I read a mainstream biography about Aristotle Onassis recently - something that was on the NY Times bestseller list back when it was published in 2004 - and near the beginning it casually comes up that the Secretary of State or head of the CIA (they were brothers at the time) was having an affair with the Queen of Greece. It wasn’t even the point of the chapter. Instead, it was just a element in the US governments behind the scene manipulations as they used private intelligence firms to sink a deal between Onassis and the Saudis to fund their own shipping fleet.

Yeah, that is interesting about Orlock. He was cartoonish or poorly fleshed out at least in what was shown and heard on screen. Klaus Kinski’s version in the Herzog film was more interesting - even Willem Dafoe’s version in SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE was more entertaining.

An interesting take on the character but not a compelling one. Also, confusing in the sense that he seemed to understand himself in ways that would be impossible if it were true. Like when he says that he is only an appetite. If that were true, then how would he be able to understand that? Is anything he says the truth? Did Ellen essentially conjure him from the darkness? So, in a way, his motivations must be deeper than that.

In general, I felt like there was a much more well developed world behind the story and the film only displayed its surface.

True. It is not really scary, but personally I don’t think I’ve ever found any adaptation of DRACULA to actually be scary except maybe for a few moments in SALEM’S LOT but that was only slightly a Dracula story and I was a little kid when I saw it on television.

My favorite adaptation is the Coppola DRACULA film, and it was much more entertaining and more of a Gothic Romantic adventure - like the novel - than a horror movie. In fact, watching NOSFERATU, I felt it was much more similar to Coppola’s film than either the Murnau original from the silent era or the 70’s remake by Herzog.

In the end, it felt more tragic and melodramatic than horrifying and though Orlock might be the most disgusting and possibly dreadful depiction of a vampire on film, he was far from the most frightening. Nevertheless, it was a compelling performance and all the actors played their parts well - especially Depp and Dafoe.