Devil's Advocates: Nosferatu A Symphony of Horror
by Cristina Massaccesi
Cristina Massacessi, a professor at University College London, takes an academic look at the creation of F.W. Murnau's horror classic
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, starting with the Expressionist movement during the Weimar Republic, through the film's production, release, and the suits brought by Florence Stoker, widow of Bram Stoker, author of
Dracula,
Nosferatu's unauthorized source material. She then applies the Complex Discovery Plot template (from Noel Carroll's
The Philosophy of Horror) to Nosferatu.
The book features a forward by E. Elias Merhige, director of
Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional retelling of the making of
Nosferatu that was inspired by the urban legend that Max Schreck's uncanny performance as Count Orlok (renamed from Dracula) was due to him being a real-life vampire. The book also ends with an interview with Merhige, who was apparently very helpful to Massaccesi, who had been a fan of
Nosferatu since she first saw it as a teen.
As stated in the book, "The Devil's Advocates is a series devoted to exploring the classics of horror cinema." Other titles include Halloween, Let the Right One In, The Curse of Frankenstein, Saw, The Silence of the Lambs, The Thing, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Based on how much I learned from this volume, I've already added The Silence of the Lambs to my Amazon wish list.
