Count Orlok
| Count Orlok | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Gender | Male |
| Ethnicity | Romanian |
| Allies | Knock |
| Enemies |
Thomas Hutter Ellen Hutter Professor Bulwer |
| First appearance | Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens |
| Created by | F. W. Murnau |
| Portrayed by |
Max Schreck Klaus Kinski |
Count Orlok (German: Graf Orlok) is the main antagonist and title character portrayed by German actor Max Schreck (1879–1936) in the classic 1922 silent film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. He was based on Bram Stoker's character Count Dracula.
In Nosferatu, Count Orlok is a vampire from Transylvania, and is known as "The Bird of Death", who feasts upon the blood of living humans. He is believed to have been created by Belial, the lieutenant demon of Satan.
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 leading to it. 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 that 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 thumb 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 attributes them to mosquitoes, unaware at this point that his host is actually 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 onto a ship headed for Wisborg. This soil is later revealed to be unhallowed earth from Orlok's own grave; according to "The Book of the Vampires", Nosferatu must sleep by day in the unholy earth from their graves to sustain their power.
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