and appears to be the haunt of many nightmarish creatures, including a werewolf (which was actually played by a hyena in the film). Orlok, known locally as the eponymous "Nosferatu", is a living corpse also known as "The Bird of Death", which feasts upon the blood of living humans.
Count Orlok dwells alone in a vast castle hidden among the rugged peaks in a lost corner of the Carpathian Mountains. The castle is swathed in shadows, and is badly neglected with a highly sinister feel to it. He is in league with the housing agent Knock, and wants to purchase a house in Wisborg. Local peasants live in terror of Orlok and never venture out after dark. Thomas Hutter scorns their fears as mere superstition, and ventures to the decrepit castle, however the coach-driver will not take him over the bridge. A black-swathed figure in a black coach (Orlok in disguise) drives him the rest of the way. He is greeted by Orlok, who claims as it is past midnight all his servants have gone to bed, and the two dine together and discuss Orlok's purchasing of a house in the fictional city of Wisborg, Germany. Hutter accidentally cuts his hand when slicing bread and Orlok is barely able to control himself from drinking from Hutter's wound. After Hutter collapses in a chair, Orlok feeds off of him, but this is not shown on screen: Hutter discovers two bites on his neck the next day but is unaware that his host is a vampire.
Hutter only realises the horrific truth later in his chambers after further reading from "The Book of the Vampires", and he discovers that he is trapped in the castle with the Nosferatu. Orlok advances upon Hutter, and Hutter's beloved wife, Ellen, senses through telepathy that her husband's life is in mortal danger; she screams for him and somehow Orlok is powerless to touch him. The next morning Hutter searches the castle, and discovers to his revulsion that Orlok is "sleeping" in the basement in a filthy coffin filled with earth. Hutter then witnesses Orlok loading a cart with several coffins filled with soil, one of which he then hides in and they are driven off to be loaded on to a ship headed for Wisborg. This soil is later revealed to be unhallowed earth from Orlok's grave; according to "The Book of the Vampires", all Nosferatu must sleep by day in the unholy earth from their graves to sustain their power.
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 the captain. His journey by sea spreads plague all over Europe.
Upon his arrival in Wisborg, Orlok infests the city with rats that sleep in his coffins, and countless people fall victim to the plague, forcing the local authorities to declare a quarantine and provoking hysteria among the citizens. Rather than come back as vampires, however, his victims simply die. Ellen and Hutter know the causes of the plague but fear they are powerless to stop the vampire. Ellen watches sullenly as lines of coffins are carried through the empty streets, and she realises Orlok must be stopped. Ellen learns from "The Book of the Vampires" that - rather than a stake through the heart - the Nosferatu can only be vanquished if a woman pure in heart willingly allows him to feed off her long enough to prevent him from seeking shelter from sunrise. Ellen coaxes Orlok to her room and lies in bed whilst he drinks from her neck. The sun rises, and Orlok is burned away in a cloud of smoke. Knock is able to sense Orlok is dead. Ellen dies soon after.
Orlok is the main model for a style of fictional vampire that is often nicknamed Nosferatu after the movie. Although based upon Count Dracula, Orlok possesses none of his predecessor's aristocratic charm or seductiveness. Utterly repulsive in appearance, he resembles something between a rat and a spider and is much more analogous to historical folklore accounts of vampires, which were described as walking corpses inhabited by a demonic presence. He sleeps in "unhallowed" soil infected with the Black Death, and brings plague and disease with him. He is followed everywhere by rats, traditional carriers of the feared Black Death. Orlok is famous for being the first vampire in history to be destroyed by sunlight. In earlier folklore, vampires were disgusted by but could survive sunlight. Also as opposed to traditional vampires, Orlok cannot be destroyed by a stake through the heart, but by a woman pure in heart who was willing to give her life to him. In terms of horror movie stereotypes, other vampires based upon this character are creatures bordering between a vampire and a mutant.