Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is a 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire with an interest in both a new residence and the wife of his estate agent. The film is an unauthorized and unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. Various names and other details were changed from the novel, including Count Dracula being renamed Count Orlok. It has long been repeated that these changes were implemented in an attempt to avoid accusations of copyright infringement. However, this seems unlikely as the original German intertitles explicitly state that the film is based on the Bram Stoker novel. Film historian David Karat states in his commentary track for the film that "No source has ever documented" this claim and that since the film was "a low-budget film made by Germans for German audiences... setting it in Germany with German named characters makes the story more tangible and immediate for German speaking viewers".
