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"You've hurt yourself, the precious blood."
―Count Orlok to Thomas Hutter.
"Your wife has a lovely neck."
―Orlok to Hutter, referencing his wife Ellen.

Count Orlok (German: Graf Orlok) is the main antagonist and title character of the classic 1922 silent expressionist horror film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.

He is portrayed by Max Schreck.



Not much is known about his past, Orlok resides alone in a vast and deteriorating castle, hidden among the rugged peaks in a lost corner of the Carpathian Mountains.

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror[]

Count Orlok first poses as a nobleman from Transylvania who moves to the (fictional) city of Wisbourg in Germany - he brings death with him as a esult of his vampiric nature. He lives in a ruined castle high in the mountains and local townsfolk refuse to go anywhere near this castle, to the exception of young Thomas Hutter, the assistant of Wisbourg estate agent, who travels to his castle to show properties for sale in Wisbourg.

Orlok conceals himself in one of his soil-filled coffins and is loaded onto a ship bound for Wisbourg. Onboard the shp, he kills every crew memeber untl only the captain and his first mate remain. Later when the first mate goes to the cargo hold to investigate, Count Orlok rises from his coffin, terrifying the first male who jumps overboard in fear. The captain ties himself to the wheel of the ship when Count Orlok creeps up on him and kills him.

Upon his arrival in Wisbourg he speards disease and plague, forcing the local authorities to declare a quarantine and provoking hysteria amongst the citizens.

Orlok stalks and attacks Hutter's beautiful young wife, Ellen, in her room, but during the pleasure of drinking her blood, he is caught unware by the rays of the rising sun. When he hears the crowing of a rooster, he suddenly realized his own flaw and was caught in the sunlight, which burns him away in a cloud of smoke, killing him and ending his reign of horror.

In adaptations[]


  • The character is parodied in the 1971 Brazilian comedy film Nosferato no Brazil, directed by Ivan Cardoso, the vampire harasses the sexy bathing-beauties that "haunt" the shores of Rio de Janeiro.
  • The 1979 film Nosferatu the Vampyre was a remake of the original. Some of the characters reverted to their original Stoker names, including Dracula, but he was based on the Orlok variation.Dracula is portrayed by Klaus Kinski as a pathetic, lonely creature yearning for human love. Unlike the original character, however, he is merely incapacitated by sunlight and later killed by Van Helsing while paralyzed.
  • In the 1982 Czechoslovak comedy film Upír z Feratu, directed by Juraj Herz, the Ferat is a brand of a vampiric sport cars manufacturer.
  • The 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire presented a fictional account of the filming of Nosferatu in which Max Schreck (portrayed by Willem Dafoe) actually is a vampire.
  • In the 2004 horror film Dracula 3000, Dracula is called "Count Orlok".


  • In the 1979 American miniseries Salem's Lot, the vampire Mr. Kurt Barlow closely resembles Count Orlok.
  • The character look of Count Orlok was the inspiration for the main antagonist (The Master) of the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.


  • It is strongly implied he was been created by Belial, the lieutenant demon of Satan.
  • He was based on Bram Stoker's eponymous character, Count Dracula, from his 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.