the annotated nosferatu (2024)

Dissecting Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” (2024) “A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.”

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

𝔄𝔟𝔬𝔲𝔱

This is a Art analysis blog devoted to Robert Eggers Gothic Folk Horror adaptation of “Nosferatu” (2024). The goal is to share, dissect and dig into his references and inspirations. Folks are free to use the information present here and on my main blog.

Cast and Crew Interviews • Cinematography • Set/Production design • Costume design • Prosthetics and Makeup design • Sound design • Original Soundtrack • Choreography • Audio Commentary by Robert Eggers

Prologue • Ending • Narrative/Thematic visual parallels • Collective Psychosis Angle of Interpretation • Lilac symbolism • Count Orlok sigil • Count Orlok backstory • Cinematic inspirations • Literary inspirations (Dracula and Wuthering Heights) • Historical context (early 19th century) • Melodrama • 19th century Medicine • German Romanticism • Balkan, Slavic and German Folklore • A Faustian tale • Occult • Alchemy • Mythology • Feminist Themes • Queer Themes • Jungian psychology • Freudian psychology

“In general, though, we’re hoping that our influences get broken down through some kind of alchemical process and become something else, even if you can smell them and are aware of them.” (Robert Eggers)

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

“Thy soul is cursed. Thy kin are cursed. Thy world is cursed.”

NOSFERATU (2024); dir. Robert Eggers

WERWULF (2026); dir. Robert Eggers

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

Old priest taking a young boy to an underground cave to be introduced to a Pagan religion connected to Underworld Gods, wolves and ecstatic trances?

Eggers validating my theories for teenage Orlok and Solomonari Romanian folklore in “Werwulf” trailer. Amleth (“The Northman”) also had his initiation to Odin worship when he was a teen. Orlok and Zalmoxis was fated to be the same.

“It is also said that an old Solomonar steals children and takes them to the Solomonărie [Scholomance in German], keeping them locked up for seven years.”

— Ion Taloş; “Solomonarul - în credinţele şi legendele populare româneşti” (1974)

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

i hope you’ve been doing well, i’ve missed your posts (though i know there’s only so much to talk about and of course life outside of this blog)! when werwulf comes out, whenever you have the time to post, will you speak about it on here? you’ve mentioned the film a few times in the past but usually they’ve been in connection with nosferatu. just wondering, love you! 💕

I haven’t been very active recently because I’m busy with my research. I hope to discuss “Werwulf”, yes. Especially if it connects to “Nosferatu”, and I’m already sensing it will.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

Please never deactivate, you are a gift to our community <3

Thank you, kind stranger! 🪻🖤

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

hello! i was really intrigued by your answer about werewolves and i was wondering if you had any thoughts on the links between werewolves and medieval serial killers. i say this bc i looked (for like 10 mins so take this w a grain of salt) at the wikipedias for some “convicted” werewolves and they were usually also charged w multiple murders of children/women.

do you think there’s any possibility that a “werewolf” accusation was really just a way for medieval people to explain a local serial killer? like, this guy brutally murdered 6 kids and is clearly mentally unwell, maybe he’s this monster that literally transforms into an animal? asking bc idk if you have a different perspective as someone who grew up w that folklore in your country, like are those two things completely disconnected do you think?

Actually, Eggers did mention that on his first interview about “Werwulf”:

“You see Aaron as a young man and the werewolf trials of serial killers. What was really interesting was that for some of the men, it was really clear in their confessions and through the things that they were saying in the trials that they are victims of trauma. Sometimes contemporary horror movies can be very one-note in their social message, which is not something that I find particularly interesting. But some of these stories of young men who had traumatic childhoods was inspiring and something that we explore here.”

In my country (and we had the Inquisition), there’s no record of anyone being put on trial for being a werewolf because the Church saw it as mere folk superstition and the common people knew how to handle the “situation”. Historically, and especially in more isolated European regions, there has always been a disconnection between the official Church and the peasantry’s folk religion, which is a combo of Christianity and old Pagan traditions/beliefs. In many places, no one care for priests; if there was trouble in the community, the local healer was the one to call, and these women were highly revered and respected. We did have witchcraft trials, though, but also quite rare when compared to other places; here, the main target was the Jewish community.

In other European countries there were, indeed, serial killers who either believed themselves to be werewolves or were accused of being one; and this is, most likely, from where Eggers got his inspiration. Some notorious cases: Peter Stumpp (“Werewolf of Bedburg”) in Germany; Pierre Burgot and Michel Verdun in France and Manuel Blanco Romasanta (Spain). In the scapegoat scenario (you mention), the logic is similar to how witches were seen, as I shared some posts on the topic here; here and here; with the bizarre case of the rat trials in Europe.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

Esquire First Look: Robert Eggers Reveals Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Werwulf

My first though reading this: so… he’s Count Orlok. No, a very different character but I’m already sensing the parallels with Orlok and Amleth (“The Northman”). Also; talk of trauma. We have three traumatized male characters over here; also connected to death, maybe? Father/uncle; wife/daughters… mother/sister?

Also this film will be a nightmare to discuss; no character has a name except the dog?? What do you mean, Eggers!?

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

The new Werwulf film is set to come out later on this year, and so I have a question about the contrasts between both Werewolves and Vampires in folklore and the historical misconceptions. You've stated before that the "romantic" viewpoint of vampires is mostly modern and that in folklore, they'd travel in the astral world and strangle their widows. So, are there any misconceptions people have about werewolves that historically are very much different? I love your blog by the way, it's so so informative and a pleasure to read through!

Thank you, kind stranger!

The “astral” vampire you mention it’s called moroi in Romanian folklore, although it has other names in other countries. In Eggers’ “Nosferatu” it’s Orlok’s shadow, basically. Vampires in folklore target and attack their living relatives, yes, not random victims like literary or pop culture vampires (Eggers said he had no interest adapting because Folk Horror is his brand).

I’m very curious to see what folklore Eggers went with in “Werwulf”. One of misconceptions I keep seeing is that werewolves are “created” via deals with the Devil, which it’s not really the case. The most common folktale is boys being born with the curse, and doomed to become werewolves, usually seventh sons. Personally, I think Eggers went with this (he already did the “deal with the Devil twice), but I can be wrong. My country has a rich werewolf folklore, actually, but also very diverse, and sometimes just bizarre and not really horror film appropriate (ex: in some places, it’s believed you can break a werewolf curse by turning their clothes inside out).

Sometimes folklore overlaps worldwide, others it doesn’t. In my country, werewolves are very connected to the idea of “fate”; one can escape it in childhood through certain rituals, otherwise they are doomed. However, witches can break the werewolf curse (we have good and bad witches here), which is something I can see Eggers gravitating towards since he loves witch folklore, as well. In German and French folklore, silver (a pop culture classic) is indeed used against demons and witches, but, in my country, that’s unheard of. A while ago I saw some folks talking about the connection between werewolf folklore and sex, which left me puzzled because werewolves are connected with murder, cannibalism and violence, literal wolves, and I never heard of any sexual werewolf folktale. That’s a modern take.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

Is Von Franz a Protestant? I know the answer is "it's complicated" because of the occultism, but indulge me

He’s not a Lutheran like the rest of the “German” characters. But yes, it’s kind of complicated because, from his iconography (let’s call it that) he’s a believer in different things: Alchemy, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Kabbalah and he also performs Solomonic magic, which is why he’s so interested in the Solomonari codex of secrets. I think “occultist”, like both Eggers and Dafoe describe him, it’s the most accurate way to explain Professor Von Franz beliefs.

He’s also very into Renaissance magic (which goes along with his interest in Hermeticism) like Agrippa and Dr. John Dee (Enochian system), which are Count Orlok’s contemporaries. This film has a lot of occult Easter eggs, and mindset, sort of speak. Human Count Orlok was almost like Von Franz’s idol, in a way. He was an accomplished occultist and alchemist in life, but ended up cursed by selling his soul to the Devil and didn’t even got what he was seeking, according to Bill Skarsgård.

So, yes, when Professor Von Franz speaks of “salvation” and “redemption” he’s not exactly talking about Christian terms. “Redemption” is a term from Alchemy, connected to the Philosopher’s Stone. Also, Professor Von Franz is an outsider, marginalized by society, sort of like Ellen; neither of them belong in this time period.

Von Franz is there to help Ellen, first and foremost. And when he meets her, he doesn’t jugde her and recognizes her “sickness” as something supernatural. However, he doesn’t fully understand it, either (“I must to my studies”). He thinks she’s possessed by some demon because she’s hysteric. And in their last scene together, he says “only you can redeem us” and “in heathen times you might have been a great priestess of Isis”. Von Franz believes there’s a whole other world. And Gnosticism also believes in Reincarnation (a core belief in Orlok’s pagan belief system). Putting it simple, Gnostics believe our material world is terrible and death is a doorway to another superior existence, kind of like Orlok’s Zalmoxis blessed kingdom (he can’t access because he’s sort of a oathbreaker who needs to, well, redeem himself). As such, he doesn’t see Ellen’s death the same way other characters (like Sievers and Thomas) do. Her death basically sets her soul (and Orlok’s) free. He ends the film smilling, which is the complete opposite of his predecessors. And those who know will smile alongside him because this is probably the happiest ending in all of Eggers films to date.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

Today someone say me this:

"Robert Eggers does not have the final word on what defines consent. He might have been going for a gothic marriage/gothic romance, but what he was going for between Orlok and Ellen was not what he achieved. He was just a torturer to her. I understand the movie. Eggers did not accomplish what he was trying to. The fact is, the true lovers in that movie are Ellen and her husband, much like the true lovers in Dracula are Jonathan and Mina. Ellen does not want anything from the count except to be left alone. Her real partner is her husband! She wants nothing from the account except for him to leave her alone! He tramples the line of consent of both her body and mind."

The bad takes about Nosferatu (2024) never stop...

I have more than 1000 posts in this blog covering all of that starting with interviews from the cast and crew explaining everything and ending with the fact Ellen Hutter book counterpart is not Mina, she’s a mix of Lucy Westenra, the fair girl of the “weird sisters” and even takes some plots from Renfield because “Nosferatu” is not straightforward, clean-cut “Dracula” adaptation like most seem to think it is. Literally nowhere in the novel does Mina sleepwalk. This interpretation Ellen = Mina started in the US and has no connection with Murnau, Grau or Galeen, the creators of 1922 “Nosferatu”. This is also something Coppola sort of adapted on his 1992 Dracula. That’s the point there’s a whole romance going on between Dracula and Mina there. Count Orlok is the one who gets obsessed over a female character, not book Count Dracula.

If folks aren’t familiar with Robert Eggers work, please go watch his other films. It’s worth it. Although, I also have all the parallels between his films here. To stop the nonsense around Ellen’s gift I recommend “The Northman” since she and the He-Witch are extremely similar. Although, I’m eager to see if Shamanism will also be present in “Werwulf” in some form.

About the love triangle folk still refuse to accept, it’s all very simple: Count Orlok is Death. He’s literally called that by Professor Von Franz. Thomas Hutter is life, society and all of that. Ellen ends up dead. She chooses Death = Orlok. A simple fairytale. Folks have made this film way more complicated and darker than it actually is.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

Is there a significance between every leading woman in the Nosferatu movie makes (1922, 1979, 2024) having the staple white nightgown? Is it simply because it's always been in, or is there a stylistic reason as to why?

I think the most possible explanation is found in “Dracula” novel, where Lucy Westenra is described as wearing a “snowy white” nightdress when she’s first bitten by Count Dracula, and she’s also a somnambulist since childhood, like Ellen. She starts sleepwalking again while Dracula is on his way to Whitby, like Ellen/Lucy while Count Orlok/Dracula is on his way to Wisborg/Wismar/Wisburg. So their interactions are connected to somnambulism (which was almost considered a paranormal phenomenon in the 19th century) and dreams, hence the nightgown.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

“Mourning jewellery is a singular, emotional manifestation of grief, recollection, and cultural rituals within the substantial fabric of historical artefacts. This style of jewellery, which dates back to the Victorian era, combines intricate craftsmanship with the nuanced feelings associated with loss to create a concrete representation of sorrow. These elaborate creations, made of materials such as black jet, onyx, and even woven human hair, are testaments to the grim craftsmanship that arose in the face of loss. […] Mourning jewellery was an essential component of Victorian-era culture as it allowed people to express their grief and memorize loved ones […] rings, brooches, and lockets.

[…] Human hair has been incorporated into jewellery since at least the seventeenth century. Around that time, the hair of the dear departed began to be incorporated into memento mori pieces, as a wearable remembrance of those who had gone before. […] gifts were exchanged between friends and relatives. Although hair jewellery had been worn before 1861, Queen Victoria's usage of it following the passing of her husband, Prince Albert, revived and increased its appeal. Due to Queen Victoria's loss, jewellery designs changed from modest memories and symbols of affection to more dramatic and solemn mourning jewellery that featured the hair of a deceased loved one.”

— Alexander Lappin Mackay; “Victorian Mourning Hair Jewellery (1840-1900)” (2024)

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

Most of these accusations are really about the source material; you can blame it on Bram Stoker, not Robert Eggers, Murnau or even Werner Herzog. -> ok no you've to stuck to one narrative. Either Eggers can subvert Dracula and change completely the narrative or he's tied by the novel's xenophobia, it cannot be both!

I never mentioned the novel’s xenophobia, nor antisemitism, for that matter. Stoker included the Romani as superstitious and as Dracula’s helpers, that was my point. Thomas Hutter uses the G-slur because his book counterpart Harker does the same and, unfortunately, it’s period accurate; this was something I’ve seen being used against Eggers several times. Including the fact there are Roma people in his film connected to Orlok/Dracula, when this is Stoker’s creation, not Eggers. Romani people also held beliefs about vampires, as folklorist Jan L. Perkowski explores on his “Vampires Of The Slavs” (1976). Stoker never set foot in Transylvania, but he did do some research to write “Dracula”, and many of the misguided notions he had are often blamed on Emily Gerard “The Land beyond the Forest” (1888).

And again: Robert Eggers is not adaptating “Dracula”; he’s doing his own spin on “Nosferatu” as created by F. W. Murnau, Henrik Galeen and Albin Grau, who included a bunch of stuff that’s not in the book, at all. Dracula’s victims don’t die of plague, nor does he bring a rat transmitted plague to Germany. Dracula isn’t obsessed with one female character like Count Orlok. In all honestly, it’s still mindblowing to me how everyone recognizes “Nosferatu” is a sort of “Dracula” rip off while thinking Ellen’s book counterpart is Mina. I don’t remember Mina sleepwalking in the book while Dracula is on his way to Whitby, but there’s another female character who does, and Eggers directly compared her to his Ellen.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

Designer-Turned-Director Robert Eggers Discusses His Horror Film ‘The Witch’

[ellensferatu]

#nosferatu 2024 script

This is what the kissing scene in the Hardings’ parlour should actually have looked like: Ellen hurting Thomas; the frightened children screaming that there is a monster in the house… Monstrosity and sexuality intertwined — exactly what Eggers was trying to say. The sexuality of the protagonist, which both she and society perceive as something terrible, something that carries an inevitable threat.

Instead, we got a sterilized scene of an almost chaste kiss: Instagrammable, perfectly capable of pushing many viewers into sympathizing with the newlyweds while completely missing what the film is about. Two beautiful people kissing beautifully in a Victorian interior — and trusting viewers, accustomed to plastic, standardized romance, immediately gave them their hearts and decided that Thomas and Ellen were “the main couple.” No “you’re hurting me.” No children screaming in the background. I don’t know why the scene was changed so drastically; most likely, the studio interfered. So instead of complex, ambiguous scenes, we are forced to swallow standard pink goo, the kind that can so easily be turned into a TikTok reel.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

@ellensferatu I disagree with everything, and that’s not Eggers intention with that scene, at all. Ellen’s fingernails dig into Thomas chin and neck, and Thomas lets out a grunt of pain as she does it. There’s no need for unnecessary dialogue, when it’s clear she is, indeed, hurting him. Ellen’s hand position even parallels Orlok feeding on Thomas later (“It’s not me. It’s your own nature”); in both scenes, Hutter is at Ellen and Orlok’s mercy (Orlok as Ellen’s shadow self). The music grows eerie, setting the tone of the scene. There’s nothing romantic or “beautiful” about it; it’s all about “devourence” and Ellen as a metaphorical vampire (“He is my shame!”).

The children say “there is a monster in the room” as Ellen is brought into the scene by the camera work. The concept of “monstrous femininity” is very present, as Ellen takes the active role, while Hutter is in a passive/submissive position, which is a clear subversion of the period’s gender roles, when women had no sexual desire and every expression of it was seen as deviant, which is why this scene is presented this way to the audience.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

But isn't Orlock kinda racist or at least prejudiced towards the Romani because of the way he was talking about them during his meeting with Thomas? Does it stem from his noble background?

Is this because of this exchange? Orlok calls the ritual Hutter witnessed “filthy” not due to racial bias, but because it's a practice which can destroy him, and prevent him from escaping his Faustian bargain. He’s not saying the Romani are “filthy”. The moment Hutter talks about seeing “gypsies” the previous night, Orlok gives him the side-eye:

And then he explains what “last night” was (Saint Andrew’s Eve) and talks about “our common people”, and Hutter calls them the “peasantry”. He’s identifying the Romani as his people. Not as in his relatives; this Orlok (like book Dracula) is of Székely ancestry. The History of the Romani people in Romania is dark with accounts of slavery (especially in Wallachia and Moldavia), with Transylvania (where Orlok is from) being a sort of exception, where the Romani, according to the law, were free men, not slaves. By the 16th century (during Orlok’s human life), there’s accounts of many Romani in Transylvania as no longer nomad.

Which leads me to the next point: the Romani work for Count Orlok, the same way they work for Dracula in the novel. That’s why there’s a shovel at the crypt. Unlike the previous adaptations, this Orlok needs help to get his sarcophagus around, like shown by his scenes with Herr Knock once he arrives at Wisburg. Meaning, someone transported his sarcophagus to the harbour for him to travel. That’s where the Romani also come in, like in the book (they are the ones who assist Dracula moving about, as well). The Handsome Roma Man has a gold tooth, and the brunette Romani dancer has golden coins on her hair… And later Orlok exchanges a sack full of Roman and Dacian gold coins for Thomas’ signature in the covenant papers. Based on these details, the Romani are getting paid in gold for their services.

More relevant to ask: were the Romani Thomas saw even real, to begin with? The ones he met at dusk, probably, but the ones he sees during the night in Saint Andrew’s Eve, with the supernatural being real? No. Bring on “The VVitch” tagline: “Evil takes many forms”. Which leads us to another enigma and raises some intriguing questions.

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

I mean, Eggers has Romani steal Thomas' horse. In the original, Thomas says he is going to "the land of thieves", but he's not robbed at least.

First, you are already answering what’s the reference for that. Second, the Romani were trying to stop Thomas from going up to the castle and meet with Count Orlok.

They took his horse for that very reason, to leave him without a means of transportation. They weren’t exactly expecting him to venture up the hill on foot (like 1979 Harker). They aren’t stealing Hutter just because or due to racial stereotypes, there’s a whole plot going on here.