Caseus Archivelox: Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens

2002-01-17
This being an unofficial version of Bram Stoker’s famous novel, Dracula, due to the copyright issues brought up by the Stoker estate, the names were changed. Even with the different names, this version of the novel is far superior to most other versions, as there is not the sense of camp that dominates most entries into the vampire filmography. The first vampire film has some of the clichés of the vampire subgenre fully in place, as was inevitable from its being based upon Dracula. However, it does diverge significantly from most vampires, as this is the first time that a vampire is shown to be destroyed by direct sunlight and Nosferatu is the ugliest vampire in movie history: nothing has come close. And most significantly, from the name Nosferatu, which means “plague-carrier”, comes a thinly disguised treatise on the dangers of sex (i.e. venereal disease).
As Nosferatu must sleep every night in the dirt from graveyards that held plague victims, he can be seen as the embodiment of the plague. As he kills, rumors of the plague surround the murders. Hutter himself is an incompetent who is unable to either stop or kill Nosferatu, and the strong feminine character of Ellen is an interesting contrast. The book on vampires also says that the only way to kill a vampire is for a woman without sin to offer herself to the vampire and make sure that he is still there when the cock crows. The effect of offering herself to the vampire can be seen as sex, and coming into contact with the “plague-carrier” must cause her death, but the fact that the plague is brought out into the open, will save many others. The animal nature of Schreck’s makeup (especially the two front rat-like fangs, rather than the more recent use of canine fangs) emphasizes the dehumanizing nature of the plague. Also, instead of the main animal being linked to the vampire being a bat, a wolf and especially rats are more closely related to Nosferatu, making him seem even more abnormal (even for a vampire) than future versions, where the foreign Count part of Count Dracula was emphasized rather than the vampire aspect.