Enter Count Orlok, the refreshingly old-fashioned villain from the latest Nosferatu<\/em><\/a> movie. And his dark presence infuses the film with not just fear, but faith.<\/p>\n As you\u2019re probably aware, the core story of Nosferatu<\/em> extends back to 1897, with Bram Stoker\u2019s original novel Dracula<\/em>. As the film industry started coming into its own (and nine years before the first official Dracula<\/em> movie was made), the German-based Prana Film decided to produce a movie based on the novel\u2014without getting the rights to it. Prana changed a few details in its 1922 movie Nosferatu<\/em> (including the locations and the name of the villain to Orlok), but Prana was sued anyway. It lost the lawsuit and was ordered to destroy every copy of the movie.<\/p>\n They didn\u2019t destroy all<\/em> of them, though: And as a result, cinephiles can still watch one of the greatest silent films ever.<\/p>\n The 2024 version of Nosferatu<\/em> is very different from the original. Beyond the obvious inclusion of sound and color, the movie makes a jump into hard R territory, featuring all the blood modern horror fans expect and a surprising amount of sex and sensuality. (Check out my review at Plugged In<\/em><\/a> for more on that.)<\/p>\n And Count Orlok (played by Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd) is a far different creature\u2014more in keeping with Stoker\u2019s original vision of the vampire, in many respects. Gone is the hairless, almost alien vibe of the 1922 Orlok. The 2024 version comes with a mustache that drips down his face and a corpse-like visage. This Orlok looks<\/em> more human, but every time we see him, we can almost smell dust and decay.<\/p>\n But the new movie consciously echoes the old, as well. Orlok brings not just himself to the bustling German city of Wisburg, but the plague: Rats tear through the streets and people die from disease by the score. Visually, it echoes the original\u2014down to a shadowy hand reaching over Wisburg. And the ending\u2014well, we\u2019ll get to that.<\/p>\n But most especially, 2024\u2019s Nosferatu<\/em> reminds us that the guy is evil<\/em>, pure and unadulterated. He\u2019s the way he is because he wanted<\/em> it.<\/p>\n The story begins simply enough. A young real estate clerk named Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) is tasked with traveling to a not-so-far-away country and finish up some final details on a handsome transaction: Seems a foreign aristocrat wishes to settle in Wisburg. Herr Knock, Thomas\u2019 boss (played by Simon McBurney), warns him that the gentleman is \u201cvery old and \u2026 eccentric. \u2026 one foot in the grave, so to speak.\u201d But Thomas will be well paid, and a promotion might even be in the offing. And with Thomas a young newlywed doing his best to provide for his young wife, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), a handsome commission and a career step up sounds well worth the inconvenience.<\/p>\n But Thomas\u2019 trip proves more than inconvenient. Ellen experiences horrific premonitions. Locals near Count Orlok\u2019s castle beg him to turn back. \u201cPlease don\u2019t go there,\u201d one says. \u201cBeware of his shadow.\u201d And when Thomas insists, he\u2019s given a cross and instructed to \u201cpray, pray, pray.\u201d<\/p>\n Once Thomas arrives at the castle, he\u2019s greeted by the strange owner, who demands to be addressed not as sir, but as lord<\/em>\u2014as \u201cmy honor of my blood demands it.\u201d<\/p>\n This is significant: The title \u201clord\u201d comes freighted with meaning and responsibility. To call someone \u201csir\u201d is merely Victorian etiquette. The title \u201clord,\u201d in ancient and feudal times, indicated that the person being addressed as such was owed fealty, loyalty and service. Orlok is not simply asking for respect, but demanding obedience and allegiance. And perhaps<\/em>, given Orlok\u2019s infernal nature, a change of allegiance from the Christian Lord, as well.<\/p>\n Those of us familiar with Dracula<\/em> or the original Nosferatu<\/em> know what to expect next: Thomas is attacked and imprisoned. Orlok is off to Wisburg, where he plans to take Thomas\u2019 own wife.<\/p>\n But Thomas escapes and, ultimately, finds himself in a church, where he\u2014and we\u2014learn something more of Orlok\u2019s origins. Seems he was not bitten by an older vampire or otherwise accidentally infected. He was a \u201cblack enchanter\u201d who was so evil that \u201cthe devil preserved his soul that his corpse may walk again in blasphemy.\u201d<\/p>\n But even this only begins to hint at Orlok\u2019s true diabolical nature.<\/p>\n In the original 1931 movie Dracula<\/em>, the titular vampire could travel around as a bat. Orlok has no such need of that sort of contrivance. He can visit people in dreams and visions. And that\u2019s not all.<\/p>\n In the movie\u2019s opening moments, we hear a young, pre-Thomas Ellen call into the darkness. \u201cCome to me,\u201d she says. \u201cThe guardian angel, the spirit of comfort. Anything<\/em>. Hear my call.\u201d<\/p>\n That call is answered by anything<\/em>. Orlok, it seems, comes, and comes in at least quasi-physical form. He was called as a demon might heed the call of a magician or witch. And through that call, Orlok binds himself to Ellen. And Ellen, as she falls in love with Thomas and grows wise enough to regret this adolescent infernal affair, cannot shake him. Cannot be rid of him.<\/p>\n Orlok is no mere vampire. In fact, Professor Van Helsing\u2014an expert in the occult who comes to be Orlok\u2019s most knowledgeable opponent\u2014declares that he is \u201cdeath itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Director Robert Eggers uses a seven-pointed, inverted heptogram as Orlok\u2019s personal symbol: We see it on his coffin and echoed elsewhere. That symbol crops up in some modern occult traditions, and it seems to visually tie Orlok to the darkest of dark magic. Knock, Thomas\u2019 boss who proves to be in the thrall of the count, uses language that feels ripped straight from Revelation.<\/p>\n \u201cHe shall cast upon you curses, confusion, afflictions, rebukes,\u201d he says. \u201cFor you have forsaken me. And he shall reign over all of your empty corpses.\u201d<\/p>\n Knock uses the word \u201cdevourance\u201d in reference to Orlok, and that echoes Van Helsing\u2019s own sense of the monster. \u201cLike every plague, its sole desire is to consume all life on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n In many a modern horror movie, all this might be dismissed as mere superstition. Religious modes of attack would be ineffectual: Science and reason must<\/em> win out.<\/p>\n But Nosferatu<\/em> embraces the story\u2019s inherently spiritual underpinnings and even doubles down on them.<\/p>\n When Thomas, visiting Count Orlok in his castle, asks the count about some curious rituals he\u2019s seen from the villagers, Orlok waves them off and seeks to make an ally of reason. \u201cMany superstitions here may seem backwards to a young man of your high learning,\u201d Orlok says. He adds, \u201cHow I look forward to retiring to your city of a modern mind who knows nothing of, nor believes any, such morbid fairy tales.\u201d<\/p>\n When Orlok does come to the city, he finds those unsupersitious men of \u201chigh learning\u201d to be unwitting allies. Freidrich, a friend of Thomas, spends much of the movie waving away Van Helsing\u2019s weird religious pronouncements, insisting that the death that is engulfing the city is a very natural, not supernatural, plague. And so he insists until his own small world is utterly consumed.<\/p>\n But Van Helsing (Willem Dafoe) places no such comfort in science or reason.<\/p>\n \u201cI have seen things in this world that would\u2019ve made Isaac Newton crawl back into his mother\u2019s womb,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have not become so much enlightened as we have been blinded by the gaseous light of science. \u2026 And I tell you, if we are to tame darkness, we must first face that it exists.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/469\/2025\/01\/nosferatu-2.jpg\")
<\/a>Old and Older<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>\u2018Beware of His Shadow\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>No Mere Vampire<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>The Cold Dark of Science<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>