Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 3]: Thomas Lost in Nosferatu Shadow (2/3)

Count Orlok's shadow takes frontal stage throughout Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu", and its influence on the human characters, as seen in the previous posts. True to the tradition of 1922 "Nosferatu", and a sort of subvertion of the "Dracula" novel where vampires are said to cast no shadow (although they are often referred to as "shadowy" and dark figures), Robert Eggers writes on his own essay to "The Guardian": "They [vampires] are bound to the grave, to shadows, to darkness. For me, the vampire must exist in shadow to have power."

The voice and shadow of Count Orlok are the main elements to the character, even more so than his decaying appearance (which is kept mostly in the shadows until the end scene, when it's fully revealed to the audience by the rising sun), as Bill Skarsgård has addressed: "So the voice became my way of expressing the character.” In both the 2016 and the 2023 studio scripts, Orlok’s voice is described as “impossibly deep sepulchral voice, shrouded in the exotic accent of his mother tongue. In spite of its power, it seems every word he utters causes him great pain and effort to expel.” And his breath is described as “loud and asthmatic - pained, like his speech”. To achieve the sepulchral and broken voice Robert Eggers envisioned, the actor worked alongside Icelandic opera singer Ásgerður Júníusdóttir to lower his voice register down an octave.

Bill Skarsgård elaborates on the significance of Orlok's shadow: "I knew the shadow was going to be an ally for Orlok, especially in the scenes with Thomas, where he’s hiding his appearance. So he lives in the shadow, and he uses his big fur cape and the hat to not give away what he is. The shadow became a friend [...] Every single shadow in this movie is also me puppeteering behind camera. That was the only time where I didn’t need to have the full regalia [costume and prosthetics] on."

Bill Skarsgård puppeteering the shadow of Orlok

("Nosferatu" (2024) - Making Of | Behind The Scenes (Special Effects | Set Visit | Make-up | Visual Effects)

In the novel, Count Dracula reveals his love for the shadows to Jonathan Harker (similar to 1979 "Nosferatu"): "I seek not gaiety nor mirth, not the bright voluptuousness of much sunshine and sparkling waters which please the young and gay. I am no longer young, and my heart, through weary years of mourning over the dead, is attuned to mirth. Moreover, the walls of my castle are broken. The shadows are many, and the wind breathes cold through the broken battlements and casements. I love the shade and the shadow, and would be alone with my thoughts when I may." Somehow his words and his look did not seem to accord, or else it was that his cast of face made his smile look malignant and saturnine."

"I love the darkness and the shadows. Where I can be alone with my thoughts. I am the descendent of an old family. Time is an abyss, profound as a thousand nights. Centuries come and go... to be unable to grow old is a terrible thing. That is not the worst. There are things more horrible than that [...] The absence of love is the most abject pain."

"O’er centuries, a loathsome beast I lay within the darkest pit... ‘til you did wake me, enchantress, and stirred me from my grave. You are my affliction."

Even though Robert Eggers has been vocal about his dislike for the "tragic and sad vampire" trope, which doesn't fit the folk vampire nature, he admits there is "pathos" to his Count Orlok's existence, something Bill Skarsgård fully embraced and wanted to include on his performance of the character, based on the few-pages backstory novella the director gave him in preparation for the role: "I sent [Bill] a backstory of Orlok that I wrote. So we came to it together to achieve what I was after. Because I’m so tired of the heroic and sad vampires, I was just like, ‘He’s a demon. He’s so evil.’ Bill was like, ‘Yeah, but there needs to be some times where he has some kind of vulnerability.’ It’s very subtle, and it’s not there often, but it is enough. I think the ending of the movie is much more effective than it would have been without Bill’s acute sensitivity to that – while still delivering on this big, scary, masculine vampire."

Robert Eggers praised Bill's performance and contributions to build the character he had on his mind for decades: "The voice was something that I had thought a lot about and was working on with Bill. He also worked with an opera singer to lower his voice and to get it to be what I had imagined. The makeup collaboration was with David White, the prosthetics designer. I knew what I wanted, but he brought more to the table. And while Bill was also doing what I was asking for, he brought more to the table too, particularly with binding moments where Orlok was vulnerable. I was so sick of the tropes of the sad vampire that I didn't want to go there. But Bill knew that it was important to still have the vulnerability in some places. And I think it makes the performance."

According to the director, this pathos is present in the script, but he wanted to reject the "Anglo literary vampire" on his own adaptation, at all costs, until Skarsgård convinced him a tiny bit of vulnerability was necessary, on occasion: "I mean, I suppose it is in the writing. I was thinking back to [George Gordon] Byron’s poem, that was potentially one of the first or second times that a vampire is mentioned in English language literature, and even there, the vampire, in the Anglo-literary tradition, has some melancholy and some pathos. So I suppose I was thinking about that. [...] But I was so obsessed with making him a villain that I sort of forgot about it. And Bill brought that pathos. It was really important because it’s obviously Ellen’s story; she’s the victim of this vampire, and she’s also the hero of the story. But Orlok is just as alone as she is."

Robert Eggers has also been vocal about not wanting to share his Count Orlok's full backstory with the public, yet, to "The Hollywood Reporter", Bill shared a bit: "Skarsgard begins to unpack the significance of a novella on Orlok’s back story that Eggers wrote just for him. The Count had a family and was once married, the actor says, before his director intervenes: “I don’t want the world to know his backstory. But he had a very detailed one." And this is present in the set design of Castle Orlok.

III. Signing the Covenant Papers

Thomas enters the bedchambers the Count selected for him, and where his conveniences are, similar to Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu" (1979).

According to Production designer, Craig Lathrop, this is the "tower chamber": “Although, there are a lot of details once you get into the tower chamber where Hutter sleeps. The bed itself we rented from London. There was some parts that I wasn’t really happy with so that we made those. And we made all the curtains and all the bedding and all the kind of stuff that you would expect. There’s some more details on the fireplace. I don’t know if you even see the ceiling. The ceiling is a coffered ceiling with... there’s a lot of painting on it, but it was dark.”

The bedding and the curtains are red, and, as discussed in the previous post, this is significant, as is this bedchamber, where important plot points occur, and it features in one of the official posters of the film:

“Nosferatu” (2024) official poster; design by WORKS ADV

The "weird sisters" who inhabit Castle Dracula were replaced by Count Orlok/Dracula himself, in both 1922 and 1979 "Nosferatu", as in the novel, Count Dracula never, actually, feeds on Jonathan Harker's blood. In pop culture and cinematic adaptations these characters are known as "brides of Dracula", as in his wives, even though they are never explicitly described as such by Bram Stoker. As Robert Eggers has said: "I had to forget everything that I had learned. I read ‘Dracula’ at least five times as a young person, and then realized that I had infused it with things from vampire movies that aren’t in the book, [that] I thought were there."

The identity of these three women is unclear in the novel, as they are always referred to as “sisters” (but, so are Lucy and Mina) and aren't given names. The “fair girl” is described as such because of her beauty: “fair, as fair as can be, with great masses of golden hair and eyes like pale sapphires” (Jonathan Harker) and “she lay in her Vampire sleep, so full of life and voluptuous beauty that I shudder as though I have come to do murder […] “the beautiful eyes of the fair woman open and look love, and the voluptuous mouth present to a kiss, and the man is weak” (Van Helsing).

The “Fair girl” seems to be higher in hierarchy than the other two (“dark, and had high aquiline noses, like the Count, and great dark, piercing eyes, that seemed to be almost red when contrasted with the pale yellow moon”), as they say to her, before feeding on Jonathan: “Yours' is the right to begin”. This has led many authors (like Leonard Wolf, “The Annotated Dracula” (1975), who worked with Francis Ford Coppola for his 1992 adaptation of Dracula, and was cited by Robert Eggers on his interviews) to speculate the “Fair girl” might be the Countess, Dracula’s wife, while the other two are their daughters (due to their physical resemblance to the Count).

In 1997, a printer’s copy of “Dracula”, titled “The Un-Dead”, was found on a farm in Pennsylvania, and scholars were allowed to study it. Robert Eighteen-Bissang included a new passage from Jonathan Harker’s diary (June 29; the date of his last letter), where it seems Bram Stoker was inspired by the “three witches” of Macbeth to create the “weird sisters”: “I dared not wait to see him [Dracula] return, for I feared to see those weird sisters. How right was Shakespeare, no one would believe that after three hundred years one should see in this fastness of Europe the counterpart of the witches of Macbeth.”

The “three witches” of Macbeth (also called the “weird sisters”) are prophetesses devoted to the Goddess Hecate who lead to Macbeth demise and hold a striking resemblance to the three Fates of classical mythology. They represent darkness, chaos, and conflict in the play. Curious enough, Lady Macbeth also sleepwalks in the play.

In the "Dracula" book, the Count warns Jonathan not to wander nor sleep anywhere else in the castle, aside from his own room. However, while exploring the castle he stumbles upon the Lady’s quarters, by chance, and falls asleep there: "this was evidently the portion of the castle occupied by the ladies in bygone days, for the furniture had more an air of comfort than any I had seen. The windows were curtainless, and the yellow moonlight, flooding in through the diamond panes, enabled one to see even colours, whilst it softened the wealth of dust which lay over all and disguised in some measure the ravages of time and moth. My lamp seemed to be of little effect in the brilliant moonlight, but I was glad to have it with me, for there was a dread loneliness in the place which chilled my heart and made my nerves tremble. […] Here I am, sitting at a little oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much thought and many blushes, her ill-spelt love letter."

"The Tower Bedchamber" in Castle Orlok (Set Decorators Society of America)

Later, Thomas will escape through this very window, as his book counterpart also escapes through a window from Count Dracula's bedroom. With these references, as well with Bill Skarsgård's reveal, it's clear: this was Count Orlok and his wife's bedchambers.

The set design fits Bram Stoker's description of the "Lady's quarters" of Castle Dracula, and the furniture present here, the late 16th century. Four-poster canopy beds were a favorite among European aristocracy in this period period, a symbol of wealth and status. Only the highest ranking members of a castle (the lord and the lady) had the luxury to retire to a bed behind curtains, while the staff (servants, knights, etc.) usually slept in common areas. Canopies were used to provide the lord and the lady with warmth during cold months and privacy, as it was customary for one or two servants to sleep in the room with them. Drapes were rich, heavy and made from luxurious materials, like velvet or brocade (as seen on this set). The canopy was often more elaborate and expensive that the wooden bed itself. During the Medieval and Early Modern eras, beds were more than "places to sleep"; marriages were consummated, children were born, postpartum mothers recovered and people die in bed.

While in the 1922 original, Thomas Hutter owns the mirror where he sees the bite on his neck (he takes it from his own bag; in reference to the “Dracula” novel where Jonathan has to use his own “little shaving glass” because there are no mirrors in the castle, since the vampires have no reflection), both in the 1979 and 2024 Jonathan/Thomas find the mirror in the bedchamber the Count selected for them. Yet, Robert Eggers reframed this in association with the "Lady's quarters" of the "Dracula" novel since mirrors, historically, have always been associated with women, and there's a female character associated with mirrors, and a window in this story: Ellen, herself. All of her beds also feature canopies, both in the Hutter household and the Hardings guestroom.

In the 1922 original, Hutter dismisses the bites as "mosquito bites", as he writes a letter to his wife, and, in the Werner Herzog adaptation, Jonathan as a "bad dream", in the diary he's creating for Lucy. In Robert Eggers' version, Thomas sees the rats, indicating that's probably his first thought, as he'll say to the Count he fears he has been taking ill and has been enduring the most "irregular dreams".

"You stopped your letters to me. You promised to write to me every day."

Thomas tells the Count he has letters for Ellen he would like to post, yet the viewer is never show him writting them, unlike his predecessors.

While in the "Dracula" novel, Jonathan Harker is handling the sale of Carfax Abbey, and the Count is very enthusiastic about it (as he has been studying the English language and customs for a very long time, it seems), in both F.W. Murnau and Werner Herzog adaptations, the Count only agrees to buy the house either from across the street from the Hutters (1922), or very close by (1979), after seeing Ellen/Lucy portraits, and how she has a "lovely neck" or "throat".

This is not the case with Robert Eggers' version of "Nosferatu", since the contract ("the covenant papers") his Count Orlok asks Thomas to sign is not the deed to Grunewald Manor. F.W. Murnau had a house in the borough of Grunewald in Berlin, which mostly likely explains why Robert Eggers chose this name for his adaptation.

In the 2024 re-telling, the medieval manor isn't in the neighborhood of the Hutter's household, either, on the contrary, it's on the other side of town, a reference to Whitby Abbey from the "Dracula" novel: "Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes, and which is the scene of part of "Marmion," where the girl was built up in the wall. It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits. There is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows."

As Thomas notices to Herr Knock about the manor: "Forgive me, but is it not, well, a ruin?" In the novel, this “white lady” will appear again in the text when Mina Murray sees Lucy Westenra sleepwalking (a “white figure”) to the churchyard (graveyard) of St. Mary, near Whitby Abbey, where Dracula bites her for the first time.

Francis Ford Coppola, "Bram Stoker's Dracula", 1992

The "covenant papers" have been decoded by several users online and an essay was written by Eve Greenwood, with the collaboration of Veronika Wuycheck, the calligrapher who designed the contract. In their essay, aside from a linguistic dive on all the historical and linguistic references, there's also a translation of the text, which reads as what Count Orlok will later tell Ellen. These are "divorce papers", where Thomas divorces Ellen. The gold Dacian and Roman coins are meant for Ellen, and, on the day she gives her consent, she'll wed Count Orlok as in the laws of Solomon; a reference to the Solomonari codex of secrets, as both Robin Carolan and Robert Eggers have called the final scene between Ellen and Count Orlok as a "fucked-up wedding".

"Your husband has signed his name, and covenanted you to my person for but a sack of gold. For gold he did absolve his nuptial bond. And the resignation must be completed by you, freely of thine own will."

"He told me how you sold me to him for gold! Our love was supposed to be sacred!"

Thomas hesitates to sign the papers as he doesn't recognize the language in which it's written, and the Count calls it "the language of my forefathers". According to Veronika Wuycheck, the calligrapher who designed the contract, the body of text is a "free-hand version of old Cyrillic script" with Székely runes, and, from Count Orlok's iconography, we know that he, like his book counterpart Dracula, is, indeed, of Székelys heritage. As Thomas is about to sign, the Count notices a "maiden's token" from a "bride".

While the previous "Nosferatu" adaptations, Count Orlok/Dracula mentions Ellen/Lucy having a "lovely neck" (1922) or "lovely throat" (1979), Robert Eggers replaced it with his Orlok recognizing the scent of lilacs on Ellen's hair inside of the locket ("who remembers lilacs from when he was alive"). In a way, it's still connected to the neck, since it's a perfume the Count identifies, with the neck being the more common body part where it's used.

Unlike his predecessors, this Count Orlok does not feed from the neck (as this scene foreshadows the Count feeding on Ellen/Lucy at the end, oblivious to the approaching dawn), but from heart's blood (soul), as such, this scene has another meaning, entirely, in Robert Eggers' adaptation. Yet, and like the 1922 and 1979 versions, this makes a comeback at the end, as well, as Count Orlok is smelling Ellen's neck (scented with lilacs because of her bridal wreath) as he starts to have sex with her.

The dialogue in Robert Eggers' adaptation finds reference in Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992). As does the entire scene, since both start with the Count wax sealing his sigil on key papers to his goal; Dracula plans of moving to London and seemily "see the wonders of the civilized world", and Count Orlok to get Thomas to sign the covenant papers. While signing the documents, both characters see an object that reminds them of their human lives: Count Dracula sees Mina's portrait (the reincarnation of his late wife, Elisabeta), and Count Orlok notices the "maiden's token", with lilac-scented hair, inside. In Coppola's case, this was taken from previous "Nosferatu" adaptations, because there is no such scene in the novel.

"We are newly married, of late. Incidentally, I have letters to her I would post - If I may?"

"You found Mina. I thought she was lost. We're to be married as soon as I return."

In both scenes, there are mentions of “destiny”/”providence”, characters being “fortunate”/”luckiest” in connection to “love” and “death”. In both scenes, the Count has to control their emotions, and also seal Jonathan/Thomas’ fate in the castle, as Dracula/Orlok leaves him for dead while travelling to Whitby/Wisburg (this last part being more aligned with the “Dracula” novel).

In Coppola’s version of “Dracula”, the Count, after seeing the portrait of his reincarnated wife, says: “Do you believe in destiny? Than even the powers of time can be ordered to a single purpose? The luckiest man who walks on this earth is the one who finds true love. […] I was married once. Ages ago, it seems. She died. […] She was fortunate. My life, at best, is misery.”

In the 2024 adaptation of “Nosferatu”, Count Orlok uses the Romanian word “Liliac” to describe the scent on Ellen’s hair inside of the locket; a language he only uses twice in the entire film, the other being after Ellen accepts his covenant: "Tu eşti a mea" (“You are mine”). Thomas doesn’t understand what he said, and Orlok replies “you are fortunate in your love”. Thomas calls it “Providence, as Herr Knock would say”. This seems to stir something in the Count as he promptly demands “your signature” on the contract.

In the studio script, it says Count Orlok is remembering as he smells the lilac scent on Ellen's hair, and his breath is carnal (meaning sexual, but also human, since lilacs remind him of his human life). In "Nosferatu: A Modern Masterpiece" (Behind-the-scenes DVD/Blu-ray extra), Bill Skarsgård is shown playfully rehearsing this scene; due to how demanding the role is, lightening the mood on set was necessary, on occasion. Yet, his choice of words provide more context for the meaning behind this scene, and for Orlok's mindset: "Oh, yeah... It's her, alright. It's her!" This is interesting because the Count knows the locket belongs to Ellen, and that Thomas is her husband, beforehand, and that's the whole reason he's even there, in the first place, to sign the covenant papers. As such, Bill rehearsing this scene as Orlok having confirmation that "it's her, alright!" through the scent of lilacs in Ellen's hair, is significant.

"You are fortunate in your love."

"I envy you. [I envy you. You’ve truly taken your father’s place now... it’s incredible.]"

Count Orlok takes a sack of gold Dacian and Roman coins from a small chest, calling it Thomas "commission", to get him to sign, weaponizing his aspirations of wealth against him, since the contract establishes the gold is meant for Ellen, not Thomas. As Herr Knock promised the Count would "pay handsomely, my dear boy. Handsomely!"

Thomas still hesitates to sign, he's nervous and senses something is not quite right about the contract, there's more to this than a deed to a house. Yet, the promise of the gold is too great of a temptation, and he signs his name on the "covenant papers", unknowingly, divorcing Ellen. As Count Orlok says: "for gold he did absolve his nuptial bond".

Count Orlok taunts Thomas how "now are we neighbors", yet his sole concern is how the "covenant is signed", since that's the reason he had his servant Herr Knock send Thomas all the way to his castle, in Transylvania. The Count also takes the heart-shaped silver locket for himself, as he gives Thomas gold. This finds reference in Ancient Dacian marriage traditions, where: "the bride-groom purchased the bride from her parents for a symbolic price. The price varied according to the virtue and beauty of the bride; conversely, the men were purchased by the maidens."

The locket is made of silver, which is far less valuable than the gold the Count gives Thomas. Yet, it's not the silver he treasures, but the lilac scent on Ellen's hair He doesn't care for gold or silver, he's already dead. Thomas perceives, at once: "Count? You have my locket!" as the Count disappears into the shadows. Like his book counterpart, Thomas wants to leave the castle, but Dracula/Orlok doesn't allow him, using an excuse of "my coachman and horses are away on a mission", and here Orlok says "it is a black omen to journey in poor health."

With the locket in his possession, Count Orlok is able to reach Ellen once again, since he has been given invitation. In a scene that finds reference in Francis Ford Coppola "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), when the Count's shadow reaches Mina Murray for afar, and speaks to her: "Tu eşti dragostea vieţii mele… vieţii mele" (“You are the love of my life… of my life”).

Thomas awakes in the morning after a dream/vision of this moment, which shows the viewer he's connected to Nosferatu, and explains how he's so certain the Count seeks after Ellen, as he'll say to the Nuns: "No! He seeks after Ellen. I know it!" This is similar to his predecessors, who know the Count is after Ellen/Lucy, only Robert Eggers associated it with the "demonic possession" theme.

Thomas's face also starts to look like a death mask, or like Brian Davids from "The Hollywood Reporter" described it a "living skull", which, according to Nicholas Hoult was intentional from the make-up team departament which "added that harrowing look with hollowed-out cheekbones", and Robert Eggers asked him to lose weight for the role. As Lily-Rose Depp put it: "You really feel the birth of darkness [with Thomas]".

Count Orlok has been feeding off him since he arrived at the castle, and yet, Thomas, unlike the (future) "plague victims" doesn't show symptoms of the "blood plague" (sepsis marks, vomiting blood, etc.). As both Professor Von Franz and Dr. Sievers will conclude the plague at Wisburg "is present in its most rapidly fatal form, Pestis siderans", meaning a "savage infection of the blood". For instance, Anna Harding will have the "fatal sepsis marks" on her face the very next day to have been bitten, and even Friedrich Harding will die one or two days after being infected, and yet, this is not Thomas' case.

Later, he'll atribute this to the Nuns' prayer and exorcism, but he has been at the castle for a few days, at this point. And, instead of the "fatal sepsis" that victimizes others, he appears to be turning into a living dead, himself (like 1979 Jonathan). It's significant that Thomas, unlike the others, had the Devil looking right into his soul during Saint Andrew's Eve. And, in this story, vampires aren't created by infection (as the victims merely die), but by making a compact with either a Goetic demon or the Devil (like Herr Knock was after).

Thomas notices the bite mark on his chest is still there, and fresh, and starts to prepare his escape from the castle, like 1922 Hutter. Robert Eggers, however, combined this with Thomas/Jonathan finding the castle crypt, as all other doors and gates, like in the "Dracula" novel, are locked and "in no place save from the windows in the castle walls is there an available exit. The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!"

This plot follows the novel very closely: "I descended, minding carefully where I went for the stairs were dark, being only lit by loopholes in the heavy masonry. At the bottom there was a dark, tunnel-like passage, through which came a deathly, sickly odour, the odour of old earth newly turned. As I went through the passage the smell grew closer and heavier. At last I pulled open a heavy door which stood ajar, and found myself in an old ruined chapel, which had evidently been used as a graveyard. The roof was broken, and in two places were steps leading to vaults, but the ground had recently been dug over, and the earth placed in great wooden boxes, manifestly those which had been brought by the Slovaks. There was nobody about, and I made a search over every inch of the ground, so as not to lose a chance. I went down even into the vaults, where the dim light struggled, although to do so was a dread to my very soul. Into two of these I went, but saw nothing except fragments of old coffins and piles of dust."

Unlike the previous adaptations, but similar to the "Dracula" book, in Robert Eggers' version there are several sarcophagi, Count Orlok's family and ancestors, as some are older than others. Thomas arrives down there near sunset.

As Production designer Craig Lathrop explained, every object in the crypt was chosen to feel like a "physical manifestation of the vampire’s torment, centuries of decay and isolation captured in stone and shadow". The main sarcophagus is located on a privileged location within the crypt, fitting for Orlok's status as the Count and Lord of the castle. Lathrop has called it "one of my very favourite props because of all that detail; it’s great that it keeps coming back and travelling through the film".

A rendition of Count Orlok's personal sigil

The design is "loosely based on a sarcophagus I found from the 1500s that was actually Polish", with Solomonic sigils (from the Solomonic Magic system, to connect Orlok to the folkloric Solomonari): "‘we tried to make it all mean something but – well, it means something to us, certainly!" The feet of the sarcophagus are Dacian Dracos: "They’re Dacian – I patterned them mainly on the ones you see on Trajan’s Column in Rome, with that beautiful relief of the Romans conquering the Dacians. Those would be the people that were in the Romanian area way before 1838, the time of our film. Obviously it’s much, much earlier than that. But then, of course, Orlok is also much, much earlier than that."

As Craig Lathrop has explained, Count Orlok's sarcophagus "isn't just about death—it was about Orlok’s connection to an ancient, supernatural realm. Its intricate details, like the Dacian dragons inspired by the Trajan Column in Rome, ground it in history but also tie it to a world of myth and mysticism". This prop illustrates Count Orlok's connection to the Solomonari, the Dacian civilization and to Zalmoxis religion, and concepts like immortality and transmigration of the soul.

In all adaptations, like in the novel, Thomas/Jonathan discovers Count Orlok/Dracula inside of his coffin, in his death-like sleep: "In the third, however, I made a discovery. There, in one of the great boxes, of which there were fifty in all, on a pile of newly dug earth, lay the Count! He was either dead or asleep. I could not say which, for eyes were open and stony, but without the glassiness of death, and the cheeks had the warmth of life through all their pallor. The lips were as red as ever. But there was no sign of movement, no pulse, no breath, no beating of the heart."

Robert Eggers, however, combined this scene with a later one, from the book: "There lay the Count, but looking as if his youth had been half restored. For the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey. The cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath. The mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran down over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood. He lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion."

This description also fits the folk vampire, which is why the director decided to include it on his own adaptation: "These early vampires are visually closer to a cinematic zombie, often engorged with blood, their faces sometimes pooling with blood under their rotting skin, maggot-infested, in a state of terrifying putrefaction and decay." Robert Eggers was also very satisfied with how Count Orlok lying on his sarcoghaphus turned out: "When we had Bill [Skarsgård] in the coffin for the big reveal in the crypt, the body, the decay, the blood under the skin and the veins and the whole thing — I went to David [White], the prosthetics designer, and I said, that is beautiful."

Bill Skarsgård Behind the Scenes as Count Orlok on his sarcophagus (Variety)

Sixteen people applied the prosthetics on the actor (around 62 prosthetics were used, and only the sole of his feet wasn't covered) and did the coloration. Real maggots were also used.

Prothestic designer David White explained Count Orlok has "two looks" in the film, what he calls a "day look" (when he's out and about) and another for when he's in the sarcographus: "When he’s [Orlok] in his sarcophagus, Robert was very insistent that he wants his hair all flat and matted, full of muck and dirt, and when he’s out and about, it’s a little bit more full and rich and elegant.” The way color was used also changes: "His coloration is extremely pale, waxing. It does change – obviously, in the sarcophagus, where it’s really milky and dead. And then, when he’s up and about and clothed, it’s a much more sensitive approach. A very believable character, not just a creature or monster. He’s just one of the other characters."

The designer elaborated: "devised two very different looks: one when he is in his sarcophagus — when his “trance state” coloration is puce with bruised red blemishes and dark tones — and the other being his “day look,” which was waxen and sallow." Bill Skarsgård also wore contact lenses for his "trance" state": "Bill uses his own eyes without lenses for the “day look,” which gives him great freedom of expression. For his “trance state,” he has full scleral contact lenses, which transform his eyes to a white milky dead stare."

Count Orlok in his trance state inside of his sarcophagus on his way to Wisburg, and performing Solomonari magic ("Solomonari weathermaker" or "Dacian cloud traveller")

As for the decay, White, according to Robert Eggers, "did a lot of research on how human bodies decay. Obviously, there was a map of how much of him needed to be decayed to tell the story we needed to tell because of the slow reveal of Orlok and what parts of him needed to be preserved. But at the end of the day, he needs to be a believable dead human being".

The designer research took him to: "mid-17th-century illustrations on autopsy subjects and how they used to have cadavers that were quite romantic in their look. It’s a really strange thing, but they had the muscle structure and the skeletal thing, yet they were always presented as something…not charming, but with a playfulness about them and a romanticist sort of feel. That was included in the sculpture of the body sections as well"; and "sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, and skeletons with muscles attached". Robert Eggers worked closely with the Prosthetic designer to achieve his vision: "Robert was very keen to have decay and rot on the back of his head, and on his underside as a whole, because he's lying in a sarcophagus all the time. It's only natural you start to peel away in this tank with rats and stuff. It felt natural to do that".

While his predecessors run away by the revelation of the Count inside his coffin, this Thomas Hutter embodies his book counterpart, as he grabs the pick-axe left behind by the Romani, and wants to destroy Orlok, like he saw the Handsome Roma man/Devil doing during Saint Andrew's Eve: "Then I stopped and looked at the Count. There was a mocking smile on the bloated face which seemed to drive me mad. This was the being I was helping to transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless. The very thought drove me mad. A terrible desire came upon me to rid the world of such a monster. There was no lethal weapon at hand, but I seized a shovel which the workmen had been using to fill the cases, and lifting it high, struck, with the edge downward, at the hateful face. But as I did so the head turned, and the eyes fell upon me,with all their blaze of basilisk horror. The sight seemed to paralyze me, and the shovel turned in my hand and glanced from the face, merely making a deep gash above the forehead. The shovel fell from my hand across the box."

As the sun is setting, Count Orlok awakes in time to stop him, taking the pick-axe away from Thomas' hand, and unleashing his wolves on him, as Hutter is forced to return to the Countess bedchambers, running for his life.

Robert Eggers was insistent on having his Count Orlok naked on his sarcophagus, and for his penis to be seen by the audience: “It was a necessary piece to make,” he laughs. Eggers adds, “I was allowed one penis [for] this movie. He rises out of the coffin naked. That in itself is a bit of a phallic act, as is most of everything that Orlok does in the movie.” This idea is, probably, connected to this concept of his Count Orlok as a "phallic figure", as with the ending of the film, where the Count and Ellen have sex. In this scene, the audience is informed he has the "tools" to engage in sexual acts.

VI. "Dream of Me. Only me."

While in the previous adaptations, Ellen/Lucy is able to stop Count Orlok/Dracula from feeding on Hutter/Jonathan by crying out for her husband all the way from Wisborg/Wismar, Robert Eggers took the opposite approach on his re-telling, and it’s his Count Orlok who conjures her into the scene.

Count Orlok uses the “maiden’s token” to perform an incantation to Ellen, as she mimics his movements as he’s about to feed and while he’s feeding on Thomas, in her sleep back at Wisburg. And, for a brief moment, she takes the Count’s place in the bedchambers.

"Your husband is lost to you. Dream of me. Only me. Only me."

While this scene doesn't find reference in the 1922 or 1979 "Nosferatu" nor the "Dracula" novel, is evocative of another of Robert Eggers' cinematic inspirations: Archie Mayo "Svengali" (1931), as the titular character hypnotizes the female protagonist: "You shall see nothing, hear nothing, think of nothing but Svengali, Svengali, Svengali!"

Francis Ford Coppola, "Bram Stoker's Dracula", 1992

As mentioned above, Count Orlok conjures Ellen into the scene of him feeding on Thomas in his and his wife's bedchambers. Intersecting this incantation, there's the Hardings sex scene, a married couple having sex on their wedding bed (and the mirror couple to Count Orlok and Ellen in the narrative), which provides the context for what it is Orlok is compelling Ellen to dream about: "He took me as his lover then."

"He took me as his lover then, and now he has come back. He has discovered our marriage and has come back! He stalks me in my dreams, all my sleeping thoughts are of him, every night-"

"You could never please me as he could."

In this scene, Count Orlok is able to take possession over Thomas' body and influence him to unlock the bedchambers' door for him, as his shadow grabs his heart (soul). This shows the viewer, once again, how he and Nosferatu are connected, and the Count's control over him. As the Nuns will later say to prevent Thomas from leaving for Wisburg: "You are lost in his shadow".

This scene references the "weird sisters" feeding on Jonathan Harker in the "Dracula" novel. But, while his book counterpart stumbles upon the "Lady's quarters" of the castle by chance, in "Nosferatu" (2024), Count Orlok selected the room for him in advance, highly implying this was his plan all along. Here, there's also a homoerotic subtext because Jonathan is said to experience a mix of “deadly fear”, “wicked, burning desire” and “ecstasy” for and with the “weird sisters”, while Dracula declares “this man belongs to me” as he unleashes his wrath on them for feeding on Jonathan before he does.

“There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips […] There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive.”

"Weird sisters" ("Brides of Dracula") feed on Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992)

Thomas Hutter moans in what is very clearly sexual pleasure while Count Orlok feeds on him, which finds reference on his book counterpart description: “I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the super sensitive skin of my throat, and the hard dents of two sharp teeth, just touching and pausing there. I closed my eyes in languorous ecstasy and waited, waited with beating heart.”

"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!"

The homoerotic subtext was also teased by Nicholas Hoult in interviews, as he said: “He’s [Count Orlok] kind of hot, he’s handsome in a way. Everyone’s gone very quiet... but he’s hot, I was into it." Even though it's easy to dismiss this as Hoult being playful, it provides the context for Thomas' shame, as this story deals with Victorian anxieties concerning sexuality, with homossexuality being a major theme many Dracula scholars recognize in the novel, as mentioned in the previous post.

"Nothing you can say will shake me – for there is a devil in this world, and I have met him. And he... I cannot speak it."

The actor also revealed Robert Eggers gave him Orlok's prosthetic penis as his wrapping gift, which he has framed at home: "I have Court Orlok’s prosthetic penis framed at home. “There’s a scene where Bill Skarsgard is slurping my blood, and Robert Eggers asked afterward, ‘How was that for you?’ And I said, ‘I could feel his prosthetic penis on my leg.’ And then, as a wrap gift, Rob got it framed, and he sent it to my house."

“I seemed somehow to know her ["fair girl"] face, and to know it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the moment how or where.”

"Did not you think of me in that castle? [I did... I-] Lies."

“Then the horror overcame me, and I sank down unconscious. […] I am alone in the castle with those horrible women […] They are devils of the Pit!” Count Orlok is shown as a giant leech on top of Thomas, feeding off him, a metaphor both scripts acknowledge, as well as the European Theatrical cut of the film (now, deleted scene):

"Gnathobdela. The common leech. Its sole impulse is to feed on what even Mephistopheles calls "the most especial nectar." Look at her drink."

There are more references in the 2024 adaptation of "Nosferatu" to this scene between Jonathan Harker and the "weird sisters" from the "Dracula" novel, especially in connection with the "fair girl" (or "fair woman"), which, as mentioned above, many Dracula scholars believe to be the Countess, Dracula's wife.

In Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu", the instructions to break the curse of Nosferatu also mention a "maiden fair" (instead of a "innocent maiden" or "maiden without sin" from the 1922 original, depending on the restoration version; or "a woman pure of heart" in the 1979 adaptation).

"Don’t touch me! I am not to be touched!”

"How dare you touch him? He belongs to me!"

This is a reference to Count Dracula’s wrath at the “weird sisters” feeding on Jonathan Harker:“With a fierce sweep of his arm, he [Count Dracula] hurled the woman [fair girl] from him, and then motioned to the others, as though he were beating them back. It was the same imperious gesture that I had seen used to the wolves. In a voice which, though low and almost in a whisper seemed to cut through the air and then ring in the room he said, “How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you'll have to deal with me.”

The "fair girl" reacts to Dracula's wrath with an accusation of him being unable to love: "The fair girl, with a laugh of ribald coquetry, turned to answer him. "You yourself never loved. You never love!"

"You cannot love."

"You yourself never loved! You never love!"

"Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper, "Yes, I too can love. You yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so?”

"Remember how once we were? A moment. Remember?"

"Yes, I too can love. And I shall love again."

As Bill Skarsgård explained, and similar to how Count Dracula learned English in the novel, when interacting with Thomas, Herr Knock and Ellen, Orlok is "technically speaking German in the movie, but it’s English. I think he’s learned German just from reading all of these texts and old books. It’s this awkwardly constructed English that came out of that.” As such, Count Orlok's language often has double meaning in the narrative, or his words signify another thing, entirely.

"Yet, I cannot be sated without you."

“Sate” (aside from the obvious "satisfied" or "fulfilled") is the archaic past tense of “Sit”; “lie” (a state of motionlessness or inactivity; the repose of death); “rest” (to get rest by lying down (sleep); to lie dead), which makes more sense with this Count Orlok's motivations of getting Ellen's soul, and the folk inspiration behind his character: he cannot rest without her soul by his side ("be one with me, ever-eternally").

As Bill Skarsgård elaborated to "Fangoria" about his Count Orlok: "He’s the romantic lead, isn’t he [laughs]? Yeah, it’s tricky. Is he a villain? Yeah, of course; I mean, he’s Nosferatu, he’s Dracula, he’s one of the most, if not the most iconic horror villain there is. But I think the script has nuances that make it more complex, more layered, in the sense that the movie is sort of a love triangle with Ellen in the middle. She’s torn between a good, stable, benevolent, loving husband and something that is very powerful, very destructive, but also very alluring to her, and you watch her being torn between these two forces."