Robert Eggers' films are concerned, on the one hand, with being as historically accurate as possible, and, on the other hand, with the contrast between historical myths, self-descriptions, and historical psychology versus current psychology. This is the case for all of Eggers previous films, THE VVITCH, THE NORTHMAN and THE LIGHTHOUSE, but also for Eggers’ version of NOSTERATU.

NOSFERATU, given the additional title DER UNTOTE (trans. The Undead) by the German distributor, is an adaptation of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's NOSFERATU - EINE SYMPHONIE DES HORROR (1921), which in turn was the first adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel DRACULA. A Hungarian, long lost Dracula film that was made earlier has nothing to do with the novel. NOSFERATU incorporates large parts of Stoker’s plot and characters. The framework largely remains the same. In the fictional German coastal town of Wysbar (in Stoker's case: the real town of Whitby, famous for its picturesque monastery ruins and for Dracula), Thomas Hutter (Jonathan Harker) receives an order from the estate agent Knock to travel to Transylvania to see Count Orlock (Dracula). His young fiancée Ellen (Stoker: Lucy/Mina) has bad premonitions, begins to sleepwalk, and has strange fits.

Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula” was published in 1897, two years after Sigmund Freud published his “Studies on Hysteria.” Stoker probably didn’t know Freud’s writings, but he knew Freud’s instructor who put him on the path of psychoanalysis: Jean-Marie Charcot. Charcot’s live demonstrations in Paris, in which he was able to induce “hysterical attacks” in his patients through hypnosis, were extremely popular. In Stoker’s novel there’s a conversation between neurologist John Seward and Professor van Helsing where they praise Charcot. When asked in an interview, Robert Eggers confirmed that Charcot was important to him, but the contemporaneous photographs of Albert Londe, who documented the hysterical fits and postures of patients, served as more of an inspiration. The photographs were the template for the fits of Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp). At around 30 takes per scene, this must have been extremely physical strenuous for the actress.

Ellen is shackled in the course of the film, which was one, if by far not the worst, “treatment” for “hysterical,” “mentally ill,” and “perverse” women. Genitalia – the clitoris and ovaries – were amputated. Female masturbation was considered a perversion. At the start of the film, a crying Ellen conjures up a “guardian angel,” which is later said to be due to her shame after discovering the “sins in her body.“ This NOSFERATU is also a story about female mental illness in the 1830s shown from the perspective of the 1890s (Stoker), the 1920s (Murnau and writer Galleen, who knew Freud of course) and the present.

Eggers said in an interview that he wanted to make Count Orlock look like a Romanian count who had been (un)dead for 600 years. His body posture is meant to be a bit reminiscent of Max Schreck in F.W. Murnau’s original NOSFERATU – EINE SYMPHONIE DES GRAUENS. But, above all, Count Orlock (Bill Skarsgård) seems to be really dead. Nosferatu is a different vampire than Dracula: he has a certain illusionistic power, but can’t create new vampires, and doesn’t promise eternal life in moral decay which can also be appealing. Nosferatu only brings about “the big death“ (the first panel in Murnau’s film). Eggers’ vampire is more oriented on earlier, folkloric descriptions than all Dracula films, which becomes very clear with the magnificently arranged final image, which is reminiscent of artistic motifs of the 16th century.


The cinematography of the new NOSFERATU film alternates, like Murnau's version, between Gothic elements, expressionism, and New Objectivity. The images are carefully staged for the greatest possible visual effect; NOSFERATU looks fantastic. Eggers removes all romantic eroticism. At best, there is an unspoken and unrealized erotic tension between Ellen and her friend Anna (Emma Corrin) beyond Ellen's depression and longing for death.
Those who want to see the darkest vampire film in film history will be very satisfied, as long as they’re not expecting a Dracula film. A different vampire brings upon the big death here and there’s virtually no saving, no garlic, no cross, no stake to the heart, no flowing water that can kill the Count.

Tom Dorow (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy