Not sure if this will matter to anyone, but there are some spoilers for Bram Stoker's novel *Dracula* in the discussion section. For anyone who has yet to read it but plans to, be warned.
nicknickson3650 as someone who absolutely loves the movie, the reality is that some people didn't and that's fine, people have different tastes, this is one of those things that you either hate or love but it seems people are having an extreme emotion, which I think is a good thing.
I feel like the reject nation reaction was pretty good. But I do agree I saw so many silly reviews, saying they couldn’t look past his mustache and kept thinking of Dr. robotic or how there weren’t any jump scares despite the fact that that’s not this type of movie.Even worse people saying it was boring because that truly lets you know that they didn’t have the ability to understand if this was a movie that was meant to be more intellectualized than traditional gory horror.
I've said this in a few other reaction videos: this portrayal of a vampire is much more in line with Romanian folklore; it's infinitely more accurate. In the old folktales, vampires are essentially living, rotting corpses to some degree; they're these wretched, demonic things rather than charming seducers looking to blend in with normal humans. Everything from Orlok's hands, to his skin, to his death rattle type of breathing, goes along with the old stories. I wasn't surprised by this as Robert Eggers is known to use a ton of historical accuracy in his films, but I'm glad to see that he stuck with it for this film. The cinematography, costumes, and performances in this movie, in my opinion, are top notch. Everything from Skarsgard's look to the way he moves to the sound of his voice just radiates tension and intimidation. The reason why Orlok has the prominent mustache is because Dracula in Stoker's novel and the historical Dracula both had very thick mustaches.
Not that I don't love good modern vampire stories (the most recent I've seen is Midnight Mass, which I highly recommend), but folklore-accurate vampires will always be more scary imo. Orlok in this film is exactly what I imagine when I think of vampires - rotting, undead corpses that are far more animal than human. It's funny how the mustache alone would've made this one of the more accurate depictions of Dracula, as far as the book description goes. In the book he looks like an old man with a white mustache and aquiline features (at least when we first meet him).
Eggers has tried to make Orlok more of a folk vampire, but with 2 major exceptions. Orlok is still an aristocrat and a sorcerer. Most folk vampires weren't either of those things.
Fun fact about the language Orlock is speaking in some scenes. It is Dacian, the ancient pre-Romanian language of Romania, that went extinct in the 300s. Kinda gives you an idea how old he is
My favorite part about this fact: the rats used in the film were treated humanely. Plexiglass barriers used to keep them within a controlled area, and to keep them from getting stepped on by the horses. None of the 5000 rats they used were lost or killed.
Ellen understood her desire set in motion the events that would unfold. So, she saw her duty not just as “sacrifice” to stop Orlok but to fulfil her desire and accept this as punishment for connection with Orlok without knowing of the consequences. However, even at the end she accepts her desire for Orlok and will be with him in death. She doesn’t muster last ounce of strength to push the count towards the sunlight in categoric rejection, she cradles him and brings him to bosom. The duality is she is both repulsed and attracted to Orlok even though she loves Thomas.
You could tie this interpretation into an allegory for addition - knowing something will destroy you, but wanting it anyway. Or how someone might still love their toxic/abusive partner.
It paid off. His voice was one of my favorite parts of the film. The tortured breathing, the way it sounded like every word hurt to speak. Exactly how I'd imagine a corpse would sound like if it could talk. The dialogue, too - Dracula in the book is described as speaking perfect English, but with a heavy accent. Orlok's lines in this film really leaned into that aspect of the character.
In Robert Eggers' film (and in the Dracula novel), it is said that Orlok was a solomonar or magician from the mythical Șolomanță school of black magic from the Romanian tradition. You can see it in detail on the corresponding Wikipedia pages. I mention it because this tradition would be a derivative of the very old legend of the Cave of Salamanca in Spain. In that city there is a university founded in 1218 as Studium Generale and in 1252 as a university. As there were many wandering students who lived by roguery, cheating villagers and illiterates, they gained fame for knowing necromancy and for having studied in a cave with the devil himself. Apparently the previous legend was that Hercules founded an academy for the Liberal Arts and that he left a talking statue to resolve the students' doubts. Later, popular tradition changed Hercules to Asmodeus or some other demon. There, seven students studied the arts of divination, necromancy and wheather manipulation for seven years and at the end a draw was held, with one of them remaining in the power of the devil as payment. In the same way the romanian Șolomanță school was in the mountains reaching the center of the earth (cave??) and there 10 students were taught by the Devil and after a draw one student had to pay with his soul. We can imagine what Orlok or Vlad's school was like and perhaps the reason for his curse as a vampire: of the 10 he was the one who had to pay with his soul. Check out the engraving "The Cave of Salamanca" by Tomás Hijo, who according to Guillermo del Toro is one of the best wood engravers.
I love lore/mythology deep dives, thank you for this. I already mentioned this in another comment, but I found it really cool how the film provided an origin for Orlok - explaining that he was a Solomonar in life, a powerful sorcerer who made a pact with the devil to become immortal (rather than being turned by another vampire). This lines up with the book, where although it's never explicitly explained how Dracula became a vampire, Van Helsing at least hints that he attended the Scholomance.
There’s also a 79 remake of nosferatu that’s also from Germany that’s really good. I like all 3 for different reasons. Also Robert eggers did the Northman as well.
I dunno if either of you two have played KCD, but at 24:43 that guy talking is Miller Peshek. After about 20 replays of him saying, 'Killed 3 sheep with his bare hands.' I finally realised lol...
This movie was so good, and honestly the best part is how much it stays with you after watching it, all of the interpretations of the themes and scenes are so engaging and cool to discuss. Another excellent horror movie I would recommend from last year is I Saw the TV Glow, very different but honestly beautifully haunting.
All four "Nosferatu" films(1922, 1979, 2023 and 2024)were filmed at Orava Castle in the Czech Republic for the Castle Orlok and plague scenes(The 1979 and 2024 remakes used real rats whilst the 1922 and 2023 films used prop rats and the 1931 "Dracula" Film substituted opossums for rats) and most other scenes were filmed in Germany and England.
@@ChannelNamePending699 Don`t expect much, it`s basically one of those almost shot for shot remakes of the original that completely misses the point of what made the original work to begin with, also none of the American, Canadian and English cast even make an effort to sound German whereas here they at least used German pronunciation, signs and honorifics even if it was with RP English accents for the most part!
It's interesting to me how Nosferatu is in some ways more accurate to the Dracula book than the Dracula movie is, but in other ways makes some really interesting changes that impact the interpretation of the story.
So in terms of who is supposed to be who from the original novel. One thing to keep in mind is that when Dracula was adapted to the stage, they scaled back a lot, combined characters. Throughout the years there's been some recurring elements which include 1) Jonathan not being quite so lucky in his visit to the count, and having one of the other men take a prominent role 2) Dr Seward, who was Lucy's suitor, older and one of the women's father 3) For that matter not giving Lucy any suitors at all--her cowboy paramour Quincy is almost never see, 4) Switching Mina and Lucy around 5) Making one of them resemble Dracula's lost love and 6) This might surprise some people, establishing Van Helsing as someone already pretty well-versed and vampires. So all thet said--Anna as the movie's Lucy is a bit...complicated. In the original, Ella stays with a couple who is brother and sister. In the 1979 remake, where they use the names from Dracula, they have a "Mina" who dies before the heroine, named Lucy. (They also switched the names around for the 1979 Dracula with Frank Langella) In this version, I would say the combine aspects of both Mina and Lucy--being married to the film's "Harker", having psychic connections to the vampire like Mina, but also prone to sleepwalking and the concern for her health bringing the "Van Helsing" into the story--actually fun fact, most movies treat Lucy's sleepwalking as the result of Dracula's mesmerization, but the text esbalishes her as a chronic Somnambulist, and Dracula preying on her is an effect, not cause of this). This kind of makes Anna kind of made out the leftovers, generally being "Lucy-like" in that she's the heroine's rich friend and she gets bitten first. Freidreich is more or less Arthur Homewood, Lucy's fiance in the book, in that he's wealthy, and generally skeptical--usually he's either left out or is umabigiuousy heroic (The 2006 BBC version takes him in a WILD direction though). Siever is the Doctor Seward role, kind of splitting the difference between the various takes, in that he's the vampire hunter's former student and generally on board with him early on and is aged up. Funny enough, Van Helsing does appear in '79 Nosferatu but is hilariously useless.
Very informative write-up, thank you for this! Some notes: - If Eggers wanted to lean even harder into the Dracula inspiration, I can't help but think that Aaron Taylor-Johnson would've been a good pick for the role of Quincey. Of course, you'd have to make some major changes to the story, at which point it'd probably make more sense to just adapt Dracula proper. But as you said, it's hard to find an actual portrayal of Quincey among the *many* adaptations. - Your point about Van Helsing described my initial experience with the character - I first read Dracula in high school, but even before then I remember seeing Van Helsing media here and there, so I was fully expecting him to be introduced as an experienced vampire slayer. I was pretty surprised to learn that he was just a doctor who happened to know about obscure diseases. But I grew to love the character still find it super interesting how he's turned into a legacy character outside of the novel, rivalling Dracula himself. - I've only seen bits and pieces of the '79 version, but after this I'm thinking I'll finally give it a full watch.
@@ChannelNamePending699 It's believed that Peter Cushing from the Hammer films really got the ball rolling on Van Helsing being Drac's two-fisted arch-nemesis.
Yeah. Orlok more or less is Dracula, but an unlicensed version since the original novel wasn't in the public domain yet. They tried to work around that by changing the names and locations, but the Stoker estate nevertheless won their lawsuit and all copies of Nosferatu were to be destroyed but thankfully some copies survived.
There are two languages spoken in the movie when Thomas is in Transylvania. The guys with the long hair that are dancing and singing when he arrives in the village are Roma people and they speak their own language, the old guy, the old women and the nuns are Romanians and they speak Romanian. And what Orlok speaks is some sort of fictional old Romanian thing that they made up for the movie, some people claim it's Dacian but there is no such thing as Dacian anymore, so what he speaks is just some made up gibberish.
@@ChannelNamePending699 Oh yeah, it's cool for sure, but there are a lot of people spreading nonsense such as "Eggers reconstructed the Dacian language" and stuff like that, which is complete bs.
@ Yes. Of course she didn’t want to die. But she knew that she had to save the city and Thomas. But she used his own desires and obsession with her against Count Orlok. They had a multi year “affair” before she met Thomas. She left Orlok for Thomas. But she still had feelings for Orlok, thus the love triangle.
Anna was in the original film but she was a more minor character, named Ruth and was Harding`s sister, not his wife, and was basically the Lucy substitute whilst in the 1922 and 1979 Films Ellen took on both the Mina and Lucy roles from the novel.(Being married to the protagonist like Mina, lusted after by the vampiric Count like Lucy and preyed upon by the vampire like both women. The main difference with Ellen`s character is especially by the standards of a 1920s German silent film she had far more agency through her psychic connection to Orlok, pacifistic nature during wartime and heroic sacrifice than either of her novel counterparts or most female characters of her day who were generally relegated to passive damsels in distress(Which Ellen kinda was but also by the standards of her day was kinda a subversion of that trope to the extent could be got away with in the early 1920s)or love interests(Which Ellen also kinda was for both Thomas and Orlok, albeit in a more twisted, predatory manner for the latter, in Orlok`s time vampires were disgusting beasts, the romantic vampire came way later).
The way Mina and Lucy's characters have been altered, switched, or even combined across various adaptations has always been so interesting to me. I really enjoyed Ellen's portrayal in this one. This was her story more so than any other character's. The emphasis on themes such as the repression of women and their desires was very clear.
Watch the 1979 remake too. Isabelle Adjani's Ellen Hutter is just as good in my opinion, Lily-Rose Depp even said that her performance in Possession (1981) inspired her own acting in Nosferatu
Also, obviously since the original film was a silent film we don`t know exactly how Herr Knock`s name is pronounced but considering hard K`s are usually pronounced quite distinctly in the German language(Similar to Hebrew, Croatian and Greek)archivists speculate it`s something like "Herr K-anock", here it`s sometimes pronounced "Herr Ka-nock" but usually pronounced "Herr K-lock."
I did notice this eventually but I was just too used to saying his name the way it's pronounced in English. That said, it's always very cool to see how much attention Eggers pays to historical and cultural accuracy.
Principal characters in Nosferatu all desire something. Count Orlok and Ellen desire connection and pleasures of the flesh. Thomas desires wealth and security for himself and Ellen. Friedrich desires control, his wife Anna for connection and Knock desires immortality. Their desires and unsound decisions leave them oblivious to inevitable, devastating consequences
Correction: Vlad was born in Transylvania(Sighisoara to be precise) but outside of being imprisoned there he barely spent any time there, he lived in and ruled Wallachia(Modern day Southern Romania), in fact he hated the other Transylvanian nobles with a passion as he saw them as parasites upon the local Wallachian populace and sellouts to the Turks and Austro-Hungarians, both of whom he hated albeit to different extents.
There were no Austro Hungarians in Vlad's time what are you talking about? And the Transylvanian nobles at the time were not sellouts, they actually were Hungarians and German Saxons
@@henryviii2091 Those Hungarian and German Saxons played both sides in the Wallachia/Ottoman conflict plus they were the ones who executed Vlad`s father (Also named Vlad and called Dracul after the Ordo Dracul(Ancient Wallachian for "Order of the Dragon")which was why his son called himself "Draculea"("Son of the Dragon", it was later changed to "Son of the Devil" by Vlad`s political enemies who now ruled Romania after his death)and his elder brother Mircea on Sultan Murad II`s orders.
One of the main differences between Orlok and Dracula you forgot to mention is outside of the 1979 Remake starring Bruno Ganz as Thomas Hutter/Jonathan Harker and Klaus Kinski as Graf Orlok/Count Dracula Orlok doesn`t actually turn anybody into vampires (In the latter case, it`s a deviation from both the Novel and the original "Nosferatu" although it did happen in one of the Hammer Dracula films but in both cases it was considered a goofy twist, came to nothing later and detracted from otherwise excellent horror films).The reason being Dracula and Orlok were parasitic vampires in different senses, with Dracula representing the foreign aristocracy feeding off the blood of the peasantry and working class Englishmen and one American in the original novel.(Which was unusual for British literature at the time, less so that it was a southerner)whereas Orlok was a plague spreading revenant poorly portraying the human nobleman he once was to lure Hutter in . Something the two Counts did share however aside from their Romanian ethnicity, vampirism and title was the unintentional anti-Semitic connotations of their being(With Stoker, it`s more ambiguous that it was unintentional because it was a running theme in his literary works and anti-Semitism was virtually omnipresent in 19th Century Europe and North America for that matter but Murnau being gay I would give more the benefit of the doubt because gays, blacks, Roma ,Slavs and Jews were often allies as discriminated minorities in 1920s Germany , also the producer Albin Grau who provided occult insights and storyboards for the film was Jewish, as was Alexander Granach who played the Renfield character Herr Knock, in the 1922 and 1979 Film Knock/Renfield was a much more bumbling and sycophantic character and a scapegoat for Orlok`s plague whilst in the 2023 and 2024 Films he`s a somewhat more competent and active minion and is implied to have been interested in the occult even before being controlled by Orlok.)
True! But honestly, with how hard this movie was leaning on the Dracula inspiration, I was slightly expecting him to turn someone at some point (Anna was the most likely candidate). I'm a little glad it didn't happen, since I don't think the story needed it. While we're on the topic of differences and similarities, I found it really cool how the film provided an origin for Orlok - explaining that he was a Solomonar in life, a powerful sorcerer who made a pact with the devil to become immortal (rather than being turned by another vampire). This lines up with the book, where although it's never explicitly explained how Dracula became a vampire, Van Helsing at least hints that he attended the Scholomance.
@@ChannelNamePending699 Yep, Van Helsing also hinted that he was Vlad when he said in his correspondence with Dr. Seward "He must have indeed been that Voivode Dracula who held off the Ottomans of Turkey-land."Impalement was not mentioned outside of being a vampire weakness because Stoker was not aware of who Vlad was aside from his nickname which had recently been changed from "Son of the Dragon" to "Son of the Devil" at that time and that he was a Voivode who fought the Turks and Austro-Hungarian nobles which was pretty much a rite of passage for local leaders in Eastern Europe during the 15th Century.
She committed suicide and so did Orlok so they could be together in the afterlife....listen to how they talk to each other. Ellen was not comfortable being human, and only Orlok understood her fully. She wanted to sleep with him before he gave her 3 nights as part of his generational pledge agreement.She holds him as he is passing on in a loving romantic relationship.
Isn’t this supposed to be more of a predator/victim dynamic? This story definitely feels less romantic and could also be seen as an allegory for addiction, or maybe toxic relationships (Stockholm syndrome) at a push.
@@FighterofthenightmanaaaahThat's my read on it for sure. Yes I know gothic horror loves a good dark romance, but personally I don't think the "love" between Ellen and Orlok is supposed to be seen as anything other than toxic, twisted, and abusive.
Yeah there's different ways to interpret the story for each character. She even woke him up first with her spiritual powers that we find out about later. The entire thing is a twisted love/lust story.
@@Fighterofthenightmanaaaah yes it's an allegory for toxic relationships but they are both monsters and victims of each other when you look at it past surface level.
Not film school specifically, I only studied it as an elective lol. It was fun - the same prof that showed Nosferatu only selected obscure films that weren't mainstream and that most people probably haven't heard of, which was a very eye-opening experience. I majored in English though.
Dracula - ish is a understatement This movie is literally 90% Dracula & 10% Nosferatu & Yeah Nosferatu is technically a ripoff of Dracula but its not the same character not even close 😂 They should have just named this movie Dracula so it didn't throw so many ppl off Btw i don't know you're names because ive never seen your channel before but you're girlfriend looks almost perfectly identical to Tara from Sons Of Anarchy , she even has the same exact hair style & voice ❤
You're surprised millions of people don't perceive the world in the exact manner you do? I'll give you this, Robert Eggers works on a wavelength that people either adore, or absolutely detest, he's very niche and unfortunately it just doesn't click for you and that's fine, but it does for others and that's fine also.
Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) looked exactly like someone else I've seen recently, in the movie Sum of All Fears (currently free on YT at 42 minutes and 46 seconds) Who could of played the roll with little make up and still had exactly the same face.
Not sure if this will matter to anyone, but there are some spoilers for Bram Stoker's novel *Dracula* in the discussion section. For anyone who has yet to read it but plans to, be warned.
Finally a review from actual fans of gothic horror who know their stuff. So many reviews on youtubers sadly didn't appreciate this.
I agree. So many reviews I've seen trashing this movie and all the criticism come from them not knowing what's going on
I’m not going to lie I can in blind watching this movie and imma I tell I absolutely loved it.. 11/10 this movie was brilliant
I appreciate it as a Dracula movie but definitely not a Nosferatu remake
nicknickson3650 as someone who absolutely loves the movie, the reality is that some people didn't and that's fine, people have different tastes, this is one of those things that you either hate or love but it seems people are having an extreme emotion, which I think is a good thing.
I feel like the reject nation reaction was pretty good. But I do agree I saw so many silly reviews, saying they couldn’t look past his mustache and kept thinking of Dr. robotic or how there weren’t any jump scares despite the fact that that’s not this type of movie.Even worse people saying it was boring because that truly lets you know that they didn’t have the ability to understand if this was a movie that was meant to be more intellectualized than traditional gory horror.
I've said this in a few other reaction videos: this portrayal of a vampire is much more in line with Romanian folklore; it's infinitely more accurate. In the old folktales, vampires are essentially living, rotting corpses to some degree; they're these wretched, demonic things rather than charming seducers looking to blend in with normal humans. Everything from Orlok's hands, to his skin, to his death rattle type of breathing, goes along with the old stories. I wasn't surprised by this as Robert Eggers is known to use a ton of historical accuracy in his films, but I'm glad to see that he stuck with it for this film.
The cinematography, costumes, and performances in this movie, in my opinion, are top notch. Everything from Skarsgard's look to the way he moves to the sound of his voice just radiates tension and intimidation. The reason why Orlok has the prominent mustache is because Dracula in Stoker's novel and the historical Dracula both had very thick mustaches.
Not that I don't love good modern vampire stories (the most recent I've seen is Midnight Mass, which I highly recommend), but folklore-accurate vampires will always be more scary imo. Orlok in this film is exactly what I imagine when I think of vampires - rotting, undead corpses that are far more animal than human.
It's funny how the mustache alone would've made this one of the more accurate depictions of Dracula, as far as the book description goes. In the book he looks like an old man with a white mustache and aquiline features (at least when we first meet him).
Eggers has tried to make Orlok more of a folk vampire, but with 2 major exceptions. Orlok is still an aristocrat and a sorcerer. Most folk vampires weren't either of those things.
Agreed
@@OrtegaSeason that's the part that makes it fit more in line with dracula stories.
Fun fact about the language Orlock is speaking in some scenes. It is Dacian, the ancient pre-Romanian language of Romania, that went extinct in the 300s. Kinda gives you an idea how old he is
Robert Eggers's attention to historical details is unmatched.
@@ChannelNamePending699 Dacian was also an Indo European language like Romanian but from an extinct branch.
The scene where Thomas and Orlok sit by the table felt so oppressive and menacing in the cinema.
Last movie, "They actually grew millions of real tulips!"
This movie, "They actually used thousands of real rats!"
My favorite part about this fact: the rats used in the film were treated humanely. Plexiglass barriers used to keep them within a controlled area, and to keep them from getting stepped on by the horses. None of the 5000 rats they used were lost or killed.
It's best to watch this movie in the dark.
Fun Fact: Ellen`s cat, Greta, was named after Greta Schroder who played Ellen Hutter in the OG "Nosferatu".
Ellen understood her desire set in motion the events that would unfold. So, she saw her duty not just as “sacrifice” to stop Orlok but to fulfil her desire and accept this as punishment for connection with Orlok without knowing of the consequences. However, even at the end she accepts her desire for Orlok and will be with him in death. She doesn’t muster last ounce of strength to push the count towards the sunlight in categoric rejection, she cradles him and brings him to bosom. The duality is she is both repulsed and attracted to Orlok even though she loves Thomas.
The hair she put into the locket was also meant for Orlok. It was never for Thomas.
You could tie this interpretation into an allegory for addition - knowing something will destroy you, but wanting it anyway. Or how someone might still love their toxic/abusive partner.
it really adds to the ‘orlok is ellen’s manifestation of sexual desire’ perspective with a conclusion of acceptance
Bill Skarsgard trained with an opera throat singer from Mongolia to get his voice that deep for Orlok.
It paid off. His voice was one of my favorite parts of the film. The tortured breathing, the way it sounded like every word hurt to speak. Exactly how I'd imagine a corpse would sound like if it could talk. The dialogue, too - Dracula in the book is described as speaking perfect English, but with a heavy accent. Orlok's lines in this film really leaned into that aspect of the character.
In Robert Eggers' film (and in the Dracula novel), it is said that Orlok was a solomonar or magician from the mythical Șolomanță school of black magic from the Romanian tradition. You can see it in detail on the corresponding Wikipedia pages. I mention it because this tradition would be a derivative of the very old legend of the Cave of Salamanca in Spain. In that city there is a university founded in 1218 as Studium Generale and in 1252 as a university. As there were many wandering students who lived by roguery, cheating villagers and illiterates, they gained fame for knowing necromancy and for having studied in a cave with the devil himself. Apparently the previous legend was that Hercules founded an academy for the Liberal Arts and that he left a talking statue to resolve the students' doubts. Later, popular tradition changed Hercules to Asmodeus or some other demon. There, seven students studied the arts of divination, necromancy and wheather manipulation for seven years and at the end a draw was held, with one of them remaining in the power of the devil as payment. In the same way the romanian Șolomanță school was in the mountains reaching the center of the earth (cave??) and there 10 students were taught by the Devil and after a draw one student had to pay with his soul. We can imagine what Orlok or Vlad's school was like and perhaps the reason for his curse as a vampire: of the 10 he was the one who had to pay with his soul. Check out the engraving "The Cave of Salamanca" by Tomás Hijo, who according to Guillermo del Toro is one of the best wood engravers.
I love lore/mythology deep dives, thank you for this. I already mentioned this in another comment, but I found it really cool how the film provided an origin for Orlok - explaining that he was a Solomonar in life, a powerful sorcerer who made a pact with the devil to become immortal (rather than being turned by another vampire). This lines up with the book, where although it's never explicitly explained how Dracula became a vampire, Van Helsing at least hints that he attended the Scholomance.
That poor cat saw everything...
fr
the approach of the carriage in the forest scene is so atmospheric and stunningly beautiful
There’s also a 79 remake of nosferatu that’s also from Germany that’s really good. I like all 3 for different reasons. Also Robert eggers did the Northman as well.
Ohhh I need to see that german remake . Thanks for the recommendation
I've seen bits and pieces of it but now I'm definitely thinking about giving it a full watch.
@@HulaMask your welcome. I believe it’s on prime if you have that.
@@ChannelNamePending699 It’s really good I’d recommend.
@ thank you !
I dunno if either of you two have played KCD, but at 24:43 that guy talking is Miller Peshek. After about 20 replays of him saying, 'Killed 3 sheep with his bare hands.' I finally realised lol...
Damn good adaptation of a classic horror flick
It's a good adaptation of Nosfuratu except he switched his look up by making him look like Dracula instead of Orlock
This movie was so good, and honestly the best part is how much it stays with you after watching it, all of the interpretations of the themes and scenes are so engaging and cool to discuss. Another excellent horror movie I would recommend from last year is I Saw the TV Glow, very different but honestly beautifully haunting.
I've been meaning to watch I Saw the TV Glow at some point! I meant to react to it when it came to streaming but I ended up not having time.
All four "Nosferatu" films(1922, 1979, 2023 and 2024)were filmed at Orava Castle in the Czech Republic for the Castle Orlok and plague scenes(The 1979 and 2024 remakes used real rats whilst the 1922 and 2023 films used prop rats and the 1931 "Dracula" Film substituted opossums for rats) and most other scenes were filmed in Germany and England.
I've seen bits and pieces of the '79 version but I had no idea the 2023 film even existed. As a fan of Doug Jones, I might just give it a watch.
@@ChannelNamePending699 Don`t expect much, it`s basically one of those almost shot for shot remakes of the original that completely misses the point of what made the original work to begin with, also none of the American, Canadian and English cast even make an effort to sound German whereas here they at least used German pronunciation, signs and honorifics even if it was with RP English accents for the most part!
It's interesting to me how Nosferatu is in some ways more accurate to the Dracula book than the Dracula movie is, but in other ways makes some really interesting changes that impact the interpretation of the story.
So in terms of who is supposed to be who from the original novel. One thing to keep in mind is that when Dracula was adapted to the stage, they scaled back a lot, combined characters. Throughout the years there's been some recurring elements which include 1) Jonathan not being quite so lucky in his visit to the count, and having one of the other men take a prominent role 2) Dr Seward, who was Lucy's suitor, older and one of the women's father 3) For that matter not giving Lucy any suitors at all--her cowboy paramour Quincy is almost never see, 4) Switching Mina and Lucy around 5) Making one of them resemble Dracula's lost love and 6) This might surprise some people, establishing Van Helsing as someone already pretty well-versed and vampires.
So all thet said--Anna as the movie's Lucy is a bit...complicated. In the original, Ella stays with a couple who is brother and sister. In the 1979 remake, where they use the names from Dracula, they have a "Mina" who dies before the heroine, named Lucy. (They also switched the names around for the 1979 Dracula with Frank Langella) In this version, I would say the combine aspects of both Mina and Lucy--being married to the film's "Harker", having psychic connections to the vampire like Mina, but also prone to sleepwalking and the concern for her health bringing the "Van Helsing" into the story--actually fun fact, most movies treat Lucy's sleepwalking as the result of Dracula's mesmerization, but the text esbalishes her as a chronic Somnambulist, and Dracula preying on her is an effect, not cause of this). This kind of makes Anna kind of made out the leftovers, generally being "Lucy-like" in that she's the heroine's rich friend and she gets bitten first.
Freidreich is more or less Arthur Homewood, Lucy's fiance in the book, in that he's wealthy, and generally skeptical--usually he's either left out or is umabigiuousy heroic (The 2006 BBC version takes him in a WILD direction though). Siever is the Doctor Seward role, kind of splitting the difference between the various takes, in that he's the vampire hunter's former student and generally on board with him early on and is aged up. Funny enough, Van Helsing does appear in '79 Nosferatu but is hilariously useless.
Very informative write-up, thank you for this! Some notes:
- If Eggers wanted to lean even harder into the Dracula inspiration, I can't help but think that Aaron Taylor-Johnson would've been a good pick for the role of Quincey. Of course, you'd have to make some major changes to the story, at which point it'd probably make more sense to just adapt Dracula proper. But as you said, it's hard to find an actual portrayal of Quincey among the *many* adaptations.
- Your point about Van Helsing described my initial experience with the character - I first read Dracula in high school, but even before then I remember seeing Van Helsing media here and there, so I was fully expecting him to be introduced as an experienced vampire slayer. I was pretty surprised to learn that he was just a doctor who happened to know about obscure diseases. But I grew to love the character still find it super interesting how he's turned into a legacy character outside of the novel, rivalling Dracula himself.
- I've only seen bits and pieces of the '79 version, but after this I'm thinking I'll finally give it a full watch.
@@ChannelNamePending699 It's believed that Peter Cushing from the Hammer films really got the ball rolling on Van Helsing being Drac's two-fisted arch-nemesis.
So refreshing to see a reaction from educated viewers, thoroughly enjoyed ❤
Thank you! :D
Yeah. Orlok more or less is Dracula, but an unlicensed version since the original novel wasn't in the public domain yet. They tried to work around that by changing the names and locations, but the Stoker estate nevertheless won their lawsuit and all copies of Nosferatu were to be destroyed but thankfully some copies survived.
Amazing reaction wowww
There are two languages spoken in the movie when Thomas is in Transylvania. The guys with the long hair that are dancing and singing when he arrives in the village are Roma people and they speak their own language, the old guy, the old women and the nuns are Romanians and they speak Romanian. And what Orlok speaks is some sort of fictional old Romanian thing that they made up for the movie, some people claim it's Dacian but there is no such thing as Dacian anymore, so what he speaks is just some made up gibberish.
Yeah I figured it was either Dacian or something they made up. Either way, the way Bill delivers it sounds so regal and cool to listen to.
@@ChannelNamePending699 Oh yeah, it's cool for sure, but there are a lot of people spreading nonsense such as "Eggers reconstructed the Dacian language" and stuff like that, which is complete bs.
I was enthralled with the cinematography, being able to watch this in the theatre.
Lily Rose Depp has said that Ellen, Thomas, and Orlok were a love triangle. She loved Thomas, but was drawn to Orlok.
did she sacrifice herself at the end ?
@ Yes. Of course she didn’t want to die. But she knew that she had to save the city and Thomas. But she used his own desires and obsession with her against Count Orlok. They had a multi year “affair” before she met Thomas. She left Orlok for Thomas. But she still had feelings for Orlok, thus the love triangle.
Anna was in the original film but she was a more minor character, named Ruth and was Harding`s sister, not his wife, and was basically the Lucy substitute whilst in the 1922 and 1979 Films Ellen took on both the Mina and Lucy roles from the novel.(Being married to the protagonist like Mina, lusted after by the vampiric Count like Lucy and preyed upon by the vampire like both women. The main difference with Ellen`s character is especially by the standards of a 1920s German silent film she had far more agency through her psychic connection to Orlok, pacifistic nature during wartime and heroic sacrifice than either of her novel counterparts or most female characters of her day who were generally relegated to passive damsels in distress(Which Ellen kinda was but also by the standards of her day was kinda a subversion of that trope to the extent could be got away with in the early 1920s)or love interests(Which Ellen also kinda was for both Thomas and Orlok, albeit in a more twisted, predatory manner for the latter, in Orlok`s time vampires were disgusting beasts, the romantic vampire came way later).
The way Mina and Lucy's characters have been altered, switched, or even combined across various adaptations has always been so interesting to me. I really enjoyed Ellen's portrayal in this one. This was her story more so than any other character's. The emphasis on themes such as the repression of women and their desires was very clear.
Watch the 1979 remake too. Isabelle Adjani's Ellen Hutter is just as good in my opinion, Lily-Rose Depp even said that her performance in Possession (1981) inspired her own acting in Nosferatu
Also, obviously since the original film was a silent film we don`t know exactly how Herr Knock`s name is pronounced but considering hard K`s are usually pronounced quite distinctly in the German language(Similar to Hebrew, Croatian and Greek)archivists speculate it`s something like "Herr K-anock", here it`s sometimes pronounced "Herr Ka-nock" but usually pronounced "Herr K-lock."
I did notice this eventually but I was just too used to saying his name the way it's pronounced in English. That said, it's always very cool to see how much attention Eggers pays to historical and cultural accuracy.
Principal characters in Nosferatu all desire something. Count Orlok and Ellen desire connection and pleasures of the flesh. Thomas desires wealth and security for himself and Ellen. Friedrich desires control, his wife Anna for connection and Knock desires immortality. Their desires and unsound decisions leave them oblivious to inevitable, devastating consequences
I say loud in cinema to my friends that this was far the best romanticst movies ive ever watched and all people loeked at my like wtf 😂😂❤❤
Correction: Vlad was born in Transylvania(Sighisoara to be precise) but outside of being imprisoned there he barely spent any time there, he lived in and ruled Wallachia(Modern day Southern Romania), in fact he hated the other Transylvanian nobles with a passion as he saw them as parasites upon the local Wallachian populace and sellouts to the Turks and Austro-Hungarians, both of whom he hated albeit to different extents.
Thank you for the clarification!
There were no Austro Hungarians in Vlad's time what are you talking about? And the Transylvanian nobles at the time were not sellouts, they actually were Hungarians and German Saxons
@@henryviii2091 Those Hungarian and German Saxons played both sides in the Wallachia/Ottoman conflict plus they were the ones who executed Vlad`s father (Also named Vlad and called Dracul after the Ordo Dracul(Ancient Wallachian for "Order of the Dragon")which was why his son called himself "Draculea"("Son of the Dragon", it was later changed to "Son of the Devil" by Vlad`s political enemies who now ruled Romania after his death)and his elder brother Mircea on Sultan Murad II`s orders.
Fantastic film. Definitely my favorite of last year
Where to watch ?
Prime Video
"This scene could be a painting " yea well thats the thing with Robert eggers ,every scene can be a painting
One of the main differences between Orlok and Dracula you forgot to mention is outside of the 1979 Remake starring Bruno Ganz as Thomas Hutter/Jonathan Harker and Klaus Kinski as Graf Orlok/Count Dracula Orlok doesn`t actually turn anybody into vampires (In the latter case, it`s a deviation from both the Novel and the original "Nosferatu" although it did happen in one of the Hammer Dracula films but in both cases it was considered a goofy twist, came to nothing later and detracted from otherwise excellent horror films).The reason being Dracula and Orlok were parasitic vampires in different senses, with Dracula representing the foreign aristocracy feeding off the blood of the peasantry and working class Englishmen and one American in the original novel.(Which was unusual for British literature at the time, less so that it was a southerner)whereas Orlok was a plague spreading revenant poorly portraying the human nobleman he once was to lure Hutter in . Something the two Counts did share however aside from their Romanian ethnicity, vampirism and title was the unintentional anti-Semitic connotations of their being(With Stoker, it`s more ambiguous that it was unintentional because it was a running theme in his literary works and anti-Semitism was virtually omnipresent in 19th Century Europe and North America for that matter but Murnau being gay I would give more the benefit of the doubt because gays, blacks, Roma ,Slavs and Jews were often allies as discriminated minorities in 1920s Germany , also the producer Albin Grau who provided occult insights and storyboards for the film was Jewish, as was Alexander Granach who played the Renfield character Herr Knock, in the 1922 and 1979 Film Knock/Renfield was a much more bumbling and sycophantic character and a scapegoat for Orlok`s plague whilst in the 2023 and 2024 Films he`s a somewhat more competent and active minion and is implied to have been interested in the occult even before being controlled by Orlok.)
True! But honestly, with how hard this movie was leaning on the Dracula inspiration, I was slightly expecting him to turn someone at some point (Anna was the most likely candidate). I'm a little glad it didn't happen, since I don't think the story needed it. While we're on the topic of differences and similarities, I found it really cool how the film provided an origin for Orlok - explaining that he was a Solomonar in life, a powerful sorcerer who made a pact with the devil to become immortal (rather than being turned by another vampire). This lines up with the book, where although it's never explicitly explained how Dracula became a vampire, Van Helsing at least hints that he attended the Scholomance.
@@ChannelNamePending699 Yep, Van Helsing also hinted that he was Vlad when he said in his correspondence with Dr. Seward "He must have indeed been that Voivode Dracula who held off the Ottomans of Turkey-land."Impalement was not mentioned outside of being a vampire weakness because Stoker was not aware of who Vlad was aside from his nickname which had recently been changed from "Son of the Dragon" to "Son of the Devil" at that time and that he was a Voivode who fought the Turks and Austro-Hungarian nobles which was pretty much a rite of passage for local leaders in Eastern Europe during the 15th Century.
This film is a masterpiece 🧛🏿♂️ can you also react The Substance 💉🔋 ?
We've been wanting to see it, and I'm definitely open to doing a reaction for it 👀
Enjoyed this reaction. Hope you guys watch and react to more gothic movies and horror. This was fun.
I enjoyed this film.
Great reaction!
This film is going to be a classic fantastic film .it’s basically the death and the maiden story
I love the moustache
18:07 mannnn wtf OSHA gonna do LMAOOO😭😂
love your reaction! i love this movie
She committed suicide and so did Orlok so they could be together in the afterlife....listen to how they talk to each other. Ellen was not comfortable being human, and only Orlok understood her fully.
She wanted to sleep with him before he gave her 3 nights as part of his generational pledge agreement.She holds him as he is passing on in a loving romantic relationship.
Isn’t this supposed to be more of a predator/victim dynamic? This story definitely feels less romantic and could also be seen as an allegory for addiction, or maybe toxic relationships (Stockholm syndrome) at a push.
@@FighterofthenightmanaaaahThat's my read on it for sure. Yes I know gothic horror loves a good dark romance, but personally I don't think the "love" between Ellen and Orlok is supposed to be seen as anything other than toxic, twisted, and abusive.
Yeah there's different ways to interpret the story for each character. She even woke him up first with her spiritual powers that we find out about later. The entire thing is a twisted love/lust story.
@@Fighterofthenightmanaaaah yes it's an allegory for toxic relationships but they are both monsters and victims of each other when you look at it past surface level.
Orlok is just as tormented than , listen to what he tells her...@@ChannelNamePending699
The most gothic, twisted romance ever and I loved it
12:27 that shot alone was probably what got them the Oscar Nomination for cinematography
I loved this movie, is a close second to Bram Stoker's Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola, imho.
u went to film school? how was that? what did you end up doing?
Not film school specifically, I only studied it as an elective lol. It was fun - the same prof that showed Nosferatu only selected obscure films that weren't mainstream and that most people probably haven't heard of, which was a very eye-opening experience. I majored in English though.
Dracula - ish is a understatement
This movie is literally 90% Dracula
& 10% Nosferatu
& Yeah Nosferatu is technically a ripoff of Dracula but its not the same character not even close 😂
They should have just named this movie Dracula so it didn't throw so many ppl off
Btw i don't know you're names because ive never seen your channel before but you're girlfriend looks almost perfectly identical to Tara from Sons Of Anarchy , she even has the same exact hair style & voice ❤
20:57 wtf??? how does she do this haha
Boring movie. Completely disappointing.
one of the worst movie ever -10/10
2/10 rage bait.
Why are here then?
@@sicmundus2348 to show ppl that they don't know wtf they are talking about obviously 😂
Terrible movie. I do not understand what people are enjoying
You're surprised millions of people don't perceive the world in the exact manner you do?
I'll give you this, Robert Eggers works on a wavelength that people either adore, or absolutely detest, he's very niche and unfortunately it just doesn't click for you and that's fine, but it does for others and that's fine also.
@ it’s shit
Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) looked exactly like someone else I've seen recently, in the movie Sum of All Fears (currently free on YT at 42 minutes and 46 seconds) Who could of played the roll with little make up and still had exactly the same face.