- The setting has been transferred from Britain in the 1890s to Germany in 1838.[1]
- The story of Nosferatu is similar to that of Dracula but re-adapts the core characters: Jonathan and Mina Harker are renamed to Thomas and Ellen Hutter (Ellen now occasionally sleepwalks), Count Dracula is renamed Count Orlok, and so on. It omits many of the secondary players, such as Quincey Morris and changes the names and roles of those who remain. Van Helsing character was renamed into Dr. Bulwer in reference to English occult novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton.[38]
- Orlok is also believed to have been created by Belial, the lieutenant demon of Satan, while Count Dracula is revealed to have been a former voivode killed in battle before returning as a vampire. Orlok's link to Belial is highly significant because Belial is "one of the demons traditionally summoned by Goetic magicians" - making Orlok someone who practiced dark sorcery[28]
- In contrast to Count Dracula, Orlok does not create other vampires but kills his victims, which causes the townsfolk to blame the plague which ravages the city.
- Orlok also must sleep by day, as sunlight would kill him, but the original Dracula is only weakened by sunlight and can openly walk in daylight.
- Orlok looks extremely inhuman and corpse-like, while Dracula looks human, and it is his behaviour which eventually betrays him as a vampire to humans, so Dracula could easily mingle among the crowds in the streets of London.
- The ending is also substantially different from the Dracula novel since the count is ultimately destroyed at sunrise when the Mina analogue sacrifices herself to him.
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