Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) was once ordered destroyed by court decree — Bram Stoker’s widow sued Prana Film for adapting Dracula without permission, and a court ordered every print gone. The film survived anyway. On Wednesday, October 28, The Port Theatre closes its Shock Theatre horror series with the one that started it all.
About the Show
The Shock Theatre lineup ran five consecutive nights: The Wolfman (1941) and An American Werewolf in London (1981) on October 24, Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) on October 25, Robot Monster (1953) on October 26, Dracula (1931) on October 27. Nosferatu closes the week, and it earns the final night.
The 1922 German Expressionist film, subtitled A Symphony of Horror, holds the distinction of being the first adaptation of Stoker’s novel for the screen and the first true vampire film ever made. Murnau cast Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a character with no trace of the romanticized vampire that later cinema produced. Orlok arrives by sea with plague-carrying rats, imagery that echoed the devastation of trench warfare for a post-World War I German audience. The film channels that national spiritual anxiety through horror, which is part of why it has lasted.
Murnau shot on location across the Lübeck forests, the Tatra mountains, and Slovak fortresses, grounding the supernatural in actual geography. He built the dread through expressionist technique: elongated shadows, undercranking, stop-motion effects, geometric castle architecture. The subtitle earns itself — the film’s rhythmic intercutting of human drama with atmospheric imagery reflects Murnau’s musical sensibilities, and holds even without the original score, most of which was lost after the premiere.
The plot follows Stoker’s Dracula closely: Hutter, a naive real estate agent, travels to Count Orlok’s remote Transylvanian castle. Orlok glimpses a photograph of Hutter’s wife, Ellen, and becomes obsessed. Hutter escapes; Orlok pursues by sea. The whole back half of the film is that chase. A recent Robert Eggers adaptation brought the story to a new generation. The 1922 original has spent a century making the case on its own.
Venue & Logistics
The Port Theatre at 132 Montreal Road has been a Cornwall, Ontario landmark since 1941, now under the stewardship of Larry Sylvain. The 450-seat theater operates with a licensed bar and hosts cinema and live events year-round. All Shock Theatre screenings begin at 7:15 p.m. If you’re making the trip into the North Country for any night of this series, the $5.00 admission is one of the better deals in regional cinema this October.
Tickets
Admission is $5.00. Buy tickets