Tall Buidlings
Throughout the film, Murnau shoots tall buildings from canted angles, such as the abandoned building across from the Hutter residence and the spires of Orlok's castle. Of course, this is all architecture associated with the vampire and, therefore, evil. Murnau has a canny sensibility for using the existing world around him to eke out subtle points of drama, and indeed he finds a way to make those tall buildings dreadful.
The Vampire
Perhaps this is obvious, but the most chilling imagery in the film is that of the vampire. Think back to that scene in Orlok's castle, when the terrified Hutter peers out of his bedroom door to see the vampire, fully lit, standing at the opposite side of the hall. Or consider the vampire levitating out of his coffin on the ship, or the shadow creeping into Ellen's room. This is our taste of pure evil, of terror unchained.
The Ship and the Sea
There aren't many long takes in this film that don't depict humans, but the most notable one is that long shot of the ship slowly passing into and out of frame. Were it shorter, we'd just say "oh, ok, time for a scene on the ship." But every extra second Murnau holds that shot fills us with a little more dread. Our minds race thinking of the atrocities on board, of its inevitable landing at the docks of Wisborg.
The Cross on the Door
Here, Murnau brings the medieval to modern times. With the plague sweeping the little town of Wisborg, the coroner has reverted to a centuries-old practice of marking doors of houses containing corpses with a cross. With these, we get a sense of the doom that has fallen on this town, as well as the sense that no matter how much progress society has made, the humans within it are still simple mortals, and vulnerable ones that that.
