Visual Storytelling in “Nosferatu” (2024): Lilacs, Widows and Remembrance

In “Nosferatu” (2024), lilacs are ever present, and seen throughout the film (either the flowers, or in the costumes), from beginning to end. They are featured in official posters, and in the limited edition fragrance launched in promotion of the film: "Nosferatu: Eau de Macabre", by Heretic Parfum in partnership with Focus Features.

“Nosferatu” (2024) official posters; design by WORKS ADV and P+A

© 2024 Focus Features

According to costume designer Linda Muir these flowers symbolize the connection between Ellen and Count Orlok, "who remembers lilacs from when he was alive". 

"Even outside of the bedroom, Ellen’s skin is a key part of her costuming. Blue paisley dresses, a nod to Orlok’s nickname for her, “lilac,” were cut with deep off-the-shoulder necklines, exposing her décolletage and, most importantly, her neck", says Linda Muir. Makeup designer Traci Loader, has also addressed the importance of Ellen's skin to the narrative of "Nosferatu", and how she used "silicone makeup that possessed a luminous quality so it wouldn’t look as matte or dry as a foundation would. She also had four different levels of paleness for Ellen, each becoming progressively lighter as filming went on. Loader then added subtle veining". According to Loader: “when you take a photo of her at the beginning of the film, and then the end of the film, there's a huge difference, but the progression is very planned out so it’s not like, ‘Oh, they're possessed now.’ It’s very subtle.”

This "possession" is also something Suzanne Stokes-Munton, the head of the hair department, has mentioned when discussing Ellen's final look, describing the ending scene as "it’s actually Romeo and Juliet", where Ellen exhibits "her most possessed look,” In the same interview, Tracy Loader explains the goal: “it’s keeping her still beautiful at that moment, keeping her luminous. But her possession is like a weird contentment at that point". In the final scene, Ellen is, indeed and at last, possessed by Nosferatu, until the dawn breaks the curse and sets hers and Orlok's souls free. Not neglecting the explanations provided by the crew, but another obvious meaning for Ellen's paleness is how she’s becoming closer to death (Count Orlok), as the film progresses, which probably explains this overuse of the word "possession" due to the demonic nature of Nosferatu.

Ellen's skin tells a story of death

Speaking of the significance of exposing Ellen's neck, this Count Orlok is a strigoi from Transylvanian folklore, and he feeds on heart's blood (where the soul is), not from the neck. Nevertheless, when he’s about to feed on Ellen, at the end, and when he penetrates her (pardon the graphic language), his face is buried on her neck, and it’s her who, willingly and gently, guides him to her chest. 

Robert Eggers’ replaced the Count Orlok/Dracula sees Ellen/Lucy portrait scene from the previous adaptations with Count Orlok recognizing the scent of lilacs on Ellen’s hair, inside of the silver heart-shaped locket (“maiden’s token”). In this scene, there are also lilac petals on her hair. In this scene, the Count is, most likely, smelling the scent of lilacs on her hair, again, because Robert Eggers reframed Ellen/Lucy having a "lovely neck" from the "Nosferatu" cinematic tradition into him perceiving the scent of lilacs on her hair.

“What a lovely throat…”

While the presence of lilacs in Ellen's costumes is very evident to the viewer (either the hue or lilac patterns), the color is also present in the Count's costume: "Orlok’s dolman, or tunic, is of a mauve/lilac silk with a gold jagged floral all-over pattern. It’s centre front placket, collar and shaped cuffs are embellished with stone coloured velvet with gold lace overlay. Silver buttons embellish both the centre front closing and also the centre back opening, a feature of dolman’s at this period." However, since the Count's entire costume was subjected to what Linda Muir has called a sort of "corpsification process", the rich colors of his costume (lilac, mustard, gold, silver, brown and red) are no longer visible in the film.

Lilacs on Ellen's costumes: concept art by Linda Muir © 2024 Focus Features

Linda Muir explains Ellen’s costumes were crafted “to reflect her state of mind and backstory"; and were inspired by words and feelings like "fragility, vulnerability, dread, intense love, all these words that evoke weights of fabric" to "give the audience the feeling of this ethereal, otherworldly somnabulist character". In this backstory, it's included the wealth of Ellen's parents: "Ellen starts off with wealth, which is apparent from the bedroom in the estate and the lilacs that she’s writhing around under. And when she goes to Thomas, she doesn’t care about the wealth. All she wants is Thomas and to be free." Love and freedom are, therefore, Ellen's aspirations.

I. Symbolism of Lilacs

The Lilac shrub (Syringa vulgaris) is native to Eurasia and the Balkan Peninsula, making its way from the mountains of Eastern Europe to the garden courts of Turkey, Austria and France. In was in Paris that the lilac was widely cultivated and hybridized, creating the many contemporary varieties of the flower. Hungarian lilacs (Syringa josikaea) are native to the Carpathian Mountains, being only found in Transylvania and Western Ukraine. Their fragrance is a subtle honey sweet floral scent, very similar to Syringa vulgaris. 

J. Lindley, "Syringa josikaea" in "Edward's Botanical Register" (1829-1847)

This flower is rich in symbolism, and it’s meaning interchanges depending on its color: white lilacs symbolize purity, innocence and nobility; and purple signifies remembrance, and first love. Floriography, also known as the “language of flowers” was extremely popular during the Victorian era, when flowers were used to send messages; for instance, if a flower was handed with the right hand it meant “yes”, if with the left hand, “no”. Flowers were used for flirting or sending secret messages in a time when social convention and moral codes imposed strict restrictions on conduct, especially between men and women.

“Le Langage des Fleurs”, published in 1819 in Paris, was the first dictionary to explain the meaning behind multiple flowers, and introduce middle and upper classes to their significance. In this book, lilacs are connected to the first emotions of love, youth, and return of Spring and of the nightingale. Lilacs bloom in the Spring, so for Robert Eggers (notoriously obsessed with accuracy) to want them on his adaptation of “Nosferatu”, which is set in the dead of Winter, it's because they hold tremendous significance for his story.

Frances Jauncey Ketchum, "Common Lilac, A Native of Persia", c.1818-1820

During the Victorian era, lilacs were used by widows, as a memento of their everlasting love for their late husbands, a reminder of an old love, or their first love. Black became the “color of mourning” due to Queen Victoria, and 19th century widows in “half-mourning” introduced hues of lilac, lavender, mauve, purple and grey into their wardrobes to symbolize their "status" (six months or one year after their husband's death); these colors were meant to dilute black (the color of deep mourning) and the sorrow, while communicating that, while the wearer is moving on in their grief process, they are still in mourning. 

Victorian widows were expected to mourn their late husbands for, at least, two years; and their Mourning had three stages (Full Mourning, Second Mourning and Half-Mourning). The inclusion of these colors signified a gradual return to normal life, with a nod to the deceased husband. As such, the choice to have Ellen wearing such colors in this time period is, indeed, related to her connection with Count Orlok.

In 1865, Walt Whitman also associated lilacs with death on his poem "When Lilacs Last In Dooryard Bloom’d", an eulogical poem about the death of US President Abraham Lincoln: "When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d; And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night; I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring; Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring; Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west; And thought of him I love". In Eastern Europe folk tradition, lilacs were often considered a "funeral flower" in some regions, and placed inside the caskets with the deceased, before modern day funerary practices changed this custom.

II. References

Ellen connecting flowers with death was already a part of the original 1922 "Nosferatu"; she gets distressed about the flowers her husband picked up for her, from their garden, and says he "killed" those beautiful flowers. Robert Eggers included this scene (from the 1922 Hutters introduction scene) into the one where Thomas informs Ellen he has been sent away on a business' deal (like she had a premonition after he left their house, that morning). Robert Eggers also explored the flowers much further, using them as a visual storytelling device on his own adaptation.

While there were flowers in Lucy and Jonathan’s house decor, Werner Herzog did not include this scene on his own adaptation of “Nosferatu” in 1979. Nevertheless, flowers do make an appearance in connection to death; not with her husband Jonathan, but in the scene where Lucy sacrifices herself to Count Dracula; there are petals all over her hair, and body, and a flower bouquet in her nightstand.

Robert Eggers paid tribute to this on his own version; his Ellen ends the film with lilac petals on her hair (from her lilac bridal wreath, or headdress), while breaking the curse of Nosferatu.

In Werner Herzog adaptation, "remembrance" is also a major theme, between Lucy and Jonathan Harker, as he returns to Wismar with no memory of Lucy, influenced by Count Dracula, and as he's slowly becoming Nosferatu, himself. Dracula assures he can restore Jonathan's memories in return for Lucy's love ("I wish I could parkate of the love which is between you and Jonathan"), which she denies: "Nothing in this world, not even God, can touch that. And it will not change, even if Jonathan never recognizes me, again." As Robert Eggers has said: "I imagine [Werner] Herzog would hate my movie, and it would be against his brand to like it. I hope he detests it" because he gave this plot to Ellen and Count Orlok. 

"Remember?"

In the "Dracula" novel, there are flowers with significance to the narrative, as well. They are connected with Lucy Westenra and Count Dracula. While many “Dracula” cinematic adaptations make use of garlic bulbs for this plot, Bram Stoker specifically describes white flowers, in the book (and not the actual bulb that made its way into pop culture). 

After ordeals with the blood transfusions and as Professor Abraham Van Helsing is undercovering the truth behind Lucy’s sickness, he gifts her with a “great bundle of white flowers”, garlic flowers, and makes a wreath for her to wear around her neck as a protective measure against Dracula’s vampirism: “These are medicine. [...] This is medicinal, but you do not know how. I put him in your window, I make pretty wreath, and hang him round your neck, so you sleep well.” 

W. Curtis, "Allium ciliatum Sims" (Botanical Magazine", Vol. 20), 1804

At first, Lucy disdains the flowers because she dislikes their strong smell and, being nothing more than “common garlic”, she doesn’t understand why and how it’s meant to be a part of her cure. Van Helsing and Dr. Steward place garlic flowers around her bedroom, especially near the windows, and rubbing them on the doorknobs. The doctor is puzzled by the professor’s actions and says “well, Professor, I know you always have a reason for what you do, but this certainly puzzles me. It is well we have no sceptic here, or he would say that you were working some spell to keep out an evil spirit.” This comes from Romanian folklore, where garlic is believed to keep evil spirits (including strigoi) at bay. Van Helsing tells Lucy she must not disturb the garlic flowers nor open her windows or doors, at night. 

Lucy with her garlic flowers wreath in Philip Saville, "Count Dracula", 1977

Lucy, eventually, grows fond of the flowers, perceiving they might help her sleeping, and she trusts Professor Van Helsing: “How good they all are to me. I quite love that dear Dr. Van Helsing. I wonder why he was so anxious about these flowers. He positively frightened me, he was so fierce. And yet he must have been right, for I feel comfort from them already. Somehow, I do not dread being alone tonight, and I can go to sleep without fear. I shall not mind any flapping outside the window. Oh, the terrible struggle that I have had against sleep so often of late, the pain of sleeplessness, or the pain of the fear of sleep, and with such unknown horrors as it has for me! How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears,no dreads, to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams. Well, here I am tonight, hoping for sleep, and lying like Ophelia in the play, with`virgin crants and maiden strewments. I never liked garlic before, but tonight it is delightful! There is peace in its smell. I feel sleep coming already. Goodnight, everybody.” 

However, that very night, Lucy’s mother takes out the garlic flowers because her daughter’s room was “was awfully stuffy. There were a lot of those horrible, strong-smelling flowers about everywhere, and she had actually a bunch of them round her neck. I feared that the heavy odor would be too much for the dear child in her weak state, so I took them all away and opened a bit of the window to let in a little fresh air”. As Van Helsing fears, Count Dracula attacked Lucy, again, and she needs another blood transfusion, this time from the professor, himself. Not before he laments: "God! God! God!" he said. "What have we done, what has this poor thing done, that we are so sore beset? Is there fate amongst us still, send down from the pagan world of old, that such things must be, and in such way? This poor mother, all unknowing, and all for the best as she think, does such thing as lose her daughter body and soul, and we must not tell her, we must not even warn her, or she die, then both die. Oh, how we are beset! How are all the powers of the devils against us!" 

Professor Bulwer (Van Helsing cinematic counterpart) runs into Thomas Hutter in “Nosferatu” (1922) 

"In vain! In vain! You run in vain! You cannot out-run her destiny!"

Van Helsing tells Mrs. Westenra “that she must not remove anything from Lucy's room without consulting him. That the flowers were of medicinal value, and that the breathing of their odor was a part of the system of cure”. And for four days and nights, Lucy is able to sleep, peacefully, as the garlic flowers work in keeping Count Dracula at bay: “I am getting so strong again that I hardly know myself. It is as if I had passed through some long nightmare, and had just awakened to see the beautiful sunshine and feel the fresh air of the morning around me. I have a dim half remembrance of long, anxious times of waiting and fearing, darkness in which there was not even the pain of hope to make present distress more poignant. [...] I go to bed now without any fear of sleep. I do not even try to keep awake. I have grown quite fond of the garlic, and a boxful arrives for me every day from Haarlem.” 

However, on that day, Professor Van Helsing departed for Amsterdam, and that very night, Lucy’s mother dies, of a heart attack, after seeing Count Dracula in the shape of “a great, gaunt gray wolf” at the open window of her daughter’s bedroom. In her panic, she rips the garlic flowers wreath from Lucy’s neck. Lucy doesn’t know what to do, and finds the servants drugged downstairs (because they drank sherry dosed with laudanum). Lucy ends her “memorandum” writing “What am I to do? God shield me from harm this night! I shall hide this paper in my breast, where they shall find it when they come to lay me out. My dear mother gone! It is time that I go, too. Goodbye, dear Arthur, if I should not survive this night. God keep you, dear, and God help me!” 

Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Lucy Westenra and Dracula in wolf form; "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992)

The next day, Van Helsing and Dr. Steward arrive at the house to find the scene. The servants are awakening from their narcotic sleep, and the doctor urges them: “I told them that one life was bad enough to lose, and if they delayed they would sacrifice Miss Lucy.” Lucy is alive, still, and they attempt more blood transfusion. Three days later, she dies, but not before trying to “kiss” her fiancé, Sir Arthur Holmwood, which Van Helsing prevents “Not on your life!” he said, “not for your living soul and hers!” 

Lucy Westenra flower motifs on her coffin in Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula", 1992

Even though garlic flowers are more common in white (and that’s the shade Bram Stoker describes in the novel), there are varieties that come in hues of mauve, lavender and violet, which establishes a visual connection with lilacs, and provides one more layer of explanation as to why this was the flower chosen by Robert Eggers for his own adaptation, and placing them in direct reference to the "Dracula" novel.

L.B. Van Houtte, "Flore des serres et des jardin de l’Europe: Allium oreophilum", Annales Générales d’Horticulture, Vol. 22, 1877

In all of these inspirations, flowers (especially white) are symbolically associated with death, vampirism and/or warding off evil spirits, which also finding parallel in "Nosferatu" (2024), in a way. There is also a healing theme, and being connected to Lucy's cure, in direct opposition to Ellen’s corset (which 19th century Medicine believes to be the treatment for her "sickness"). In “Nosferatu” (2024), the lilacs serve the same purpose as the garlic flowers in “Dracula”; they are “medicine” connected to the breaking of the curse of Nosferatu, because it’s love that breaks it, warding off a evil spirit and vampirism (Nosferatu), and where death has been reframed into Orlok’s Pre-Christian European beliefs of Zalmoxis. 

As Willem Dafoe has said about Professor Von Franz helping Ellen: “because it’s told from Ellen’s point of view, it’s nice that he is the only one that sees Ellen. There are these beautiful scenes where he almost encourages her on a path which is a whole other dimension. Because then you get into the whole thinking of, it’s all about beyond bodily death. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, right? Maybe this obsession, this passion, you’ve got the husband that loves her but doesn’t see her. And then you have this toxic monster that he’s into and she’s into him.”

Yet, lilacs (native to the Balkans, and one variety which can only be found in the Carpathians) were chosen and this Count Orlok connects the flowers with his human life. We can find this reference in one of the Dracula’s films Robert Eggers has named as among the most influential to him: Francis Ford Coppola “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992): "Tell me, Prince [Dracula], tell me of your home." [The most beautiful place in all creation] "Yes, it must be.  A land beyond a great, vast forest surrounded by majestic mountains, lush vineyards, and flowers of such frailty and beauty as to be found nowhere else." [You describe my home as if you had seen it firsthand.] "It's your voice, perhaps.  It's so familiar.  It's like a...it's like a voice in a dream I cannot place, and it comforts me when I am alone. And what of the princess?" [Princess?] "There is always a princess with gowns flowing white. Her face...her face is the river. The princess, she is the river, filled with tears and with sadness and with heartbreak."

Mina Murray remembers her previous incarnation in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, 1992 

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

III. Visual Storytelling

The first time, lilacs are introduced in “Nosferatu” (2024) is at the prologue; when Count Orlok, like the folk vampire, tries to kill Ellen by suffocation, to collect her soul. The prologue has references to the first time Count Dracula bites Lucy Westenra in the "Dracula" novel, in what Mina described as their "favorite seat", which is near "the grave of a suicide", in "Nosferatu" (2024) reframed into a garden of lilacs, from her family's manor. From there on, every costume Ellen wears either has lilac motifs or color, meant to represent her yearning for Count Orlok, even though she severed that connection when she met and married Thomas Hutter.

As Lily-Rose Depp explained: "Ellen has a deep longing - which makes her unique, but also an outsider", and she sees Count Orlok as "this thing inside of her: this shame. Things that weren't acceptable at the time and, in her view, made her unlovable", yet "there is a real yearning and connection that goes both ways between the two of them". This is connected to her sexual desire for him, in a time when women were believed to have none, and "love" and "passion" were opposite concepts, and "love" was even thought of as a nullifier of "passions".

Count Orlok, as a folk vampire, is a representation of Death, which makes the choice of a flower with this kind of symbolism attached very fitting. Lily-Rose Depp has acknowledged this in interviews: “There's a ghostliness to her [Ellen]. I always saw [Ellen] as someone who has one foot in the spirit world, if you will, and one on earth. She's desperately trying to cling to life. In that sense, Orlok is the representation of death, and her husband is the representation of life. She's definitely torn between the two.”

Both lilacs and Death make an appearance in Ellen's dream, the one she awakes from after the prologue, and later reveals to Thomas, to try and prevent him from going away to Transylvania: “It was our wedding. Yet not in chapel walls. Above was a impenetrable thundercloud outstretched beyond the hills. The scent of the lilacs was strong in the rain… and when I reached the altar, you weren’t there. Standing before me, all in black, was… Death. But I was so happy, so very happy. We exchanged vows, we embraced, and when we turned round, everyone was dead. Father… and… everyone. The stench of their bodies was horrible. And- But I’ve had never been so happy as that moment… as I held hands with Death.” This is also a premonition, which foreshadows the ending, as the script also recognizes "her marrying death, as her dream foretold".

While Ellen connects the lilacs with death (and has a sort of grieving widow inspiration about her character), Count Orlok, on the other hand and as mentioned before, connects them with his human life. At a superficial level, this can be thought of as a metaphor of death consuming life, and, in a way, that is correct, since that’s the explanation given by Professor Von Franz about the nature of Nosferatu: “Like every plague, its only desire is to consume all life on earth. It is a force more powerful than evil. It is death itself.” But that’s only one layer of interpretation, and that’s not Count Orlok’s goal, either. As Robert Eggers has said, his Orlok, unlike his book counterpart Dracula, is not interested in “world domination” or getting everyone on the planet killed, he only cares about Ellen, and getting her soul. Futhermore, according to Bill Skarsgård, Count Orlok made a “Faustian bargain”, which he regrets and is trying to trick, escape from.

When Count Orlok recognizes the scent of lilacs on Ellen’s hair inside of the locket, the script says he’s remembering something, and has to control his emotions. This is also one of the two times Orlok speaks Romanian in the entire film (he uses the Romanian word "liliac"); the other being at the end, after Ellen accepts his covenant and to break the curse of Nosferatu, and his last words are “tu eşti a mea” (“You are mine”). This highly implies to be connected to his backstory.

"You are fortunate in your love."

The dialogue in this scene is also oddly reminiscent of Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992): in both scenes, Count Dracula/Orlok are signing documents to purchase their respective manors: Carfax Abbey and Grünewald Manor, alongside Jonathan Harker/Thomas Hutter. And both scenes 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 "divorce papers" (a contract which annuls Ellen and Thomas' marriage so Ellen can wed Orlok "as in the laws of Solomon", on the day she gives her consent).

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 a "maiden's token" from a "bride" (with the lilac scent). In Coppola's case, this was taken from previous "Nosferatu" adaptations, because there is no such scene in the novel.

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

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

In both scenes, there is mention of “destiny”/”providence”, characters being “fortunate”/”luckiest” in connection to “love” and “death”. Both scenes 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). While there is no confirmation in the dialogue, and it's only present in the set design, there was a Countess, as Bill Skarsgård revealed in an interview to "The Hollywood Reporter": "the Count had a family and was once married".

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. 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 because he promptly demands “your signature” on the contract which will annul his marriage to Ellen, allowing her to marry him later on, and break the curse of Nosferatu. 

Count Orlok keeps the locket for himself, and will use it to perform an incantation to compel Ellen to “dream only of him” as he feeds on Thomas. The Count has been feeding on him ever since he arrived at the castle, however, this scene feels different, ritualistic, as Ellen mimics Orlok’s movements in her sleepwalking. There is sorcery at play here, and, since this takes place after Thomas signs the contract, it seems related to divorce him from Ellen in the spiritual plane, as well (since they are married by the Church and took an oath before God, until death does them apart).

 

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

When the Count arrives at Wisburg, he’s attended by his servant Herr Knock, who’s desperate to learn his secret to become the "prince of rats" (Nosferatu), but Orlok has no interest in sharing it with him, as he quickly dismisses him (similar to 1979 Count Dracula). As Knock will bitterly say, later on: “he only cares for his pretty bride”. Orlok says “daybreak draws near. Anon the bells of dawn shall toll in despair of my coming”, and then smells the scent of lilacs on the locket, once again, while saying “And I shall taste of you”. Which is a clear indication this “you” is Ellen, and not the townsfolk of Wisburg.

Later on, Ellen and Count Orlok meet for the first time (ever) in the flesh, as she gives him entrance into the Harding household (dooming everyone inside as a result). There’s a miscommunication happening between the two characters in this scene, because they are talking about different things; while Ellen thinks of him as a demon possessing (because of what Professor Von Franz said), Count Orlok arrives thinking she’ll accept to fulfill their covenant, right then and there. In this scene, we have some of those extremely rare moments when Orlok displays any sort of vulnerability in the entire film, aside from calling himself a "loathsome beast": "You are my affliction" and "Yet, even now we are fated". But mostly: “Your passion is bound to me” and “Yet, I cannot be sated without you. Remember how once we were? A moment. Remember?”  

According to Robert Eggers, this vulnerability was suggested by Bill Skarsgård when they worked together to create Count Orlok’s character: “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 this is connected with Orlok’s backstory, according to the director: “I sent him 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 the vampire.”

"Remember?"

In response to the Count asking her to "remember", Ellen claims to hate him, and this sends him into a rage, as he accuses her of lying ("You are false!") and denying herself: “So you wish me to prove my enmity as well? I will leave you three nights!” He sees this “I abhor you” as Ellen being hateful and deceptive towards him, because he’s certain she does remember, and she’s also been calling out to him, this entire time, through her shamanic ecstatic trances (“hysterical spells”). Why and how is Count Orlok so sure Ellen "remembers" and is lying to him? It's the scent of lilacs on her hair. 

Lilacs will only show up again when Ellen wears her “mourning attire”: she has white lilacs on her bonnet, including on the inside. At the funeral of Anna and the children, Ellen says she isn't crying because “she has no more tears to shed”, and yet when Professor Von Franz tells her “in heathen times, you might have been a great priestess of Isis”, revealing her true nature (seeress), she sheds one tear. And while it’s an historical accurate 19th century bonnet, the framing and Ellen’s nature connect her with another character from Robert Eggers’ films: the seeress from “The Northman” (2022), who also mentions remembrance to Amleth. 

"Now remember for whom you shed your last teardrop. Remember the oath to right the wrong. Remember the Raven King. Remember. Remember."

When Ellen accepts Count Orlok covenant (“be one with me, ever-eternally") she is wearing her wedding dress (to Thomas), which, according to Linda Muir, is filled with lilac details: “the lilacs in Ellen’s wedding outfit at the very end, when she accepts Orlok. All the tiny lilacs in her veil were handmade by an incredible artisan outside of Florence, who spent weeks crafting each one. These delicate flowers were then sent to the UK and fashioned into the headdress. The veil itself was a separate vintage piece I found, which we treated with immense care”. 

According to Linda Muir, Robert Eggers wanted the contrast between a black-dressed Count Orlok and a white-dressed Ellen, which is why "Ellen’s wedding dress had to be “white”, even if at the period women wore many other pale colours, often simply their best dress, to be wed, as Queen Victoria was the one who introduced the white wedding dress convention in 1840". And this contrast was meant to be seen "when Ellen and Orlok come together in the end, she’s wearing a complicated multi-layered wedding outfit and all of the foundational pieces. And Orlok is wearing a number of garments. When we see them come together, that silhouette of the bride and the groom is very important."

And this is, probably, a reference to the “Dracula” novel, where Count Dracula is described, by Mina Murray, as a “long and dark” figure ("whether a man or a beast, I could not tell") while feeding on a “snowy white” Lucy Westenra. In the novel, the ruins of Whitby Abbey (the book counterpart of Grünewald Manor), “a most noble ruin of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits” is said to have a legend: “a white lady is seen in one of the windows”. 

In the 2016 script, it was said Thomas and later Professor Von Franz got the lilacs from Grünewald Manor, both to gift to Ellen, in a way. This didn’t make it to the final 2024 script, however it’s still a high possibility because the Professor was at Grünewald Manor before getting to the Hutters household at the end, and he had to get the lilacs from somewhere. Thomas getting them from the same place is not out of question, because he knew Orlok was to buy the manor, and remarked to Herr Knock it was a “ruin”, so he might have been curious to go and see the manor before offering it to the client. And, indeed, there are some sort of flowers near the gates, but lilacs don't bloom during Winter (the story is set during Christmas time), they are a Spring flower.

At the end, Ellen and Orlok fulfill their covenant, and the curse of Nosferatu is broken, as their souls are set free. In the finale, Count Orlok also embodies the folk vampire who, as mentioned by Robert Eggers, “fornicated with their widows until their widows died from it”. The folklore which inspired this Count Orlok also comes full circle: “very often, folk vampires didn’t drink blood,” Eggers tells Bloody Disgusting. “They would sometimes suffocate people. They would sometimes return to their widows and fornicate with their widows until they died from being oversexed.” At the prologue, he suffocates Ellen, and at the end, has sex with her, both with the purpose of killing her to get her soul.

Montague Summers (“The Vampire in Europe: True Tales of the Undead”), Agnes Murgoçi and Jan Louis Perkowski (“The Vampire: A Casebook”) write that the victims of strigoi haunting are their family members and loved ones: “in Roumania as in Greece and other lands the vampire first attacks his own household and even the animals belonging to his family”. Strigoi haunt family members in particular, and others in the community as unfortunate collaterals. Montague Summers writes: “the vampire who is supposed when he returns from his grave first to attack those who on earth have been his nearest and dearest”.

One of the most popular themes in Romanian folklore, it’s the strigoi lover, where the reanimated-corpse type has the attributes of a lover, as Agnes Murgoçi says: “the vampire comes to fetch his [living] lady love, and takes her with him to his tomb”. Many accounts describe strigoi returning from their graves to have sex with their widows until they die of exhaustion, as Robert Eggers also mentioned to be a part of his adaptation. In folklore, it's said if the haunting is not stopped, death is the end result, with the strigoi dragging his beloved widow to an early grave.