Nosferatu refers primarily to a 1922 silent German Expressionist vampire film titled Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror , directed by F. W. Murnau. The film is an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula , with several changes such as renaming Count Dracula to Count Orlok. It tells the story of Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife of his estate agent and brings plague to their town. Despite legal attempts to destroy all copies due to copyright infringement, the film survived and is now considered a classic and highly influential work in the horror genre
. The word "Nosferatu" itself is an archaic Romanian term often synonymous with "vampire." It was popularized in Western fiction by works like Dracula and the Nosferatu film. Its exact etymology is uncertain, but it may derive from Romanian words meaning "the offensive one" or relate to a Greek term meaning "disease-bearing," which aligns with the film's emphasis on plague and pestilence. The term was documented in 19th-century writings on Transylvanian folklore and vampire legends
. In summary, Nosferatu is both a culturally significant early vampire film and a term historically associated with vampires in Romanian folklore. The film helped shape the visual and thematic template for vampire horror in cinema, portraying the vampire as a bringer of death and disease rather than just a romantic figure
