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The Haunting History Behind Nosferatu
Before you watch the latest horror story from Robert Eggers, uncover over a century of vampire movie history.
Focus Features’ highly anticipated gothic horror film Nosferatu is about to make the winter cold even more chilling. From acclaimed director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman), the film features an all-star cast including Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, and Willem Dafoe.
Before you sink your teeth into Nosferatu when it releases in theaters on Christmas Day, here’s everything you need to know about the history behind this new spin on a vampire classic.
Is Nosferatu a remake?
Eggers' new take on Nosferatu is the latest incarnation of a legendary vampire tale whose roots stretch back over a century. The 2024 film is intended as a remake of the original 1922 Nosferatu. A silent film, the original Nosferatu was directed by F.W. Murnau, and starred Max Schreck as the sinister Count Orlok. The original film’s full title is Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, or in the original German, Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens. “Nosferatu” is not the name of a character, but rather, an archaic Romanian word for a vampire, potentially derived from the Romanian “nesuferitu,” meaning “the offensive one.”
Nosferatu tells the story of Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim), a young real estate agent who travels to Transylvania to work on a deal with the mysterious Count Orlok. During his visit, Hutter becomes increasingly unnerved by Orlok’s behavior, suspecting that he is a vampire. When Hutter returns to his hometown, he finds Orlok has followed him, and he must defeat the vampire, who also seems to have a mysterious link to his wife, Ellen (Greta Schröder). If that plot sounds strikingly familiar to another classic vampire movie, that's for a good reason.
Is Nosferatu related to Dracula?
Murnau’s Nosferatu is an unauthorized, unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. The film changed the names of the characters and settings, which has been interpreted by historians either as a move to avoid copyright issues, or one to make the originally English novel more relatable to German audiences. Count Orlok is analogous to Count Dracula, Thomas Hutter to Jonathan Harker, Ellen Hutter to Mina Harker, Professor Bulwer to Dr. Van Helsing, and so on.
Though Stoker had died in 1912, his widow, Florence, took notice of Nosferatu’s similarity to Dracula, and pursued legal action for copyright infringement. Due to errors in paperwork, Dracula was already in the public domain in the U.S., but in Europe, it would remain under copyright protections until 1962. The court proceedings prevented Nosferatu from being widely seen upon its original release. The court case forced production company Prana Film into bankruptcy, and in 1925, all prints of the film were ordered to be destroyed.
Luckily, a few prints survived, including just one in the United States. Since Dracula was not subject to copyright protections in the U.S., Nosferatu could be freely copied, distributed, and exhibited, and over the decades, it became a beloved cult classic.
Meanwhile, Dracula became the more well-known and mainstream version of the story, thanks to numerous major film adaptations, including Universal’s iconic 1931 film starring Bela Lugosi in the titular role, Christopher Lee’s portrayal in the 1950s Hammer Horror films, and a 1992 adaptation starring Gary Oldman and directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Are there other Nosferatu movies?
Nosferatu received a high-profile remake in 1979 from legendary writer and director Werner Herzog. His version was entitled Nosferatu the Vampyre (now streaming on Peacock) in English and Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, meaning Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night in German. While the original Nosferatu was a silent film with intertitles originally in German, Herzog’s remake was released in both English and German-language versions, which were filmed at the same time. Herzog's film did not use dubbing or subtitles to create these two different versions, instead, scripts for the film were made in both English and German, and all the actors performed their scenes in both languages.
Notably, the 1979 Nosferatu returns to the original character names from Dracula. The central vampire played by Klaus Kinski, despite a similar appearance to Schrek’s Count Orlok, is referred to as Count Dracula, and the tormented real estate agent played by Bruno Ganz is named Jonathan Harker. Isabelle Adjani portrays Harker’s wife, who in this version, is named Lucy, though in the original novel, Harker’s wife is named Mina, and her friend is named Lucy. Herzog’s take on the film was critically acclaimed, and noted for the director’s more contemplative style, which features beautiful cinematography and a focus on the tragic loneliness of the vampire.
Kinski reprised his role in the critically panned 1988 film Vampire in Venice, also known as Prince of the Night or Nosferatu in Venice. Beyond Kinski’s involvement, the film has no connection to Herzog’s film, instead featuring a new plot and cast of characters.
In 2000, director E. Elias Merhige and screenwriter Steven Katz brought us the film Shadow of the Vampire, a meta take on the original Nosferatu. The film’s story is a fictionalized behind-the-scenes look at Murnau’s film, which posits that Schreck, the film’s star, played by Willem Dafoe, was genuinely a vampire. Alongside Dafoe, the film stars John Malkovich as Murnau and Cary Elwes as cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner. Shadow of the Vampire was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Best Makeup, and for Best Supporting Actor for Dafoe.
What is the legacy of Nosferatu?
Perhaps the greatest legacy of the original Nosferatu is that of the film’s visuals. Our popular conceptions of vampires largely trace back to two prototypes. One, that of the European gentleman with slicked-back black hair and well-fitting suit, stems from Lugosi’s portrayal of Dracula. But the other, the more visibly monstrous vampire with a skull-like pale bald head, pointed ears, claw-like fingers and jagged fangs, originates from Schreck’s iconic visage as Orlok. Vampire characters inspired by the original Orlok look can be seen everywhere from Salem’s Lot to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to What We Do in the Shadows.
Murnau’s Nosferatu is also considered a totemic work in the artistic movement known as German Expressionism. In this period, German artists channeled their heightened emotions from the trauma of World War I and the unstable political situation of the Weimar Republic into art which reflected these dark, intense feelings. In film, this manifested in a stylized, deliberately unrealistic visual style, with dramatic shadows, heavy makeup, and twisted, angular sets that created a sense of a nightmarish, off-kilter world. German Expressionism’s distinctive aesthetics have become highly influential in cinema and have been points of reference for many filmmakers in the decades since. In particular, Tim Burton’s signature visual style draws heavily from German Expressionism.
Nosferatu is also the origin point for one of the most central pieces of vampire mythos: the idea that vampires can be killed by sunlight. The climax of Murnau’s film was the first to depict a vampire being killed by sunlight, but in Stoker’s Dracula, the titular character is able to walk openly in daylight and is only slightly weakened by it.
Eggers' new Nosferatu has kept under wraps what Bill Skarsgård's version of Count Orlok looks like, keeping viewers on the edge of their seats as they await the latest version of this horror icon. Witness the latest installment in this century-long horror legacy when Nosferatu hits theaters on December 25. Tickets are now on sale right here!
