Count Dracula versus Count Orlok. Who is the impostar?

When we think of the original vampire, who is it that comes to mind? Most people will tell you Count Dracula, and with good reason. While Dracula was not the first creature of the night to make it to the big screen, he was created first in Bram Stokers book "Dracula". This book was published in 1897.

Nosferatu, the black and white silent movie classic with the villain Count Orlok made it to the big screen in 1922, beating Dracula's first movie which was made in 1931 staring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula.

Does Nosferatu making to the big screen first make him the original vampire, even though he was more or less a rip-off of the vampire in Bram Stoker's book?

Let's look at some other facts.

Vampires have been a cultural myth and monster for centuries. Every culture had its creature who consumes blood myth, some called them demons, some called them evil spirits. From the West Indies Loogaroo, to the rather odd Australian Yara-ma-yha-who, there are a lot of blood thirsty monsters out there and they are nothing like the vampire we are familiar with today.

There is something that can be said for both of these classic vampires however, is that they have reinvented what was once known about the vampire.

It was Bram Stoker's Dracula that invented the myth that vampires can not see themselves in mirrors. Before the book, there was no such myth related directly to vampires. Bram Stokers book also gave vampires the power to control other animals (wolves and rats were mentioned in the book). Meanwhile, Count Orlok was the first vampire to die from the rays of the sun. (while it is often suggested that vampires had an aversion to the sun, Orlok was the first to die from it, making the ideas popular and further forming the vampire we know today).

It is my belief that both vampires combined make up the "classic" vampire, because together they make up the vampire we know today. Though, admittedly, after watching Nosferatu I have to agree, it is most definitely a rip-off of Stoker's Dracula. Harker even calls the castle "Count Dracula's castle".