Visual Storytelling in “Nosferatu” (2024): Count Orlok Iconography, the Demonized Occultist and the Dacians of Old
Robert Eggers’ Count Orlok isn’t a arbitrary demon vampire; he was once a man cursed into becoming Nosferatu. Robert Eggers doesn’t want for the audience to know the full backstory on his Orlok, but he wrote a few-pages novella and gave it to Bill Skarsgård in preparation for the role; which, according to the director, influenced Bill's entire performance , the story behind the prologue between Count Orlok and Ellen, and even the meaning of the ending . The audience knows Count Orlok is a 16th century Transylvanian nobleman , from the 1580s-1590s (“lord” and “lordship”), he’s not Vlad the Impaler (15th century), he was a voivode , an enchanter ( Şolomonar ) and married with a family . In the " Dracula " novel by Bram Stoker, professor Abraham Van Helsing reveals his findings of Count Dracula's past: “ As I learned from the researches of my friend Arminius of Buda-Pesth, he was in life a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist. Whic...