As a kid I was never really scared of vampires. Lugosi’s “Dracula” had defined their portrayal in pop culture for so long that, as far as I was concerned, they were all thick Eastern European accents, widow’s peaks, aristocratic charm, and bats. Interesting enough, but not particularly scary. And that’s really saying something, as I was a pretty terrified kid. I mean, I once ran screaming through the halls of my grandparents’ house because my cousin had shown me a picture in a book that purported to depict the decomposing corpse of a “sea monster”. So, pictures of globby, nondescript organic matter? Terrifying. Vampires? Not so much.
But one day while watching TV, I caught a short clip of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and that perception was destroyed. Max Schreck’s “Count Orlok” peered through the screen and, as far as I was concerned, was staring right at me. There was nothing aristocratic or charming about this vampire. As much monster as man, he looked more like a rat than a bat. His eyes were not the eyes of a something with a soul. His fingers were elongated talons. It couldn’t have been more than five seconds, but what I saw terrified my young mind.
It also intrigued me. This wasn’t the vampire I was raised on. This was something else entirely. This was an actual monster. That brief five second clip, that glimpse of something that predated sound in movies, yet was far more terrifying than anything I could imagine, introduced me to a world that I didn’t really know existed. It’s not really much of a stretch to say that Count Orlok is the reason I’m a horror fan.
That’s the brief version of how I (and this blog) ended up here. I could probably say more, but the picture to the left says it better than I ever could.
Welcome to Projection of Fear.
