Nosferatu Director F.W. Murnau’s Head ‘Stolen From Grave’

The head of ‘Nosferatu’ director F.W. Murnau has been stolen from his grave in Germany, according to reports.

In what sounds like a plot from a horror movie, German news outlets say that the director’s skull was taken from his family plot in a cemetary in Stahnsdorf, 12 miles outside Berlin.

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It’s said that grave robbers prized open a metal coffin in order to discover the filmmaker’s embalmed body, but the bodies of his two brothers nearby were not disturbed.

According to Spiegel Online, an amount of wax residue was found close to the grave, which is suggesting a possible occult connection.

It was also added that it is not the first time that the grave has been tampered with, leading authorities to consider sealing the plot off completely.

Murnau died in a car crash in 1931 near Santa Barbara at the age of 42, but was returned to Germany to be buried.

He directed ‘Nosferatu’ in 1922, an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic text ‘Dracula’ that has long been regarded as one of the scariest horror movies of all time. It starred Max Schreck in the lead role as the spine-chilling Count Orlok.

Murnau continued making movies in Germany, using pioneering camera techniques, before moving to Hollywood in 1926 where he worked for Fox, making ‘Sunrise’, which won gongs at the first ever Oscars in 1929, and films including ‘City Girl’, ‘4 Devils’ and ‘Tabu’.

It was a week prior to the release of ‘Tabu’ that he died, when his 14-year-old driver crashed a hired Rolls Royce into an electricity pole.

Image credits: Rex Features