OTTO958

From the diary of Johann Cavallius, able historican of his native city of Bremen: Nosferatu! That name alone can chill the blood! Nosferatu! Was it he who brought the plaque to Bremen in 1838? I have long sought the causes of that terrible epidemic, and found at its origin and its climax the innocent figures of Jonathon Harker and his young wife Nina.

B R E M E N 1 8 3 8

MORNING

At the Home of Jonathon and Nina Harker
Harker leaves for work

HARKER: (presents Nina with a bouquet of flowers)

In the streets of Bremen, Harker walks to work, An old man approaches

OLD MAN: Wait, young man. You can't escape destiny by running away.

HARKER: (shakes the old man's hand and continues walking)

At the Estate Office of Agent Renfield, Renfield reads a letter
The agent Renfield was a strange man, and there were unpleasant rumors about him.

Enter Harker

RENFIELD: Here is an important letter from Transylvania. Count Dracula wishes to buy a house in our city. It's a good opportunity for you, Harker. The Count is rich, and free with his money. You will have a marvelous journey. And, young as you are, what matter if it costs you some pain--or even a little blood? The house facing yours...that should suit him. Leave at once, my young friend. And don't be frightened if people speak of Transylvania as the land of phantoms.

At the Home of the Harkers

HARKER: I may be away for several months, Nina. Renfield is sending me to some lost corner of the Carpathians.

NINA: (looks worried)

Harker left Nina with his good friends, Westenra and his wife Lucy.

Outside the Westenras' House

Nina runs to say goodbye to Harker

HARKER: Don't worry, Nina, nothing can happen to me.

Harker mounts a horse and rides away

T R A N S Y L V A N I A

From relay to relay, through the dust raised by the stages, Harker hurried on.

A coach speeds along rugged countryside

EVENING

A Village Inn
Harker disembarks from the coach and enters the Inn.

HARKER: Dinner, quickly! I should already be at Count Dracula's castle!

The inn patrons look away in worry.

INNKEEPER: You must not leave now! The evil spirits become all-powerful after dark!

HARKER: (chuckles to himself)

In a room at the Inn

Harker undresses for bed, he reads from a book left on the bedtable

THE BOOK OF THE VAMPIRES

...and it was in 1443 that the first Nosferatu was born. That name rings like the cry of a bird of prey. Never speak it aloud...Men do not always recognize the dangers that beasts can sense at certain times.

HARKER: (laughs and goes to bed)

Outside the window, a hyena prowls, village horses scatter in fear, and village women cower in terror

MORNING

Outside the Inn, a coach departs

LATE AFTERNOON

In the Carpathian Mountains, the coach speeds along mountain roads

PASSENGER: Hurry! The sun will soon be setting.

AT DUSK THAT EVENING

At a crossroads, the coach stops and Harker disembarks

DRIVER: We will go no further, sir. Not for a fortune! We will go no further. Here begins the land of the phantoms.

The driver throws down Harker's luggage

HARKER: (Walks away, crossing over a bridge)

And when he had crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him.

Harker is met by a coach which carries him to Castle Dracula

At the Castle, Harker is greeted by the Nosferatu Count

NOSFERATU: You are late, young man. It is almost midnight. My servants have all retired.

He leads Harker to supper at a dining table

HARKER: (cuts finger on a bread knife)

NOSFERATU: Blood! Your precious blood!

Harker warily backs away

NOSFERATU: Let us chat together a moment, my friend. There are still several hours until dawn, and I have the whole day to sleep.

He leads Harker to a chair by a fireplace

As the sun rose, Harker felt himself freed from the oppressions of the night.

Harker awakens and he notes two marks on his neck.

LATER THAT MORNING

Harker walks in the countryside around the Castle. He finds a gazebo and writes there a letter to Nina:

Nina, my beloved-

Don't be unhappy. Though I am far away, I love

you. This is a strange country. After my first night

in the castle, I found two large bites on my neck.

From mosquitoes? From spiders? I don't know. I have

had some frightful dreams, but they were only dreams.

You mustn't worry about me. I am leaving immediately

to return to Bremen--and to you.

Harker stops a traveler and gives him the letter to post. As twilight came on, the empty castle became alive with menacing shadows.

In the parlour at Castle Dracula, Harker and the Nosferatu review legal papers. The Count sees Harker's picture of Nina.

NOSFERATU: Is this your wife? What a lovely throat! That old mansion seems quite satisfactory. We shall be neighbors.

Count signs the documents

THAT NIGHT

In Harker's Bedroom, Harker packs away Nina's picture. He finds The Book of the Vampires and reads more:

Nosferatu drinks the blood of the young, the blood

necessary to his own existence.

One can recognize the mark of the vampire by the trace

of his fangs on the victim's throat.

HARKER: (peeks out his bedroom door)

COUNT: (stands motionlessly at the end of the hall)

HARKER: (quickly closes his bedroom door, looks out the window at the river far below, and climbs into his bed)

Enter the Count

That same night in Bremen, in a somnabulistic dream...

At the home of the Westenras

NINA: (awakens in a trance and walks out to the terrace)

Westenra follows

WESTENRA: Nina?

Nina collapses in Westenra's arms

Enter servant

WESTENRA: The doctor, quickly!

LATER THAT NIGHT

In Harker's Bedroom in Castle Dracula

The Count advances on Harker as he lies asleep

MEANWHILE

In Nina's Bedroom in Bremen. The doctor, Westenra and Lucy stand over Nina as she sleeps.

NINA: (suddenly sitting up) Jonathon! Jonathon! Hear me!

MOMENTS LATER

In Harker's Bedroom in Castle Dracula, the Count turns from Harker's sleeping body.

Exit the Count

MEANWHILE

In Nina's Bedroom in Bremen

NINA: (sighs relief and returns to sleep)

DOCTOR: A sudden fever.

The doctor laid Nina's trance to some unknown disease. Since then I have learned that she had sensed the menace of Nosferatu that very night. And Harker, far away, had heard her cries of warning.

THE NEXT MORNING

In Harker's Bedroom at Castle Dracula, Harker awakens. He rushes from his bedroom out into the courtyard and wanders into a crypt. He finds the Count lying in a coffin.

Exit Harker, horrifed

EARLY THAT EVENING

Harker looks out his bedroom window, he sees the Count loading coffins on a horse-drawn cart.

COUNT: (climbs into a coffin and closes the lid)

Exit horses, cart, coffins and Count

HARKER: (Makes a rope from a bedsheet and climbs out window)

Harker falls to the ground below and is knocked unconscious

THE NEXT DAY

A cargo-bearing raft floats down a river. The men little suspected what terrible cargo they were carrying down the valley.

SEVERAL DAYS LATER

In a hospital room somewhere in Transylvania. A nurse and doctor tend to Harker at his bedside.

NURSE: Some peasants brought him here last evening. He still has a high fever.

HARKER: (leaps up suddenly) Coffins! Coffins filled with earth!

In a shipyard, sailors load crates onto a ship. Tipping over one crate, they find only dirt and rats. Nosferatu was en route; and with him disaster approached Bremen. At the same time, Dr. Van Helsing was giving a course on the secrets of nature and their strange correspondences to human life. The professor told his students about the existence of a carnivourous plant.

B R E M E N

Professor Van Helsing's Laboratory. Van Helsing and four colleagues watch as a Venus flytrap traps a fly.

VAN HELSING: Astonishing, isn't it, gentlemen? That plant is the vampire of the vegetable kingdom.

Nosferatu held Renfield under his influence from afar.

At the Sanatarium

An attendant enters the doctor's quarters

ATTENDANT: That patient who was brought in yesterday has gone out of his mind!

In Renfield's cell at the Sanatarium

Enter Doctor and Attendant

RENFIELD: (catches and eats flies) Blood! Blood!

Renfield leaps at Doctor

Attendant subdues Renfield

In Van Helsing's Laboratory

Van Helsing and colleagues peer into a tank

VAN HELSING: And now, gentlemen, here is another type of vampire: a polyp with claws...transparent, without substance, almost a phantom.

Nina was often seen alone among the dunes, watching and waiting for her husband's return.

On the dunes overlooking the sea

Nina sits on a bench looking out to sea.

Lucy and Western bring Nina the letter from Harker

MEANWHILE

In Harker's Hospital Room Somewhere in Transylvania

Harker dresses for his journey back to Bremen

AT THE SAME TIME

In Renfield's Cell at the Sanatarium in Bremen

Renfield unfolds a newspaper clipping and reads it

NEW PLAGUE BAFFLES SCIENCE

A mysterious epidemic of the plaque has broken out in eastern Europe in the port cities of the Black Sea, attacking principally the young and vigourous. Cause of the two bloody marks on the neck of each victim baffles the medical profession.

RENFIELD: (laughs)

Aboard the Demester, first one man was stricken, then all.

In the hold of the Demeter, Captain tends to a sick sailor. The Count appears briefly then fades. One evening at sundown, the captain and his first mate buried the last man of the crew.

On the deck of the Demeter

Captain and first mate toss a body overboard

FIRST MATE: I am going below. I want to have a look in the hold.

In the hold of the Demeter, first mate sees the Nosferatu rise from his coffin.

FIRST MATE: (rushes topside and leaps overboard)

CAPTAIN: (ties himself to the sterring wheel)

The Nosferatu approaches the Captain

Despite all sorts of obstacles, Harker pushed on towards Bremen. Meanwhile, driven by the fatal breath of the vampire, the vessel moved rapidly towards the Baltic.

ONE NIGHT

At the Westenras' House

Nina sleepwalks to the terrace

Lucy follows Nina

NINA: He's coming. I must go to meet him.

In the Bremen Harbour

The Demeter sails into port

In Renfield's Cell at the Sanatarium

Renfield attempts to climb out his window

RENFIELD: The Master is coming! The Master is here!

Renfield escapes.

I have long tried to understand why Nosferatu travelled with the earth-filled coffins. Recently I discovered that to preserve their diabolic power, vampires must sleep during the day in the same unhallowed ground in which they had been buried.

The Count carries his coffin from the harbour to his newly-purchased house in Bremen

MEANWHILE

At the Westenras' House, Harker returns and is met by Nina.

NINA: Jonathon! Thank God you are safe! Now I feel that I too have been saved!

THE NEXT MORNING

In the Bremen Harbour, officials search the Demeter. The captain is found dead at the wheel.

OFFICIAL: We couldn't find a single living soul on board!

A second official discovers the Ship's Log

Ship's Log - Varna to Bremen

24 April 1838

Passed the Dardanelles - East wind - Carrying 5

passengers, mate, crew of 7, and myself, the Captain.

6 May 1838

Rounded Cape of Inatagran - One of my men, the strongest, is sick - Crew is restless, uneasy.

7 May 1838

Mate reported stowaway hiding below decks - Will investigate.

18 May 1838

Passed Gibraltar - Panic on board - Three men dead already - Mate out of his mind - Rats in the hold - I fear the plague.

BURGOMASTER: The plague is here! Stay in your houses!

HOURS LATER

In the deserted streets of Bremen, Towncrier reads a notice:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NOTICE ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To halt the spread of the plague, the Burgomaster of Bremen forbids the citizens of this city to bring their sick to the hospitals until further notice.

Nina had promised her husband never to open The Book of the Vampires, but she found herself unable to resist the temptation.

In the living room of the Harkers, Nina reads from The Book of the Vampires

One can recognize the mark of the vampire by the trace

of his fangs on the victim's throat.

Only a woman can break his frightful spell--a woman

pure in heart--who will offer her blood freely to

Nosferatu and will keep the vampire by her side until

after the cock has crowed.

Enter Harker

NINA: (pointing out the window to the mansion across the street) Look! Every night, in front of me!

The townspeople lived in mortal terror. Who was sick or dying?

Who will be stricken tomorrow?

At the Harkers' House

Nina lies sick in bed

HARKER: Don't be frightened. I will get the professor.

Exit Harker

Nina looks out the window at the line of coffins being carried along the street. She reads from The Book of the Vampires:

Only a woman can break his frightful spell--a woman

pure in heart--who will offer her blood freely to

Nosferatu and will keep the vampire by her side until

after the cock has crowed.

MEANWHILE

Outside the Sanatarium, two old women talk to each other.

OLD WOMAN: They saw him escape. He strangled his keeper.

Renfield runs down an alley, pursued by a crowd. He climbs onto a roof. The crowd throws rocks at him. He climbs down and runs outside of town. The crowd pursues.

THAT NIGHT

In the Harkers' Bedroom, Nina is awakened by the Nosferatu outside her window. She opens the window. Harker awakens and Nina faints in his arms

HARKER: The professor! Call the professor!

Exit Harker

Enter the Nosferatu

THE NEXT MORNING

In the Harkers' Bedroom, the cock crows. Nosferatu looks up from drinking at Nina's neck.

MEANWHILE

In Renfield's Cell at the Sanatarium

RENFIELD: Master! Master! Beware!

Outside the Harkers' House, Harker and Van Helsing arrive.

In the Harkers' Bedroom

Sunlight sweeps across the buildings across the street from Nina's window. Nosferatu attempts to escape but is touched by the sunlight. He vanishes in a puff of smoke.

In Renfield's Cell at the Sanatarium

RENFIELD: The Master is dead.

In the Harkers' Bedroom

Nina awakens

Enter Harker

NINA: Jonathon!

Harker takes Nina in his arms as she dies

And at that moment, as if by a miracle, the sick no longer died, and the stifling shadow of the vampire vanished with the morning sun.

THE END