Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Nosferatu (2024)
While Nosferatu is referred to as both a demon and a vampire interchangeably throughout director Robert Eggers’ period horror movie, the villain’s real status is not too difficult to discern. 2024’s Nosferatu differs from Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror in many ways, with a far longer runtime and a radically altered ending being only two of the most notable alterations. However, one thing that director Robert Eggers preserves from the original silent movie is an ambiguous approach to the тιтular monster’s true form.
In both 2024’s Nosferatu and Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror, the тιтle character possesses many attributes of a traditional vampire, but also qualities that call demons to mind. Ellen’s psychic link to Nosferatu, and the way she refers to him as her depression, her mania, and the darkness inside herself are all reminiscent of a demonic possession movie. Indeed, star Lily-Rose Depp’s performance borrows heavily from Isabelle Adjani’s unforgettable turn in 1981’s Possession. However, this doesn’t mean that Count Orlok does not count as a traditional vampire.
Nosferatu Is A Vampire Created In Dracula’s Image
Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu Villain Is A Vampire Like Dracula
The term “Nosferatu” is used to refer to Dracula twice in Bram Stoker’s original novel Dracula, so the phrase could be viewed as a synonym for “Vampire.” In this regard, it is fair to say that Count Orlok is more of a traditional vampire than a demon in Eggers’ movie. Eggers borrowed from various folk traditions when designing his vampire, resulting in Count Orlok’s Nosferatu mustache and his instantly recognizable kolpak hat. Since Stoker’s novel, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror, and 2024’s Nosferatu all borrow from various depictions of vampires, their villains are more than a little inconsistent.
Powers that Count Orlok possesses in the 2024 movie seemingly mark him out as a demon, but only a few actually change Stoker’s original Dracula.
In 2024’s Nosferatu, Count Orlok’s relationship with Ellen’s younger self calls to mind classic possession stories like The Exorcist as he seeks out a young, vulnerable victim and uses their tenuous grasp on sanity against them. However, Francis Ford Coppola depicted the тιтle character of Bram Stoker’s Dracula using similar mental tricks to woo Mina Harker and make her see him, and that villain is clearly intended to be a traditional vampire. Other powers that Count Orlok possesses in the 2024 movie seemingly mark him out as a demon, but only a few actually change Stoker’s original Dracula.
Nosferatu’s Count Orlok Is Often Confused With A Demon
Count Orlok Seems Like A Demon Due To His Supernatural Powers
Count Orlok’s design is different in 2024’s Nosferatu, with the decomposing vampire looking more like a member of the living ᴅᴇᴀᴅ than the movie vampires viewers usually see. However, it is his ability to spread the plague that clearly points to Count Orlok being a demon, since vampires are rarely depicted with this particular power. However, as noted by Jane Kelly in an article for UVAToday, “The vampire was used as a way to explain away mysterious deaths caused by then-unknown diseases” in Eastern European folk tales.
As such, even Count Orlok’s ability to make an entire city fall ill can be attributed to his vampirism. Here, it is important to recall that vampirism is depicted differently throughout the folk tales of various cultures from a broad range of historical eras, so the powers of the vampire are more varied and less specific than contemporary depictions imply. Nosferatu makes Herr Knock a murderer with almost superhuman strength when he escapes the asylum, and the movie never fully explains how Orlok transferred some of his strength to his underling. These abilities are simply present in the vampire.
Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu Makes Count Orlok More Like A Demon
Orlok’s Possession Of Ellen Makes Him Almost Demonic In Nature
It is fair to say that, since historical accounts of vampire myths list so many varied supernatural powers, most of Count Orlok’s abilities fall within the remit of the traditional folkloric vampire. However, it is still notable that Eggers’ Nosferatu pointedly compares Orlok to a demon at various stages of the story, and almost every major character refers to the villain as a “Demon” at one point or another. Ellen’s haunting by Orlok clearly seems like a case of demonic possession when she writhes uncontrollably as her terrified doctor looks on.
Meanwhile, both Willem Dafoe’s Albin Eberhart Von Franz and Ralph Ineson’s Dr. Wilhelm Sievers call Orlok as a demon at different points. Nosferatu changes Dracula’s story when the movie replaces Lucy Westenra with Emma Corrin’s Anna Harding, and the character’s fate owes more to a possession movie than a normal vampire story. In Stoker’s novel, Lucy is bitten by the eponymous vampire, becomes a vampire herself, and is staked through the heart. In Nosferatu, she is attacked by rats Orlok controls and then killed by Orlok himself, while her husband is magically compelled to sleep through these horrors.
Nosferatu’s Demonic Parallels Make Count Orlok Scarier
Eggers’ Movie Makes Its Dracula Stand-In More Powerful Than Ever
As Anna’s death proves, Nosferatu plays fast and loose with the boundaries between demons and vampires. Some folkloric vampires can cause plagues and many depictions of vampires see them compel people to do things like sleep and follow their commands, but most stop short of scenes like Ellen’s apparent possession. However, Stoker’s original Dracula novel does specify that Mina’s soul is held hostage by Dracula after he first bites her, and she will remain partially under his spell until he can be exposed to the sunlight and killed.
Thus, although Nosferatu’s ending is very different from the climax of Stoker’s novel, one could argue that its depiction of Orlok does line up with the author’s ideas about vampires. Vampires have changed a lot in the decades since Stoker’s book became a cultural phenomenon, but Dracula depicts a monster that can control the weather, seize the souls of living people, and compel rats to do their bidding. In these specifics, Eggers’ take on Nosferatu is surprisingly true to the original novel.
The specific contours of his psychological war with Ellen resemble a modern possession movie more than a vampire story.
Where the director diverges is in his depiction of the monster. Like the monsters of Romanian folklore, Eggers’ Orlok is capable of many terrible feats. However, the specific contours of his psychological war with Ellen resemble a modern possession movie more than a vampire story, and Anna’s fate feels more like a demon’s doing than a vampire attack. As a result, it is easy to feel like Nosferatu‘s villain is a demon, even though he does still fit the description of a traditional vampire.
Source: UVAToday
