Robert Eggers' Nosferatu is worth giving a watch, going by its critical scores. The film is still to be released in the United States, although it has opened in Germany on December 2, 2024. Eggers' Nosferatu stars Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, and others.
Eggers' film is a remake of the F.W. Murnau-directed 1922 silent movie, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. German artist Albin Grau is largely credited with the creation of the storyboard, sets, look, costumes, and overall tone of the original film. Grau had also co-produced the 1922 film. However, the real mastermind behind the concept was Bram Stoker, and his 1897 horror novel, Dracula. Grau did everything right but forgot to obtain a copyright for Nosferatu.
Grau was so determined to make the film that he went ahead anyway, tweaking certain scenes. It was clearly not enough, and invited trouble in the guise of a court ruling that ordered all copies of the 1922 film be destroyed. Interestingly, a few copies remained, which now leads to Robert Eggers' remake.
The beginning was Nosferatu's end
A 111 118, famously known as Armistice 11 November ‘18, was the number plate of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's vehicle when he was assasinated on July 28, 1914. World War I started on the day and would be over only in 1918, on November 11. End of things often have their origins in uncanny ways.
Bram Stoker's Dracula was the origin for Nosferatu's story. The 1922 film stirred the hornet's nest from the day it began filming and it advanced without taking into account the copyright for the book. Stoker left the world on April 12, 1912, leaving the story for his wife, Florence Balcombe.
That story was supposed to fetch returns in the form of royalty, and Garu's using it for commercial purpose without authorization naturally enraged Florence. She obtained legal permission to have all the copies of Nosferatu destroyed.
Prana Films, the studio behind the 1922 film, succumbed in the legal battle against their illegal adaptation of the story. Later on, Florence made further efforts in the hopes that no one can use Stoker's Dracula without permission.
All of this happened because Stoker forgot to copyright his work in the US. Currently, the story is in the public domain.
How is the 1922 movie different from the book?
The premise is same for the movies and the book — about a man helping a client buy a house. The client isn't really human. The story narrated in the 1922 movie sticks to that idea to begin with. However, in the novel, Count Dracula appears to be living a lavish life and have an impressive style, unlike Count Orlok or Noseferatu in the film.
Another major difference was that sunlight was fatal to the movie's character. Count Dracula didn't had any issues with that although it did weaken him.
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However, they bear a destructive similarity. In both cases, plague follows wherever they go. People die in the ship Count Dracula travels in while Count Orlok brings rats with him, which leads to countless deaths in the film.
For those who thought Nosferatu is a defining influence for vampire movies that were made later, think again. It was Dracula, actually, that gave Grau a foundation to build his castle forgotten by the law.
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