Jonathan Harker traveling to Transylvania and meeting Count Dracula has been adapted a thousand times throughout cinematic history, including by the previous 1922 and 1979 "Nosferatu". To bring a new vision into the fold, Robert Eggers returned to the past, and embraced Old Slavic and Balkan folklore (mainly Transylvanian) about vampires: "[While] trying to understand the origins of the vampire myth and understanding folk vampires, I had to forget everything that I had learned." The director has been outspoken about fully rejecting the "Anglo literary vampire", and Romanian poet and screenwriter Florin Lăzărescu worked as the consultant and researcher on 19th-century Transylvania, Romanian folklore and dialects (Romanian, Romani and the reconstruted Dacian Count Orlok uses for his incantations). As Robert Eggers has explained, the "myth" surrounding his Count Orlok is Transylvanian folklore: "One of the tasks I had was synthesizing Grau’s 20th-century occultism with cult understandings of the 1830s and with the Transylvanian folklore that was my guiding principle for how Orlok was going to be, what things he was going to do, and the mythology around him. I was synthesizing a mythology that worked with all of that." In Part I of these collection of posts (concerning the Prologue), I made an introduction to Count Orlok's "vampire nature" in Robert Eggers' adaptation of "Nosferatu".
Caspar David Friedrich, "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog", 1818
Production designer Craig Lathrop began working on "Nosferatu" around the time of the first script, in 2016, and incorporated Romanticism paintings (mostly German) into the film aesthetics: "When I got the script nearly ten years ago, I just asked myself one question: since I have more resources than you would have in 1922, for instance, how do I build this world to the best of my abilities?" Romanticism, he decided, would be his way in. "Right away I wanted to dive into that, those landscape artists and the literature. Caspar David Friedrich is probably our favourite: you can see some echoes of his art directly in some scenes. But – and I don’t know if that can always specifically be mapped on to moments here – you’re supposed to feel the sense of the solitary figure in this big space. I think that absolutely permeates what we’re trying to do all through the film."
I. "Beware his Shadow"
Unlike his predecessors, Robert Eggers placed his Castle Orlok in a specific Transylvanian city: Hunedoara. The director aspired to film all scenes in location, but such turned out not to be possible: "We wanted to shoot Transylvania for Transylvania, but at the end, it wasn't financially feasible. So we shot some plates. Most of Transylvania [in the film] is the Czech Republic, but the most epic landscapes are actually Transylvania, including that castle." Hunedoara castle (also known as Corvin Castle) is considered one of Europe's largest medieval castles, and a masterpiece of European Gothic-Renaissance architecture.
Robert Eggers justified his choice as a reference to Bram Stoker's inspirations: "my belief - and I have proof, but someone else could prove me wrong - was that Bram Stoker would've seen an engraving of that castle in Emily Gerard's book on Transylvania when the spires were collapsing and falling apart. And I think that was actually his model Castle Dracula rather than Bram Castle, which [the real-life] Dracula's actual castle. That was our castle exterior. The interiors were built, and the courtyard was a castle in the Czech Republic, but the facade is in Transylvania".
"Corvin Castle" in Emily Gerard, "Transylvanian Superstitions", 1885
Unlike his predecessors from 1922 and 1979 adaptations of "Nosferatu", Robert Eggers' Thomas Hutter wasn't exactly given an cheerful welcome into the Carpathians. He arrives at dusk, and even though the Romani dance and play music, both them and the Innkeeper tell him to leave, almost right away, and only allow him to stay when he says he will pay "double" for the room.
In the "Dracula" novel, as well as in the 1922 and 1979 versions, Thomas/Jonathan is well received until he mentions Count Orlok/Dracula: "When I asked him if he knew Count Dracula, and could tell me anything of his castle, both he and his wife crossed themselves, and, saying that they knew nothing at all, simply refused to speak further. It was so near the time of starting that I had no time to ask anyone else, for it was all very mysterious and not by any means comforting."
Thomas refusing the children
Robert Eggers incorporated the Romani reception of Jonathan from Werner Herzog’s version, yet with a twist, because these Romani work for Count Orlok, as they do for Count Dracula in the novel. Both Herzog and Eggers' adaptations use the word "gypsy"; considered an cultural offensive term for the Romani people, it was taken from the "Dracula" novel, as Jonathan Harker also calls the Romani "gypsies" (or "Szgany"), due to the time period when it was written.
Nicholas Hoult has described Thomas' journey through Transylvania "as a descent into darkness. Filming all that was quite magical, especially seeing how cinematographer Jarin Blaschke lit and captured everything. Watching the film, you get the sense that Thomas's fate is entirely out of his hands - in one scene, he's almost magnetically drawn towards the eerie carriage that will take him to the castle. For that, I was standing on a platform and rather than walking towards the carriage, I was pulled in." The actor also said of his character: “he is so good-natured and pure in many ways, I think he hasn’t ever let any darkness into his life or in his own passions.” Folk dance with emphasis on the chest (heart) was chosen to grab Thomas' attention
The Romani play and dance, the children ask him for money (which he denies), they all have their eyes set on Thomas, and the camera lingers in a beautiful young woman, dressed in red and with gold coins on her dark hair, before making way to another character. Red is an extremely rare color in the film, used with intent, as Robert Eggers has explained: "The moonlit scenes are virtually black-and-white, just with a cyan blue tint,” says Eggers. “The lack of colour in a colour film can have its own power. The only red in the movie is blood and embroidery on some of the Transylvanian costumes."
Costume designer Linda Muir also addressed the use of red in one interview: "I was to avoid the use of red, other than in the clothing of the Hunedoarian and Romani folk costuming [...] The villagers at the inn in Hunedoara, the wandering Romania which showed men and women of that specific region. This research was the most difficult because it was written in Romanian. I found illustrations drawn by a Romanian woman who travelled the country recording folk costuming, and photographs that depicted some of the garments that remain unchanged. Outside that inn, the Romani men and women were costumed with the knowledge that they were nomadic and would likely have drawn from used clothing picked up in their travels." This was also something cinematographer Jarin Blaschke discussed: "Rob was very particular about not seeing red in the movie except for blood. When you did see blood, he wanted it to connect."
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Two young women with treasure (gold/lilacs) on their dark hair and wearing red (blood); Count Orlok will exchange Roman and Dacian gold coins for the silver heart-shaped locket with lilac-scented Ellen's hair inside
Once the music stops, and before the Innkeeper arrives, the Romani, lead by a character named "Handsome Roma man", begin laughting at Thomas, which looks at the scene in confusion.
“Dau cu ustoroi de strigoi. Dau cu ustoroi de strigoi.”
As she's performing a banishing ritual with garlic, the Innkeeper's Wife tells the audience Count Orlok is a strigoi, which is the Romanian word for "vampire", although this is a bit more complex, as Robert Eggers, himself, has discussed: "I think, for a long time, Romanian folklorists weren’t willing to call strigoi—which is their word for vampires—vampires. They were saying that a vampire is an Anglo literary invention, and their strigoi was another thing altogether. Also, the conflation with Vlad the Impaler/Vlad Tepes [is] complicated. Even though he was cruel, he is, in some ways, a national hero. Aside from Mihai the Brave, he was one of the few rulers who united all of the Romanian states as one. So, they weren’t into it very much, but they know that it’s a good tourist attraction. But I think in the past 10 or 20 years, more folklorists are cool with calling strigoi vampires, [which includes] Florin Lăzărescu, who’s Romanian screenwriter, poet, and novelist who worked with us on the Romanian dialect and creating the ancient language that Orlok uses for his magical spells, and general vampire lore."
Unlike the previous versions of "Nosferatu", Robert Eggers chose to reveal Count Orlok's vampire nature either through exposition (dialogue) or visual storytelling, sometimes both, throughout the film.
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"Beware his shadow. The shadow covers you in nightmare. Awake, but a dream. There is no escape. Pray. Pray."
Similar to Werner Herzog’s version, the Innkeeper's Wife also give him a wooden cross for protection. This is a reference to the "Dracula" novel, where the "old lady" from Golden Krone Hotel does the same when she begs Jonathan not to leave because it's Saint George's Eve: "Just before I was leaving, the old lady came up to my room and said in a hysterical way: "Must you go? Oh! Young Herr, must you go?" She was in such an excited state that she seemed to have lost her grip of what German she knew, and mixed it all up with some other language which I did not know at all. [...] "It is the eve of St. George's Day. Do you not know that to-night, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway? Do you know where you are going, and what you are going to?" She was in such evident distress that I tried to comfort her, but without effect. Finally, she went down on her knees and implored me not to go; at least to wait a day or two before starting. It was all very ridiculous but I did not feel comfortable. However, there was business to be done, and I could allow nothing to interfere with it. [...] She then rose and dried her eyes, and taking a crucifix from her neck offered it to me. [...] She saw, I suppose, the doubt in my face, for she put the rosary round my neck and said, "For your mother's sake," and went out of the room."
The reference to St. George's Eve isn't present on the 1979 adaptation of "Nosferatu", and Robert Eggers changed it to St. Andrew's Eve, as Count Orlok will reveal to the audience, in the extended version:
"Yesternight was but the eve of their Sfântul Andrei. Our common people say it is the darkest witching night when Devil’s magic bids the wolf to speak with tongues of men, and every nightmare treads upon this earth, ascendent from the torturous grave."
According to Montague Summers, "The Vampire in Europe: True Tales of the Undead", in Romania, there are certain times during the year when strigoi and moroi are at the height of their power, and precautions must be taken. The two particular times are St. Andrew’s Eve (November 30th; the start of Winter in Romania) and St. George's Eve (April 23rd). Throughout Eastern Europe (especially Poland, Ukraine and Romania), the night of November 30th is considered a particular magical date; similar to Western Halloween, is considered as the night when dark and maleficent forces unleash upon Earth, because the veil between life and death is lifted, and the spirits of the dead, vampires and werewolves, are able to roam freely among the living. The spirit of the dead escape their graves and fight on borders, crossroads and other unholy places, using tools stolen from their relatives' homes. This fight is said to last until daybreak, when the dawn purifies the earth and all bad spirits go to where they came. This is a night still heavily associated with fortune-telling throughout Eastern European countries, often connected to love divination, when young women are said to be able to see their future marriages.
This date is also connected to the Dacian New Year, and ancient Dacian rituals, being known as “night of the wolves”, in Romanian folklore, and connected with the "master of wolves" myth. In some legends, it's said St. Andrew returns to speak with the wolves, while in others wolves are able to talk to each other, and those who listen can turn into werewolves, or learn the hidden secrets of the world; which is what Count Orlok tells Thomas during their dinner scene.
Robert Eggers' adaptation is set in the Winter, which provides one layer of the explanation as to why the director changed the reference to St. George's Eve from the "Dracula" novel into St. Andrew's Eve. This date being associated with the Dacians plays an important role, as well, since his Count Orlok is connected to them (in more ways than just the language he uses for his incantations), and embodies the Dacian wolf warrior, a possible reference to Count Dracula in wolf form. Probably a nod to the origin of "Orlok", based on the book, as well: "I must say they were not cheering to me, for amongst them were "Ordog"--Satan, "Pokol"--hell, "stregoica"--witch, "vrolok" and "vlkoslak"--both mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other Servian for something that is either werewolf or vampire. (Mem.,I must ask the Count about these superstitions.)"
While the Innkeeper's Wife made an impression on Thomas, he doesn't wear the wooden cross she gave him, as when he awakes during the night due to chanting outside of his window, he's not wearing it around his neck.
In the original 1922 "Nosferatu" Thomas Hutter goes to bed, and has a seemingly good night sleep. In Werner Herzog's adaptation, after dark, Jonathan joins the Romani and the Innkeeper (who acts as a translator), and they tell him not to go to Castle Dracula and share tales about the place as a warning; those who venture there never return, and the castle is but a ruin and doesn't exist but in the imagination of men.
"He says you shouldn't go there, young man."
This seems to be a reference to the "Dracula" novel, when Jonathan Harker encounters people of several nationalities, while he's preparing to travel to Castle Dracula, and they warn him not to go there and a man translates what they are saying: "This was not very pleasant for me, just starting for an unknown place to meet an unknown man. But everyone seemed so kind-hearted, and so sorrowful, and so sympathetic that I could not but be touched. I shall never forget the last glimpse which I had of the inn yard and its crowd of picturesque figures, all crossing themselves."
Robert Eggers, however, took a different route with the Romani, due to the nightmare motif he explored on his own version. After his night wanderings, Thomas awakes on his bed at dawn, yet he has the wooden cross around his neck, and his boots are soiled with mud. A rooster is heard. Once he goes outside, everyone is gone, Innkeepers and Romani, alike, the place is deserted, and even his horse disappeared, leaving him with no choice but to journey up to the castle on foot until a carriage appears (like 1979 Jonathan).
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"Hello? My horse?"
In the novel, when Jonathan Harker arrives at the Carpathians, he has trouble sleeping: "I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it." Count Dracula sends him a letter upon his arrival: "My friend.--Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well tonight. At three tomorrow the diligence will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me. I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.--Your friend, Dracula."
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Thomas follows the Romani, and witnesses their ritual to find the grave of a vampire (which they call "moroi"). As Paul Barber writes in "The Vampire: A Casebook", "it was once believed that one could detect the presence of a vampire in the grave by attempting to lead a horse across the grave. If the horse balked, the grave contained a vampire". A similar ritual is also present in one of the films Robert Eggers has named as his cinematic inspirations for his own version of "Nosferatu": Serbian horror cult classic "Leptirica" (1973); where a black stallion helps locate the grave of the vampire. The usage of a white horse in Transylvania is mentioned by Montague Summers on his "The Vampire in Europe: True Tales of the Undead". In Eastern European folklore, it's a virgin boy that's often used in these sort of rituals. Neverthleness, they are able to find the grave.
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"I have... my lord, I have questions about the, um, unfamiliar customs of the peasantry and, um, errant wanderers... Last night, I saw, or rather I believe I saw a band of gypsies... they ventured to a small birch grove, and [...] These gypsies, they exhumed a corpse [...] What manner of ritual?"
The "Handsome Roma Man" steps forward with a spike of cold iron in hand, and pierces the navel of the corpse, and it seemingly shrieks and vomits blood. On his "The Vampire in Europe: True Tales of the Undead", Montague Summers shares several folktales throughout Eastern Europe on the custom of driving a stake through the navel or the heart of the suspected vampire as the most common method of destruction, and several materials (oak, aspen, whitehorn, etc.) were used. In Transylvania, however, iron was said to be the prefered. And, in the "Dracula" novel, this is how Jonathan Harker and Quincy Morris destroy the Count at the end (stake through the heart and decapitation).
"No! By the grace of God!"
Thomas and the "Handsome Roma man" lock eyes. The mysterious man seems to look right into Thomas' soul and smiles at him. Everything turns black, and Thomas wakes at dawn, at first cock-crow, and the Inn is deserted, and appears to have been for some time.
There's a visual similitarity between the "Handsome Roma man" of "Nosferatu" (2024) and Black Philip from "The VVitch" (2015), as their appareance and costume are reminiscent; long dark hair and beard, a black hat, and a dark cape. These are different actors, yet the resemblance between the two characters is significant because there's a character who sold their soul to the Devil (or a demon) in this story, as well: Count Orlok.
"Black Philip" (Devil) in "The VVitch" (2015), as Thomasin signs his book and sells her soul to him
The Handsome Roma Man stares into Thomas Hutter's soul in “Nosferatu” (2024)
"Nothing you can say will shake me – for there is a devil in this world, and I have met him."
This moment will remain imprinted in Thomas' memory, as he'll try to perform this ritual, himself, twice: when he finds Count Orlok in his death-like sleep in his sarcophagus and at the end of the film. What all of these scenes have in common in their failure because this first ritual scene is all wrong, on purpose, to signal the viewer something is not quite right here.
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Thomas Hutter and three "spikes of cold iron"
These rituals to locate the grave of a vampire are done during daytime, when the suspected vampire is in his grave, not during the night, when it's active. And the film will address this with Count Orlok, when Thomas, like his book counterpart, tries to destroy him near sunset, and the Count eventually wakes-up in time to stop him.
According to production designer Craig Lathrop, the pick-axe left behind at the crypt of Castle Orlok is part of a backstory, which can only be connected to the "Dracula" novel and the Romani who work for Count Dracula. When Thomas discovers the crypt of the castle, the stone floor near Orlok's sarcophagus was removed, the soil dig out to fill the grave because Count Orlok is about to travel to Wisburg, and he needs to rest on the earth where he was buried during the day. In the book, this is done by the Romani servants of Dracula, as witnessed by Jonathan Harker: "A band of Szgany have come to the castle, and are encamped in the courtyard. These are gipsies [...] They attach themselves as a rule to some great noble or boyar, and call themselves by his name."
Yet, an object that can kill Count Orlok is conveniently left behind for Thomas to find, by a mysterious character that laughed like Mephistopheles, resembles the Devil from "The VVitch" (2015), and shows him the folk method to destroy a vampire, during Saint Andrew's Eve: a night where no human would venture outside, in this part of the world and during this time period, which can find reference in the original 1922 "Nosferatu". Count Orlok, similar to the literary Faust as Bill Skarsgård has discussed, is trying to escape the bargain he made centuries ago, and prevent either the Devil or a demon from getting his soul, and the demonic entity with whom he made compact, like the literary Mephistopheles, appears to be working to prevent that from happening, in return.
In the original 1922 "Nosferatu", Hutter is warned not to travel nor go outside on the night of his arrival, because a werewolf is roaming the forests, which he dismisses as superstition, but, eventually, agrees to stay at the Inn. The locals at the Inn are shown to be terrified of the werewolf, and stay indoors praying for protection, similiar to the "Dracula" novel with St. George's Eve. As mentioned above, this might be a reference to the origin of the name "Orlok" based on the book: "vrolok", "werewolf" or "vampire". Yet, "Ordog" is connected to "Satan", and that appears to be the route Robert Eggers took on his own version of the tale for this plot.
Thomas says the ritual took place in a birch groove. Birches are trees with deep symbolism in Norse, Central and Eastern European Pre-Christian and Folklore beliefs, and they were already a part of "The Northman" (2022) with the character of Olga of the Birch Forest, whom, after Amleth makes his choice, enchants to the horizon: "Ride with me, daughters of the North wind! Carry me and mine to the shores of my children's forbears. There I'll grow you a forest of birch, fathomless branches to dance your tempest with, raptured by your most righteous breath". The destination of the ship are said to be the Orkney Islands (Scotland), yet Olga asks for guidance to a new location. At the end, when dying Amleth has a vision of Olga and their twin children, she's in a forest (evocative of the scene when they consummated their bound, in a birch forest in Iceland).
In Slavic folklore, birch forests are associated with the spirit world, and the spirits of the forest, seen as guardians and protecting the creatures that dwell within. Birch forests are said to be sacred locations, used to perform rituals and offerings. Deeply connected with feminine energies, in Norse mythology are associated with the Goddess Freyja, often used in rituals to invoke her blessings. In Slavic folktales, birch trees are associated with lovers separated by fate, societal norms or supernatural forces. Birch forests are also associated with Baba Yaga, the wild crone from Slavic folklore, the guardian of the threshold between life and death, decay and renewal. According to Natalia Clarke, "Baba Yaga, Slavic Earth Goddess": "Deep in the birch forest she dwells between the human and non-human worlds. With every rising sun she witnesses the darkness and light in nature and their world".
In the 2024 version, when Thomas awakes, all of these characters are mysteriously gone by dawn, at first cock-crow. They all have red associated with them, as well: both the Innkeeper's Wife and the young Romani dancer are dressed in red, and the white horse that guides the virgin girl has a red tassel. The corpse itself vomits blood when its stabbed by the "Handsome Roma man".
While in Castle Dracula, Jonathan Harker begins to recognize a pattern: "It was by this time close on morning, and we went to bed. (Mem., this diary seems horribly like the beginning of the "Arabian Nights," for everything has to break off at cockcrow, or like the ghost of Hamlet's father.). Which, later will make sense to him: "I slept till just before the dawn [...] At last I felt that subtle change in the air, and knew that the morning had come. Then came the welcome cock-crow, and I felt that I was safe."
Montague Summers on his "The Vampire in Europe: True Tales of the Undead" brieftly disserts about how "the crowing of the cock disperses all phantasms of the night and dissolves enchantments", and will explore it further on his "A Popular History of Witchcraft". 4th century Roman Christian poet wrote: "They say that the foul night-wandering spirits, who rejoice in dunnest night, at the crowing of the cock tremble and scatter in sore dismay". Montague Summer writes this is connected to the witches' Sabbat, which, generally, begin at midnight and "lasted until first cock-crow, when everything vanished away".
A 16th century witch named Babilla Latoma, confessed that “that nothing was more fatally obstructive to [sorcerers] loathsome businesses than that a cock should crow”, and the cock was the most hateful bird to all sorcerers. Witch sabbats and orgies lasted until cock-crow, after which the assembly was forced to withdraw: “That the crowing of a cock dissolves enchantments is a tradition of extremest antiquity. The Jews believed that the clapping of a cock's wings will render the power of demons ineffectual and dissolve all magic spells. In the time of St. Benedict Matins and Lauds were recited at dawn, and were often known as Gallicinium, Cock-crow.” Johann Bulmer and his wife Desirée, whom belonged to a coven of Le Mans district, said that the synagogue of sorcerers was usually disbanded when the cocks begin to crow: “the cock crows; the Sabbat ends; the sorcerers scatter and flee away.”
The first cock-crow will play a vital part in the "breaking of Nosferatu curse" at the end of the film, and it has been laid far earlier in the story, to provide an explanation as to why. Doing a subvertion of the "Dracula" novel and every cinematic adaptation to date, in Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu", these scenes are not necessarily about keeping Thomas' safe from Count Orlok, yet are still about preventing him from going into the castle, all the same. Here, reframed into the context of the Count's Faustian bargain.
While in the 1922 "Nosferatu", and more close to the "Dracula" novel, Hutter travels by coach until the drivers refuse to go any futher, in both Werner Herzog and Robert Eggers' adaptations Jonathan/Thomas are forced to travel up the mountains, on foot; either because they are refused by other characters (1979) or his horse was taken (2024), both with the intent of try and prevent him from going to the castle.
Thomas/Jonathan and the shrine in all three adaptations of "Nosferatu"
II. Meeting Count Orlok
In all three adaptations of "Nosferatu", as in the novel, Thomas/Jonathan is collected by Count Orlok/Dracula's carriage at nightfall, to take him to the castle. In the original 1922 "Nosferatu", the driver is Count Orlok himself in disguise, a reference to the "Dracula" novel: "The strength of the handshake was so much akin to that which I had noticed in the driver, whose face I had not seen, that for a moment I doubted if it were not the same person to whom I was speaking. So to make sure, I said interrogatively, "Count Dracula?"
Robert Eggers, unlike Werner Herzog, followed F.W. Murnau's version, as a black carriage, with no driver, appears to Thomas, as if a nightmarish vision, at a crossroads. As Nicholas Hoult explained, his character is drawn to it, to covey how his fate is completely out of his hands: “He’s pulled, into the propulsion of his story. So, for that shot to work, I stepped onto a dolly, and then the dolly lifts me up as it’s tracking along […] that’s how you get the effect of me kind of being pulled into the darkness.”
Crossroads are deemed as places of supernatural significance throughout worldwide folklore and religious beliefs, often perceived as locations in-between worlds.
According to Agnes Murgoçi, in "The Vampire: A Casebook", in Romanian folklore it is believed "vampires wander at the cross-roads", and "people destined to become vampires after death may be able in life, to send out their souls, and even their bodies, to wander at crossroads with reanimated corpses. This type may be called the live-vampire type. It merges with the ordinary witch or wizard, who can meet other witches or wizards either in body or spirit". Called the "strigoi vii" (ou "viu"), in opposition to the "strigoi morti".
This scene appears to be evocative of F.W. Murnau, "Faust" (1926), another cinematic inspiration of Robert Eggers for his re-telling of "Nosferatu". The titular Faust goes to a crossroads to invoke the "Prince of Darkness", Mephisto, who promises to grant "all the power and glory in the world", similar to Thomas Hutter who agrees to travel to Transylvania under the promise of a great monetary reward by Herr Knock: "He seeks an old home and will pay generously [...]
And he will pay handsomely, my dear boy. Handsomely!"
There's a Transylvanian folktale in Montague Summers "The Vampire in Europe: True Tales of the Undead" with a similar plot to the "phantom carriage" associated with vampires: there was a castle in the wild and desolate part of the Carpathian Mountains, a former fortification against the Turks, which belonged to the last Count B. The castle "it was not inhabited, owing to its being believed to be in the possession of ghosts; only a wing of it was used as a dwelling for the caretaker and his wife". The vampire was said to be the old widower Count's daughter, Countess Elga. The Countess invites a man to a carriage drive, "and that she would await him at midnight at a certain crossing of two roads, not far from the village. [...] Mr. W——— had some misgivings about the meeting and drive, and he hired a policeman as detective to go at midnight to the appointed place, to see what would happen. The policeman went and reported next morning that he had seen nothing but the well-known, old-fashioned carriage from the castle, with two black horses, standing there as if waiting for somebody, and that as he had no occasion to interfere, he merely waited until the carriage moved on. When the castellan of the castle was asked, he swore that the carriage had not been out that night, and in fact it could not have been out, as there were no horses to draw it."
Production designer Craig Lathrop revealed: “We built the carriage, too. We call it the ghost carriage. There were some little details that you’ll never see. On the carriage, there are bas-reliefs of a giant battle, which is basically a Vlad the Impaler battle. You can’t see it all, but there it is. There were a lot of areas where I knew it would be unlikely that we would catch it, but I knew the actors would see it.”
Similar to 1922 "
Nosferatu", Thomas begins to feel unwell at the carriage, on his way to the castle, however Robert Eggers explored it further. Thomas
places his hand on his chest, and has
trouble breathing, as Orlok's wolves are chasing the carriage. He appears lost in a
awakening nightmare, and this scene is invocative of the Innkeeper's Wife words: "
The shadow covers you in nightmare. Awake, but a dream." Count Orlok feeds on
heart's blood, which
Robert Eggers had said, aside from a poetic meaning connected to the Gothic romance, it's also associated with one of the hypothesis for the origins of folk vampires: "
I also think it comes from Old Hag syndrome; sleep paralysis where you’re having a waking dream, and you feel the pressure on your chest."
Thomas journey to the castle in Robert Eggers' adaptation of "Nosferatu" is the closest to the "Dracula" novel description out of all three versions: "Then, far off in the distance, from the mountains on each side of us began a louder and a sharper howling, that of wolves, which affected both the horses and myself in the same way. [...] The baying of the wolves sounded nearer and nearer, as though they were closing round on us from every side. I grew dreadfully afraid [...] but I could not see anything through the darkness. [...] I did not know what to do, the less as the howling of the wolves grew closer. [...] I think I must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident, for it seemed to be repeated endlessly, and now looking back, it is like a sort of awful nightmare [...] the wolves disappeared. This was all so strange and uncanny that a dreadful fear came upon me, and I was afraid to speak or move. The time seemed interminable as we swept on our way, now in almost complete darkness, for the rolling clouds obscured the moon."
Tod Browning, "Dracula", 1931
Francis Ford Coppola, "Bram Stoker's Dracula", 1992
In all three adaptations of "Nosferatu", once Thomas Hutter/Jonathan Harker arrives at Castle Orlok/Dracula, the Count is already expecting him, and opens the gate for him. Similiar to the 1922 original, Orlok mentions Thomas being late, which Robert Eggers re-interpreted as a foreshadowing for the ending, as mentioned in the previous post.
In the three versions of "Nosferatu", the Count waits for Thomas/Jonathan to take the first step into his castle. Each adaptation incorporated different elements from the novel: F.W. Murnau the keys, Werner Herzog bits from the dialogue and the silver lamp, and Robert Eggers gave his Count Orlok a moustache: "the great door swung back. Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. [...] The old man motioned me in with his right hand with a courtly gesture, saying in excellent English, but with a strange intonation. "Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own free will!" He made no motion of stepping to meet me, but stood like a statue, as though his gesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. The instant, however, that I had stepped over the threshold, he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed cold as ice, more like the hand of a dead than a living man. Again he said. "Welcome to my house! Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring!" This is connected with the need for invitation and consent, where Jonathan Harker unknowingly walks into a trap.
As in the book, next there's the dinner scene, where the Count excuses himself from not eating, but each adaptation is a very take on Count Dracula's reception from the novel, lacking his charming manners. All versions mention the lack of servants, and the correspondence with Herr Knock/Renfield, but only Robert Eggers had his Count Orlok asking Thomas to "leave there your conveniences", in a reference to the novel, where Dracula selects Jonathan's bedroom (although here with a different approach, as we'll see): "As he was speaking, he put the lamp on a bracket on the wall, and stepping out, took my luggage. He had carried it in before I could forestall him. [...] He insisted on carrying my traps [...] here was a great bedroom [...] The Count himself left my luggage inside and withdrew, saying, before he closed the door."
Robert Eggers has the most spectral version of all three Count Orlok/Dracula, due to the Slavic and Balkan folklore inspiration (strigoi, moroi and nachzehrer) for his character and mythology. Instead of the rat-like physical features of his predecessors, this Count Orlok is a decaying corpse, as were folk vampires, and he's dressed in his burial late 16th centuries clothes.
Costume designer Linda Muir has explained the "vision" of Count Orlok came from the director, combined with her own historical research into period pieces: "Robert Eggers was not thinking about a fantastical creature that is alive, flies, and turns into a bat. His research and interests took him to the folklore origins of Transylvania in Eastern Europe. In that set of beliefs, Nosferatu is undead. Robert went for the all-out, dead, reanimated corpse Orlok. I looked at museum pieces of garments from families like the Esterházys and nobility from the period of 1560 to about 1640. We looked at books that had illustrations of Transylvanian armies". The goal, the costume designer said: "The idea was that he was a real man who lived in the late 16th century in the area that is now Romania, but, when we experience him, his body and clothing are decomposing".
According to the costume designer, the Count's costume design was meant to evoke his backstory and "his role as both the villain and forbidden love interest" of the story: "Orlok’s clothing was intended to convey great wealth, position, entitlement, sensuality, virility, and masculinity", extremely detailed to "hint at Orlok’s long backstory and his aristocratic origins". As Linda Muir explains her historical research took her to a very specific timeline: "With Orlok, Robert was always very, very clear that he is a Transylvanian Count from around 1580 [...] it's Austro Hungarian at the time that Orlok would have been a young, vital, you know, “I’m a sexy, handsome, gorgeous, rich beyond belief man."
Count Orlok costume design by Linda Muir © 2024 Focus Features
To achieve this concept, the costume designer created garments using "heavy, luxurious fabrics, gold embellishments, gold threads, gold paint—gold everywhere". Count Orlok costume, according to Linda Muir in an interview to "The Cinema Curator Magazine", is composed by a brown and gold fur-lined mente coat ("the fur indicates weath, yet again: warmth in a vast, stone castle"), with exaggerated sleeves for effect (based on the sheepskin cloaks of the shepherds of the region); a lilac/mauve dolman with gold floral all-over pattern and silver buttons; tight fitting mustard gold silk trousers; red leather mules with 4'' steel horseshoe shaped heel; and his brown fur Kalpak hat is decorated with hawk feathers and a purple jewel surrounded by pearls.
Then, the entire costume was "corpsified" to suggest the decay this character was subjected to for almost 300 years, a process lead by Linda Muir and Silvana Sacco (the lead textile artist): "we took it down and we darkened, and we darkened, and we made it rotten looking and putrid looking. And it was so much fun. But we went slowly, and Robert was always brought in to see what he thought and by then he was further along in the storyboarding with Jarin [Blaschke], so we had a better idea, when are we going to see the back… Robert was very, very specific about the collar, he’s very specific about the height and the fur, the weight of it, the length of everything." But also, due to Robert Eggers' directions: "His clothing should look “black” though in reality when Robert and I spoke further about the meaning of black” it was clear to me that I’d be interpreting “black”, he did not actually mean the colour black, since we needed the appropriate clothing details to still read to help the audience date Orlok’s backstory". Which is a possible reference to the "Dracula" novel, where Count Dracula is often described as a dark figure, dressed in black, and the "shadow" quality of Orlok.
Count Orlok uses his garments to conceal his true nature from Thomas
Ellen uses her garments to reveal her true nature to Thomas
As costume designer Linda Muir has explained, both Count Orlok's mente coat and kalpak hat are meant to conceal the truth of his nature from both Thomas Hutter and the audience on the first encounter: "He’s a character who was young and vital 300 years before the events of the film. In the story, he obscures himself at first—hiding the truth of his decayed, rotting state. His cloak, or mente, plays a key role in this." The costume designer elaborates: "He’s shrinking into his clothing, retreating into the layers as if to conceal his deteriorated state. Even his enormous kalpak hat—a piece that would have been worn differently by a younger man—is now part of his strategy to hide the grotesque reality of being 300 years old". And Orlok's plan, according to Muir is "not want Hutter to see his decrepitude and therefore run away before the contract was signed". The purpose was, also, to build narrative tension for the reveal:“ He’s really kind of, you know, shrivelled and hiding within (his clothes),” says Muir. “There’s the notion of the reveal to the audience, it shouldn’t be immediate."
While being a historical accurate representation of a Transylvanian mente coat, worn by late 16th century Hungarian nobility, and based on historic references, Linda Muir has said the silhouette is also meant to evoke "the period's clothing traditions, including shepherds of the region", and the iconic imaginary of a "vampire in a cape": "Traditionally, you wouldn’t wear your arms through the sleeves; instead, it was worn as a cloak. There are also two slits in the front where arms could be passed through for practicality, like during rigorous activity. This design subtly alludes to capes—whether it’s Bela Lugosi’s Dracula cape, a bat’s wings, or other iconic imagery". Also as a nod to the original 1922 "Nosferatu": "it evokes the shape of Max Schreck’s iconic silhouette as a vampire in a cape. But this isn’t a shiny black satin cape—it’s something rooted in cultural reality." The designer also revealed the coat was so heavy, she had to create a built-in harness for Bill Skarsgård be able to wear it.
"From my grandfather. The best. It’s worth celebrating your adventure!"
As introduced in the previous post, Count Orlok and Friedrich Harding work as narrative foils in this story, similar to Count Dracula and Sir Arthur Holmwood in the novel. In dinner scene between Jonathan Harker and Count Dracula in the novel (which didn't make it to the previous "Nosferatu" adaptations): "By this time I [Harker] had finished my supper, and by my host's desire had drawn up a chair by the fire and begun to smoke a cigar which he offered me, at the same time excusing himself that he did not smoke." In "Nosferatu", this scene was given to Thomas and Harding (even though they are both smoking, because Friedrich is not a vampire like Dracula).
In Robert Eggers' adaptation the dinner scene between Thomas Hutter and Count Orlok was expanded, in comparison to the previous versions. According to Bill Skarsgård, Count Orlok's scenes with Thomas were fuelled by some strong emotions: "Nick [Hoult] is my rival, in a weird way. Everything I did with Nick – or with Hutter – was fuelled by hate and loathing, disgust that he’d dare rival me. There were so many of those types of emotions in our scenes. A bit like playing with your food, but more sinister. And the scenes were so intense and sometimes almost comical [...] he’s [Thomas] being mentally, physically and spiritually tormented by this thing."
Thomas is there to sign the contract, and every action from Count Orlok's part, as fitting with a strigoi haunting, is about Ellen. The comical aspect of the dinner scene was also addressed by Robert Eggers: "Some of those scenes with Thomas and Orlok are definitely scary and intense, but they’re also moments where Orlok is playing with his food,” Eggers explained. “When Louise Ford and I were editing those scenes, we would be in stitches at times because of how pithy Orlok is when you really pay attention."
As soon as Thomas is about to take the deed off his satchel, the Count aggressively corrects his "sir" with "Your Lord. I will be addressed as the honour of my blood demands it." Here, Orlok is taunting Thomas due to his aspirations of wealth (which he'll weaponize against him, later), also a reference to the "Dracula" novel where the Count tells Jonathan Harker tales of glory and pride about his heritage (blood): "We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship. [...] Ah, young sir, the Szekelys, and the Dracula as their heart's blood, their brains, and their swords, can boast a record that mushroom growths like the Hapsburgs and the Romanoffs can never reach. The warlike days are over. Blood is too precious a thing in these days of dishonourable peace, and the glories of the great races are as a tale that is told."
Also a reference to the dinner scene between Count Dracula and Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), where the director included this dialogue in Harker's first dinner at Castle Dracula (instead of much later, like in the novel).
"We Draculs have the right to be proud! What devil or witch was ever so great as Attila whose blood flows in these veins?"
The correspondence between Count Orlok and Herr Knock, similar to 1922 "Nosferatu", is filled with Enochian and Solomonic sigils (here meant to represent the Solomonari), indicating the occult significance of their connection, and explicitly described as a "coventant" (by Knock) or a "compact" (by Professor Von Franz): "I am most impatient to bring my eyes to your covenant papers and my correspondence with your proprietor, Herr Knock. I have long awaited them."
The covenant papers, however, were not sent by Kerr Knock, since they were written by Count Orlok, himself, as it's what he's waiting for Thomas to sign.
In the dinner scene, Robert Eggers also references Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) with Count Orlok ghostly presence surronding Thomas Hutter, like Jonathan Harker, in the 1992 film, who sees Dracula's shadow at the left, while the Count's body is at his right. Here, Robert Eggers explores this dynamic when Orlok is serving Hutter a glass of wine, and goes to sit and join him at the table. The "shadow of Dracula" in Coppola's version comes from "Nosferatu" cinematic tradiction, since vampires are said to cast no shadow in the Bram Stoker's novel.
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Like mentioned above, Thomas asks the Count about the ritual he saw. In return, and in a sarcastic manner, the Count taunts Thomas about his "high learning" ("I fear we yet keep close many superstitions here that may seem backward to a young man of your high learning") and how the modern world doesn't care for such ancient practices ("How I look forward to retiring to your city of a modern mind, who knows nothing of... nor believes any such morbid... fairy tales"). This is connected to both Thomas not understanding Ellen, and her as a victim of 19th century society. This is a subvertion of the "Dracula" novel, where, as Robert Eggers has addressed, is seemingly eager to go to England and spread his vampirism, while in his story he only cares about Ellen.
While in the previous adaptations of "Nosferatu", Thomas/Jonathan cuts his finger while slicing bread, due to being startled by the chime of Count Orlok/Dracula's clock, in Robert Eggers' version (although the clock will be present throughout the film) it's because of the Count asking him: "are you married, Herr Hutter?"
In 1922 "Nosferatu", Count Orlok laments “You’ve hurt yourself… Your precious blood” (more aligned with book Dracula "take care how you cut yourself. It is more dangerous that you think in this country” when Jonathan cuts himself shaving) and sucks his finger clean, which many have interpreted as homoerotic. Werner Herzog took a different route, while Robert Eggers returns to F.W. Murnau, and his Count Orlok growls and says: "take heed what you do!"
"I might ease your wound."
"She will no doubt make a devoted wife, and you a "faithful" husband."
"He told me about you. [...] How you fell into his arms as a swooning lily of a woman. [...] Our love was supposed to be sacred!"
"Come by the fire. Your face shows you unwell."
As in the 1922 "Nosferatu", Count Orlok invites Hutter to spend the night with him, and in the morning, he awakes with bite marks on his neck, that he quickly dismisses as mosquito bites. Both Werner Herzog and Robert Eggers followed the same route, with the Count taunting Thomas about his homoerotic tendencies in the 2024 adaptation.
Werner Herzog has been vocal about his "Nosferatu" being a "bourgeois nightmare" and a parable about the fragility of order in a staid, bourgeois town: “Nosferatu is not a monster, but an ambivalent, masterful force of change. When the plague threatens, people throw their property into the streets, they discard their bourgeois trappings. A re‐evaluation of life and its meaning takes place.” In Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu", it's sexuality (mostly female) that takes front stage, through Victorian lenses: "this demon-lover archetype that allowed me to explore a lot of complex and clashing ideas about love and sexuality – many of them dark and unsavoury. As a ‘Victorian movie' we're in this period that is famous for repressed sexuality, and the more you repress something, the more it wants to explode."
Like in 1922 "Nosferatu", Thomas is shown to be deadly afraid as the Count approaches him (a topic to be explored further in the part 2 of this post), and, in the morning he awakes with everything gone. Unlike his predecessors, in Robert Eggers' adaptation, there is no breakfast laid out for Thomas, since the director followed the folktale of every enchantement disappearing after the first cock-crow. In this adaptation, Castle Orlok is an abandoned and ruined castle during daytime.
Instead, soundstages for the interiors of the castle had to be built (the great hall, crypt, tower room, hallways and corridors): "I looked at a lot of castles in the Czech Republic, probably all of them. They’re all beautifully refurbished and ready for tourists to come through, but that’s not who Orlok is, right? Orlok has been in his sarcophagus for at least a hundred years, probably closer to two. He is in disrepair and decay and almost diseased, and you want to feel that."
Craig Lathrop elaborates the interiors of Castle Orlok are meant to invoke feelings, connected to the Count's existence, and it's sparse on purpose, yet every piece of furniture is historically accurate to the late 16th century: "We needed disrepair, decay, you needed to feel diseased almost, so that’s what we were building. It needed to feel like Orlok has gone in his sarcophagus a hundred years ago, and he’s decided not to come out again until Ellen awakens him.” The production designer explained "there’s no need for lavish furniture, because his needs are minimal, and everything about his space speaks to his alienation from life", and it's starkness and emptiness are meant to speak of that isolation and "like it had been forgotten by time", and, especially the crypt, torment.
Lathrop discussed the Count's choice of not leaving his sarcophagus until Ellen called out, again, and how that's visible on the set design of his castle: "Orlok has lived a very long life as you would imagine a vampire would, and he stopped coming out of his sarcophagus and he was just in there for a hundred years or so. When he comes out, we wanted the place to feel decayed, not just because it would have been in disrepair and falling apart, but also it suits Orlok and who he is. He’s dead, he’s reanimated and fallen apart himself. So you wanted it to feel the same." The idea, according to the Production designer, was also for it to feel like a "haunted-house feel: stripping it all down, because I wanted Hutter to feel really alone. When he walks in there at first, it’s just him and Orlok: there’s nowhere to go."
As Thomas scouts the castle it references his book counterpart: "This was odd, but only confirmed what I had all along thought, that there are no servants in the house [...] there is something so strange about this place and all in it that I cannot but feel uneasy. I wish I were safe out of it, or that I had never come. It may be that this strange night existence is telling on me, but would that that were all! If there were any one to talk to I could bear it, but there is no one. I have only the Count to speak with, and he-- I fear I am myself the only living soul within the place."
Like in the novel, "doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted are locked", except for one: the bedroom Count Orlok selected for Thomas:
"Nosferatu" 1922 and 1979 screencaps by the author
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"Corvin Castle" in Emily Gerard, "Transylvanian Superstitions", 1885
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"Beware his shadow. The shadow covers you in nightmare. Awake, but a dream. There is no escape. Pray. Pray."
"Yesternight was but the eve of their Sfântul Andrei. Our common people say it is the darkest witching night when Devil’s magic bids the wolf to speak with tongues of men, and every nightmare treads upon this earth, ascendent from the torturous grave."
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Thomas Hutter and three "spikes of cold iron"
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