The Vampires of Prali

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Today it is through my family that brings me the joy in life and those I meet during my times on the road from Moscow to Los Angeles. I have met some incredible people on this journey called life. Hands down it is J. Lewis that draws me and sustains me. In regards to never seeing myself write a genre, that is an interesting question because I like to think I can write it all, but if I had a choice it would have to be my own life story or possibly romantic novels.

What do you think makes a good story? What do you try to avoid doing at all costs in your own writing? A good story must consist of all the structure points that create the book writing format, for example creating good character structure and trying not to do something that someone else has already done in the past.

That is difficult since there is really only seven real plot points in writing. A solid antagonist is a must because that is the character that drives the story and drives all the characters. Avoid a boring story or a boring chapter because today a reader wants to be entertained, but with that being said I write for myself and only me. So much goes into writing a book and there are so many things to keep in mind in the process, but somehow we have to reign it all in, and, as you say, write for ourselves so we stay true to our vision and our story.

I have been asked this in the past, and it is a question that is asked often, but if I say I have strengths then people label me as pompous, or if I mention weakness, people will say I have no confidence. I will say this, love life every day, and in those times you will see strength and weakness within you. We are humans after all. Lewis as previously mentioned, but they always deserve a second mention.

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I tend to gravitate towards strong figures. What makes your genre unique? And why is it so popular, or perhaps less popular than it could be? Fantasy is a small niche that most people ignore unless Peter Jackson decides to make a Hobbit film or the Harry Potter wheel house spins around again. For me fantasy is an escape from reality, but for most people I think that fantasy escape is too bizarre for them to recognize. It takes a special person to love and appreciate fantasy. Can you tell us about your books? What other projects are you working on? Majority of my fantasy tales have elements of true events or historical figures, hence historical fantasy.

The book should be out about the time this interview is released. For the next year I will be working on a collection of fantasy and science fiction short stories and releasing them all together in one book. Some of these stories can be seen on my website http: See banner below for details. For those of us trying to figure out the marketing aspect, what tips can you share?

How did you come to establish your support team? On my book tours throughout the United States and Europe I am asked about my staff and how they accumulated. It all happens through time, the longer you are in the industry, the more people you seem to collect, but they are all eventually essential. Never take an offer that sounds too good to be true, because it always is and there are people out there who prey on writers. The best thing an author can do for themselves is advertise, and I mean advertise in just about anything.

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From periodicals to convention leaflets, do it all. Finding the strength to do it on some days because it is tempting to just sit around or do something else besides writing. Sometimes it takes strength to sit down and do a paragraph. I know that sounds a little sad and odd, but when you write every day, it can be a strain.

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Nearing his destination in the Carpathian Mountains , Hutter stops at an inn for dinner. The locals become frightened by the mere mention of Orlok's name and discourage him from traveling to his castle at night, warning of a werewolf on the prowl. The next morning, Hutter takes a coach to a high mountain pass, but the coachman declines to take him any further than the bridge as nightfall is approaching.

A black-swathed coach appears after Hutter crosses the bridge and the coachman gestures for him to climb aboard. Hutter is welcomed at a castle by Count Orlok. When Hutter is eating dinner and accidentally cuts his thumb, Orlok tries to suck the blood out, but his repulsed guest pulls his hand away. Hutter wakes up to a deserted castle the morning after and notices fresh punctures on his neck which, in a letter he sends by courier on horseback to be delivered to his devoted wife, he attributes to mosquitoes.

That night, Orlok signs the documents to purchase the house across from Hutter's own home in Wisborg and notices a photo of Hutter's wife, remarking that she has a "lovely neck. Reading a book about vampires that he took from the local inn, Hutter starts to suspect that Orlok is Nosferatu, the "Bird of Death. The door opens by itself and Orlok enters, his true nature finally revealed, and Hutter hides under the bed covers and falls unconscious.

At the same time this is happening, his wife awakens from her sleep, and in a trance walks towards the balcony and onto the railing. Alarmed, Harding shouts Ellen's name and she faints while he asks for a doctor. After the doctor arrives, she shouts Hutter's name, remaining in the trance and apparently able to see Orlok in his castle threatening her unconscious husband.

The doctor believes this trance-like state is due to "blood congestion". The next day, Hutter explores the castle. In its crypt , he finds the coffin in which Orlok is resting dormant.

The Defenders of Prali

Hutter becomes horrified and dashes back to his room. Hours later from the window, he sees Orlok piling up coffins on a coach and climbing into the last one before the coach departs. Hutter escapes the castle through the window, but is knocked unconscious by the fall and awakens in a hospital. When he is sufficiently recovered, he hurries home.

Meanwhile, the coffins are shipped down river on a raft. They are transferred to a schooner , but not before one is opened by the crew, revealing a multitude of rats. The sailors on the ship get sick one by one; soon all but the captain and first mate are dead. Suspecting the truth, the first mate goes below to destroy the coffins.

However, Orlok awakens and the horrified sailor jumps into the sea. Unaware of his danger, the captain becomes Orlok's latest victim when he ties himself to the wheel. When the ship arrives in Wisborg, Orlok leaves unobserved, carrying one of his coffins, and moves into the house he purchased. The next morning, when the ship is inspected, the captain is found dead. After examining the logbook, the doctors assume they are dealing with the plague. The town is stricken with panic, and people are warned to stay inside.

There are many deaths in the town, which are blamed on the plague. Knock, who had been committed to a psychiatric ward, escapes after murdering the warden. The townspeople give chase, but he eludes them by climbing a roof, then using a scarecrow. Meanwhile, Orlok stares from his window at the sleeping Ellen.

Against her husband's wishes, Ellen had read the book he found. The book claims that the way to defeat a vampire is for a woman who is pure in heart to distract the vampire with her beauty all through the night. She opens her window to invite him in, but faints. When Hutter revives her, she sends him to fetch Professor Bulwer.

After he leaves, Orlok comes in. He becomes so engrossed drinking her blood that he forgets about the coming day. Knock, who has been recaptured, senses what is happening to Orlok who is evidently his master , but is restrained from breaking out of his cell to warn him.

When a rooster crows, Orlok vanishes in a puff of smoke as he tries to flee, which Knock senses as he quietly dies. Ellen lives just long enough to be embraced by her grief-stricken husband.

The last scene shows Count Orlok's ruined castle in the Carpathian Mountains, symbolizing the end of his reign of terror. The studio behind Nosferatu , Prana Film, was a short-lived silent -era German film studio founded in by Enrico Dieckmann and occultist-artist Albin Grau , named for the Hindu concept of prana. Although the studio's intent was to produce occult - and supernatural -themed films, Nosferatu was its only production, [4] as it declared bankruptcy in order to dodge copyright infringement suits from Bram Stoker 's widow Florence Balcombe.

Grau had had the idea to shoot a vampire film, the inspiration of which had risen from a war experience: Diekmann and Grau gave Henrik Galeen , a disciple of Hanns Heinz Ewers , the task to write a screenplay inspired by Bram Stoker's novel Dracula , despite Prana Film not having obtained the film rights. Galeen was an experienced specialist in dark romanticism ; he had already worked on Der Student von Prag The Student of Prague in , and the screenplay for Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam The Golem: How He Came into the World Galeen set the story in the fictional north German harbour town of Wisborg.

He changed the characters' names and added the idea of the vampire bringing the plague to Wisborg via rats on the ship, and left out the Van Helsing vampire hunter character.

Galeen's Expressionist style [6] screenplay was poetically rhythmic, without being so dismembered as other books influenced by literary Expressionism , such as those by Carl Mayer. Lotte Eisner described Galeen's screenplay as " voll Poesie, voll Rhythmus " "full of poetry, full of rhythm". Filming began in July , with exterior shots in Wismar. A take from Marienkirche's tower over Wismar marketplace with the Wasserkunst Wismar served as the establishing shot for the Wisborg scene.

Other locations were the Wassertor, the Heiligen-Geist-Kirche yard and the harbour. Further exterior shots followed in Lauenburg , Rostock and on Sylt. For cost reasons, cameraman Fritz Arno Wagner only had one camera available, and therefore there was only one original negative.

This concerned the last scene of the film, in which Ellen sacrifices herself and the vampire dies in the first rays of the Sun. The original score was composed by Hans Erdmann to be performed by an orchestra during the projection. It is also said that the original music was recorded during a screening of the film.

For example, James Bernard , composer of the soundtracks of many Hammer horror films in the late s and s, has written a score for a reissue.

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The story of Nosferatu is similar to that of Dracula and retains the core characters: Jonathan and Mina Harker, the Count, and so on. Some recent re-releases of the film alter the sub-titles to use the Dracula versions of the names. In contrast to Dracula, Orlok does not create other vampires, but kills his victims, causing the townfolk to blame the plague which ravages the city.

Orlok also must sleep by day, as sunlight would kill him, while the original Dracula is only weakened by sunlight. The ending is also substantially different from that of Dracula; the count is ultimately destroyed at sunrise when the Mina analogue sacrifices herself to him. This was planned as a large society evening entitled Das Fest des Nosferatu Festival of Nosferatu , and guests were asked to arrive dressed in Biedermeier costume.

The cinema premiere itself took place on 15 March at Berlin's Primus-Palast. A Night of Horror , which is less commonly known, was a completely unauthorized and re-edited version of the film that was released in Vienna capital of Austria , on 16 May , with sound-on-disc accompaniment, with a recomposition of Hans Erdmann 's original score by Georg Fiebiger, born June in Breslau, died in was a German production manager and composer of film music.

But however, with sound effects only. It had an alternate ending that was much happier than the original, the characters were all renamed again, this time Count Orlok's name was changed to Prince Wolkoff, Knock became Karsten, Hutter and Ellen became Kundberg and Margitta, and Lucy being changed to Maria. This version, of which Murnau was unaware, contained many scenes that were filmed by Murnau but had not been previously released.

Waldemar Roger also known as Waldemar Ronger , [16] supposedly also a film editor and lab chemist. The name of the silent film director F. Murnau is no longer mentioned in the preamble. This version edited to approx. In the recent restoration of the film, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung, claim that they have several copies of this version. The film was originally banned completely in Sweden, however the ban was lifted after 20 years and has since been shown on television.

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