 Murnau is portrayed by John Malkovich.In the film, Murnau is so dedicated to making the film genuine that he actually hires a real vampire (Willem Dafoe) to play Count Orlok.In the fifth season of "American Horror Story", subtitled "" (2015), Murnau is a mentioned character who, sometime in the early 1920s, travels to the Carpathian Mountains while doing research for the film "Nosferatu".