Nosferatu: Full Movie Reaction
Added 2025-02-19 15:00:11 +0000 UTC
Comments
Eggers has said the biting of the chest is taken from folkloric vampire stories. I can't find an exact reference, but this would make sense as the folklore did tend to develop from a Vampire being not unlike a creature such as the old hag or the succubus, which sat on a person's chest and drained their life force, to the life force being drained through blood sucked from the chest. Carmilla also has the vampire biting on the chest, although from what I remember those bites follow the Varney tradition of just leaving two little puncture marks from canines. And yes Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (published 1872 so before Dracula) is Sapphic as all hell, this is an exchange between Carmilla and I think the characters name is Laura... "“I have been in love with no one, and never shall," she whispered, "unless it should be with you." How beautiful she looked in the moonlight! Shy and strange was the look with which she quickly hid her face in my neck and hair, with tumultuous sighs, that seemed almost to sob, and pressed in mine a hand that trembled. Her soft cheek was glowing against mine. "Darling, darling," she murmured, "I live in you; and you would die for me, I love you so."" There is a lot of Queer connections in terms of early Vampire literature from the 19th century, which is where we see the shift from the reanimated corpse Vampires of folklore to what we think of today in terms of the Vampire. The Vampyr by Polidori (a closeted gay man), written in 1819, is essentially the extended cut of a 'well fuck you then' letter after Byron spurned his affections; as we've already established Carmilla is basically the OG lesbian Vampire, and it's highly likely (considering the letters he exchanged with Walt Whitman, for one) that Bram Stoker was either bisexual, or gay and closeted (evidence leans towards the latter) with potential queer readings of Dracula (one example often put forward is Dracula's emphatic claim that Johnathon Harker belongs to him). Varney the Vampire (James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, 1845-1847) is the only one, as far as I'm aware that breaks the mold of a Vampire story either written by a non heterosexually identified author, or containing obvious queer references.
Claire Eyles
2025-02-20 21:19:02 +0000 UTCFair assessment, I personally enjoyed Herzog's version as well even though I was favorably impressed with this one.
Michael Labs
2025-02-20 05:19:20 +0000 UTCI much enjoyed both the movie and the reaction today... Yes, there is a varied and rich amount of folklore related to vampires and vampirism just in Eastern European lore alone (and that is not including other worldwide legends). As one other mentioned, the virgin on a white horse in a graveyard is a thing in Eastern European legend for finding a vampire grave (although the methods of dispatch varied in both technique and chance of success). Removal of head, heart, and if a stake failed... burning are examples of attempts to destroy. I also noted the shots of Hutter at a crossroads (suicides were buried in such places as a preventative for returns of a possible vampire). As to the biting of the chest, I think it was more of an invention of early vampire literature like "Carmilla" (which if I recall correctly was written before "Dracula") which carried fairly heavy erotic undertones even before our more modern romanticized takes on vampires. Carmilla for example is considered to have "sapphic" (as in lesbian) themes as I recall although the work is due for a repeat reading by me. I will yield the floor to other enthusiasts now. Cheers.
Michael Labs
2025-02-20 05:16:52 +0000 UTCI just watched this film this weekend, and I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I much preferred Murnau’s and Herzog’s versions. I think the hype around this film got to me and I was expecting to be unsettled or scared, but I hate to say that the film didn’t deliver. I get that Nosferatu’s design is accurate to Germanic folklore, but I just couldn’t take him seriously with his mustache and hair. I don’t want to be entirely negative though, so I should mention that I loved the use of shadows and slow camera movements to depict Nosferatu’s influence.
Lime Pie
2025-02-19 23:27:45 +0000 UTCAlso there is like so much, I mean so so much actual bonafide Occult and Folklore stuff in this film it is bonkers. Feel free to fall down as many rabbit holes as you can in regards to this subject, because the level of detail in this stuff is amazing. Couple of examples; the naked virgin on a white horse to find a Vampire's grav e is totally a real thing; the names that von Franz evokes before they burn the corpses of Friedrich and his family, "Tetragrammaton (one of the divine names of JHWH), Anephezeton and Primeumaton", are the names that form part of the Triangle of Solomon, used to essentially bind spirits, as mentioned in the Ars Goetia or Lesser Key of Solomon. That is just two in a long list of examples.
Claire Eyles
2025-02-19 22:56:16 +0000 UTCOh nice i just bought this movie too
Rey
2025-02-19 21:55:33 +0000 UTCAnother really great movie is Shadow of the Vampire, which is a fictional telling of the making of the original Nosferatu, except that the actor who plays Nosferatu is a real vampire. It has Willem Dafoe too and he's amazing.
Jorgalorg
2025-02-19 19:53:39 +0000 UTCThe 'Lo the maiden fair' line is from the 1922 original, although worded differently depending on the English translation. Murnau's film was based directly on Bram Stoker's Dracula, but also changed enough that they hoped to get around copyright (spoiler, they didn't succeed, Bram Stoker's widow took them to court and won the case, we are lucky to have any surviving copies of the 1922 film considering they were all ordered to be destroyed). Anyway in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula is killed by being beheaded and stabbed through the heart, The final lines of Dracula are actually an epilogue written by the character of Johnathon Harker and talks about his (by then) wife Mina and the son they had together seven years after destroying Dracula: “We want no proofs. We ask none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care. Later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake.” The whole trope of Vampire's being killed by sunlight didn't exist before 1922, Nosferatu was the first Vampire media, or modern mythology, to make that a thing.
Claire Eyles
2025-02-19 17:39:01 +0000 UTCsaw this movie in theaters, I think it compares very favorably with the 1922 version while still being its own thing.
James Smith
2025-02-19 16:44:57 +0000 UTCThis was such a worthy successor to the original 1922 version. Eggers has done F.W Murnau proud with this film. I also love that, as iconic as it is, they didn't just straight up try and copy Max Schreck's makeup but came up with their own take on the Vampire's look (which is wonderfully accurate for actual folkloric tales of Vampires prior to the works of people like Polidori and Stoker).
Claire Eyles
2025-02-19 15:47:25 +0000 UTCOooh excited for this!
Melissa Reynolds
2025-02-19 15:04:58 +0000 UTC
