Robert Eggers ’ long - awaitedNosferatuis an unexpected hit . The film has currently grossed over$100 million worldwide , making it one of the most successful horror movies of 2024 , not to mention Eggers ’ expectant smasher to date . This considerable success is especially impressive consider the unlimited legendary position of the original film , F.W. Murnau ’s seminal and influential 1922 still classicNosferatu : A Symphony of Horror , itself an unauthorised remake of Bram Stoker’sDracula .
Thus far , three versions ofNosferatuexist , all so decided from Stoker ’s original creation that Count Orlok no longer number as a Dracula crosscurrent - off . Count Orlok is one of movie theatre ’s most memorable villain largely because of the three actors who have act him on the big screen door : Max Schreck in 1922 , Klaus Kinski in 1979 , and Bill Skarsgård in 2024 .
These three lease on the elusive and near - ethereal character have absolutely suit not only their movies but their various generations , mirror the culture ’s sensibilities and enchant the horror zeitgeist . And while each offers something unequalled , and everyone will have their favorite look on their respective preferences , it ’s sure that all three have last up to the lofty expected value and knock them out of the green .
1922’s Nosferatu: Shadow of the Vampire
The originalNosferatuis a true before - and - after in vampiric entertainment . Although an unauthorized adaption of Bram Stoker’sDracula , Nosferatudid just as much for vampiric traditional knowledge as the literary masterpiece . lamia being vulnerable to the sunlight , for deterrent example ? That’sNosferatu . The novel introduces many of the most vulgar figure of speech , include wooden stakes to the middle and Allium sativum , but the sunshine ’s business leader over the undead is all Murnau . The lamia ’s specific obsession with the distaff hoagy , Ellen ? That ’s alsoNosferatu .
Stoker ’s novel has Dracula targeting both Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra , whereas Murnau ’s film draws a direct shackle between Orlok and Ellen . Nosferatualso set about a trend shared by its two successor : put Ellen front and center , and while still limit by its epoch ’s position toward char , Murnau ’s Ellen plays a unmediated purpose in Orlok ’s demise , while Stoker ’s Mina mostly give the job to the man .
Max Schreck play Orlok like a live shadow : He wrench and contorts , tardily creeping from corners and adopt an eerie , supernatural approach . Nosferatuis , first and first , a German Expressionist movie , meaning it has an enhanced visual and narrative trend , rejecting reality in favor of hyper - stylized setting , idea , and performances . Thus , Schreck ’s Orlok is a incubus come to life , the embodiment of the occult and the strange , otherness manifested into being . A crucial paper in Orlok ’s story is longing , and Schreck ’s initial take on the thought takes an resister approach to it . To Schreck ’s Orlok , hungriness takes the form of coveting , desiring everything to fulfill his selfish desires .
A lot has been written aboutNosferatu‘s link to nature and Murnau ’s ability to happen the sinister knockout in it . German Expressionists usually favour inside shooting , building luxuriant set that misrepresented and distorted realism — think of the angular , near - kaleidoscopic sets ofThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligarior the riotous , aggressive sights inThe Golem : How He Came Into the existence .
WithNosferatu , Murnau went against the average and shoot on placement , creating a raging atmosphere that blurs our reality , ferment familiar scenery — a mountainside , a cloudy sky , a minute street — into something phantasmagorical and dreadful . AsGilberto Perez Guillermo writes for the BFI , “ Its view of the world [ is ] inescapably tyrannous and black , however natural and banal it may seem . Far from a decoration on theDraculastory , the natural globe is the genuine protagonist ofNosferatu . ”
Murnau introduce a third major alteration to his plot by draw a direct line of latitude between Count Orlok and the infestation . In 1922 , the cosmos was still reeling fromthe 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic , which killed over 21 million worldwide ; the subject was still fresh in the great unwashed ’s memories when Murnau ’s bald vampire came to the silver screen . Orlok ’s rats diffuse the bubonic pestis , but to even consultation , a plague by any other name was still a plague . Introducing such a motif to the story made Orlok more dangerous , turn an already scary film fiber into an straight-out icon synonymous with demise , devastation , and misery .
1979’s Nosferatu: Misery, thirst, and horniness
Fifty - seven twelvemonth after Murnau ’s classic , another renowned auteur take a shot as another rendering ofNosferatu . Werner Herzog opted not to make yet another version ofDracula ; alternatively , he remade Murnau ’s translation ofDracula . This is the head whereNosferatubecomes its own entity ; whereas Murnau ’s adaptation still existed as a spiritual sib to Stoker ’s classic , Herzog ’s remake legitimatise it as a reliable cinematic masterpiece and the product of a singular creative thinker who find Modern layers to a well - told story .
To play his vampire , Herzog reunited with his common cooperator , infamous andmentally crazy character actor Klaus Kinski . Herzog and Kinski prefer to showcase Orlok , now reverted to Dracula , not as a sinister villain but rather as a pitiful and tragic creature condemn to spend timelessness alone and with an undying thirstiness . In Kinski ’s hands , longing takes the form of never-ending and utter misery , sempiternal pain at want something so unachievable and strange . This version of the Count is the most human ; Kinski ’s make-up is subtle , and aside from the goblin ears and long nail , he looks the most like a regular , albeit pale , person compared to Schreck ’s rat - like graverobber and Skarsgård ’s literal walking dead .
Herzog also enhances the erotic themes present in Murnau ’s master copy . In the 1979 version , the Count is dire for any color of connection and intimacy and unforced to settle for dirty dog . Kinski speaks between moans and whimpers as if the bare presence of others were enough to arouse and physically hurt him . During the scene where the Count lap Jonathan ’s parentage , Dracula scarf out both his metaphoric thirst for joining and his literal one for blood . It ’s a sheer attack that rest quite novel even today and a large reasonwhy Herzog’sNosferatuworks so well ; there ’s a desperation to this being who is not only timeworn of waiting for someone but is also tire by merely existing . To Herzog , liveliness is nuisance , soeternallife must be literal sin .
Isabelle Adjani ’s Lucy , dramatize the name of the original character , is a crucial part of the Count ’s hurt . Unlike the 1922 version , she actually empathizes with him , to the point where she seems to willingly welcome him during their terminal second together , as she sacrifices to bring him down . It ’s not attractor that she feels for him but something much more powerful : acceptance . The Count ’s demise takes a much more poetical approach , as he willingly dies having finally found what he so urgently longed for . So what if the pic ’s actual closing is barren as infernal region ? The Count , in his own twisted and broken fashion , finds salvation and solacement .
The natural elements of Murnau ’s master copy also bet a major role in Herzog’sNosferatu , albeit with a refreshful twist . In 1979 , nature is the genuine enemy , once again certify through the plague charging against humanity ’s senseless philistinism and avaritia . Here , the Count might be nature ’s instrument for the ultimate tally , exploiting his weakness and using him as a vas to bring mayhem on mankind .
In one of the film ’s most famous scene , as the plague ravages the Ithiel Town , the citizenry take to the street to spoil in one last hooray before the end : They ride Goat and saltation between the rats , permit go of all pretense and proving that , in the last , it really is all about instinct . To Herzog , the true repugnance inNosferatuis not the lamia and his hunger for lineage but rather human beings ’s separation from the natural and the fact that one literally has to die out to tie with it again .
2024’s Nosferatu: An appetite, and nothing more
The third Nosferaturemake came out in 2024 , 45 year after Herzog ’s version and over a one C after Murnau ’s . This clip , it was Robert Eggers ’ turn to tell the story of Count Orlok and ascertain a fresh way to make it topical for a contemporaries that is so accustomed to repulsion that it use up it once a calendar week in different forms — be it on the ash grey screen or the casual news . egger had a warm start point , as Murnau ’s 1992 original is already a timeless cinematic chef-d’oeuvre wide considered among the chilling and most important repulsion moving picture ever made . However , the film director , magnificently concerned in historicity and mysticism , approached the film with a unequalled perspective that allowed him to fork out a intersection that brook on its own .
Eggers’Nosferatuis Ellen ’s tarradiddle from beginning to terminate . Lily - Rose Depp is front and center here , completely drive the level ahead to the tip where she kickstarts the plot of ground year before her next hubby even fix foot in the Carpathian mountains . Eggers ’ first major modification come from Ellen ’s role in muster up Orlok : Here , she ’s the one who inadvertently rouse him and succumbs to his influence .
In 2024 , Ellen isNosferatu‘s principal driving power , and everyone else , admit Orlok , is just dancing to her tune . Unsurprisingly , many have draw similarities between the film and root word of abuse and training . However , I consider it ’s less straightforward , as Eggers and Depp go to nifty length to show the large role Ellen ’s desire and despair dally in the plot . Crucially , Ellen and Orlok share a mutual attractor ; it ’s not roll in the hay , but it is desire , gauze-like lust for each other in path neither can realise .
Because this variation ofNosferatuis highly erotic and focus on the physical and psychosexual connection between Ellen and Orlok , the cast of Bill Skarsgård takes a meta level . He is inhume under prosthetics anda mustache that ’s been specially divisive , appearing almost unrecognisable . And yet , anyone who has been paying any variety of attention to the plastic film hump it ’s Bill Skarsgård under there . This role could ’ve been easily played by any role player — egger ’ constant cooperator , character actor Ralph Ineson , would ’ve worked , for instance . However , it have an doer like Skarsgård — new and attractive — to sell this adaptation of Orlok . egger desire you to understand Orlok ’s supernatural collection and Ellen ’s close - incomprehensible attraction to him . You must find Orlok alluring and titillating yet still grotesque and off - putt .
In egger ’ variation , longing takes the form of the unexpected and undesired : Orlok responds to Ellen ’s call and recover himself inexplicably tie to her . He has little patience for everything ; he does n’t obliterate out of desire per se but rather out of necessity to meet a goal . This Orlok is impartial , indifferent even , on-key bedlam fetch into being by black mightiness that survive before he became a lamia . Nature once again act a immense role , but not in the same way as Murnau and Herzog used it .
Bill Skarsgård ’s Orlok is nature itself : He is literally rotting , crude and decaying , almost as if he ’s still aging despite his eternal life . Orlok is replete and barbarism embodied , caring small for anything other than take everything on his path : He can , so he must . His attraction for Ellen is more of an unverbalised commitment , a promise that must be adjoin because it was deemed so . Unlike 1922 , where he is tricked , and 1979 , where he outright commit suicide , 2024 ’s Orlok go because it ’s time : He has won the ultimate prize , and there is nothing left to take . To Eggers , nature include the unnatural , and Orlok is his vessel .
Which Nosferatu is the best of them all?
All three versions ofNosferatuhave come after in limn a new apart to what is arguably horror ’s most widely experience and recognizable story . Now , Count Orlok is as influential as Dracula ; in fact , he is arguably the most famous cinematic lamia , narrowly border out his intake thanks to the sheer strength of his optic imagination .
Whatever version appeal the most to you , Nosferatuhas proven itself a dateless fib of desire , forfeit , and , of course , longing . More impressively , it has find a way to stay relevant and visceral for over 100 age , reinventing itself to correspond raw generations of horror buff and casual looker . The original 1922 version will belike always reign supreme , with 1979 ’s take enduring as a more auteur - driven effort and 2024 ’s variation standing as a near - perfect marriage between artistry and commerce .
Yet , the fact remain thatNosferatuis a timeless tale of apprehension that will never go out of panache . With a pretty complete trilogy of films thus far , this notorious vampire has cement his space in cinematic excellence . When the inevitable fourth remaking number out in 2075 , we might be here again , discussing his gloomy legacy . For now , let ’s just seat back and take account the three Count Orloks we ’ve had thus far and be quick to fall under their sinister spell again and again .
1922’sNosferatuis useable tostream on PlutoTV . 1979’sNosferatuis uncommitted tostream on Tubi . 2024’sNosferatuisnow playing in theatersworldwide .
