Thoughts on Nosferatu, Dracula, Vampires in the Media, Bloodsuckers
[vampire lore]
JAN 10, 2025
It is almost 11pm, Monday. I sip on a cold earl grey that I got from a coffee shop/bookstore I went to before the movie. The barista gave it to me for free because I only had my phone to pay. I watched her burn her hand in doing so. I send her my love for the tea. It is my favorite.They were strange. — notes from Monday, January 6
It is now Friday, now I have the inspiration. Robert Eggers’s Nosferatu was an artful display of human disease, plague, hauntings to the likes of demons and villains, and playful in its light and darknesses. This film was like watching a live performance from the era whence it came.
The mythology of vampirism origins in folklore probably took root during the late 17th and 18th centuries from Eastern Europe through to Western culture and history by means of Slavic peasants who were occupied by Imperial troops in Hungary that later entered Germany and England where it gained increasing popularity. The idea spread farther eventually to the Americas where it is now glorified, to some extent. During the dark times of the Black Plague in Europe, these myths and stories created superstitious delusion by means of sickly and dying people. All that blood. Specific to Bulgaria, the earliest known references to vampires have supposedly been found in old Russian texts. This myth may have also originated from a real blood disorder called congenital erythropoietic porphyria where people with this rare genetic disease experience photosensitivity, skin lesions, blisters, skin thickening, pigmentation, disfigurement of the face and hands, red urine, red or brown teeth, erythrocytes that fluoresce under ultraviolet light, and anemia. It's also known as Günther disease. This may have led to the idea that these people were drinking blood due to red urine, facial disfigurations [i.e. these people were reluctant to look into mirrors], and allegedly the surfer that is in garlic, which could trigger an attack of porphyria, led to the idea that vampires were averse to it.
In 1897 Bram Stoker published the adored Dracula which is considered the benchmark for modern vampire ideology. The novel was based on the historical figure Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, a ruler of Wallachia and a bloodthirsty prince from Transylvania.
The original ‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror’ is a German Expressionism silent film that was directed by F. W. Murnau in 1922 accompanied through the screenplay by Henrik Galeen. The lore of this film amidst its vampire mythology and occulted themes of fear and isolation is uncanny. It was revolutionary to filmmaking and unsettling to the rest. This film was banned because of its excessive horror and faced a court of law on the basis of Bram Stoker’s widow, Florence Balcombe for the fact that it violated the copyright. She asked for all copies and negatives to be destroyed, but fragments survived.
The current existence of Nosferatu is crafted together by these fragments and compilations of all the surviving prints only adding to the legacy and immortality that is Nosferatu.
I want to also mention the iconic 1979 film ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre’ directed by Werner Herzog. The basic story was based upon Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula and was created as an homage remake to the original.
All of these films differ from the original works of Stoker in minor detail, but the essential story of obsession and possession is familiar throughout each exhibit.
The many layers between the aesthetics of vampirism and the fashion of the old are dusty, to say the least. Although there is a plethora of vampire media in the world; the innate sexualization of this idea, the negligence of its history and the occulted foundation that serve its greater purpose, are rarely touched upon in this modern world. Personally, I love a good vampire movie, something about this aesthetic is deeply satisfying to witness. Maybe that’s just my own ancestral roots, or maybe it’s something deeper, something cultural, societal, something at large in the collective consciousness. Maybe I’m thinking too deeply. Whatever the case, whether you’re into vampires or werewolves, the fantasy of the supernatural reflects our humanness and our desire to greatness, immortality, maybe even righteousness in a way that allows the mind to actually tamper with the idea. From fucked up science experiments, to ancient bites from mysteriously disturbing creatures, the possibilities are endless. Maybe this is why the idea is so enticing.
To credit the new iteration by Eggers, this film delves into the occulted realm of demons and archaic knowledge which is not only important for the mythology, by crucial for the history. Despite this, the film clearly exhibited wild sexual fanatics and hysteria including necrophilia and demonic seduction that I can only equate to the lore of succubus demons. Although this might not be a complaint on all parts, this was disturbing to view. I appreciate the distortion of the human body and the art of this appeal, but is it really necessary?
I don’t desire to indulge in the fanatics of German racism and superiority; however, I must mention the note that Count Orlock in both the new and the original Nosferatu have been noted and discussed to the characteristics of a Jewish person, or the exaggerated imagery which might have been shown as a puppet for laughter.
This is tragic because of the fact that this character is outcasted and meant to be horrifying. The hatred and blame Jewish nations faced for their simple existence during the time that the original film was shown was unprecedented and shameful. Although, I must admit that the reflection of this truth served its purpose. These films leave you feeling shaken, distraught, mystified. Maybe the older films aren’t as jarring to us desensitized modern-folk, I can say that the backlash these films exhibited in their original performances were true to the myth. Sadly, the antisemitism that Jews faced in Germany is still present today. Although it might not be in the same place and in the same way, there are still people who face prejudice and do not know their own freedom. The culture that is racism and what is hatred towards people of the earth is undeniable. I understand the reasoning to include this imagery in the original Nosferatu films, but I question why Eggers decided to reiterate the same imagery. Maybe this was in part another homage to the story or maybe it is in part an homage to our current times and the fact that we still do not see eye to eye with all that walk this earth.
This hatred that drinks from the heart is soul-sucking. Even though modern vampires might choose to drink from the throat, either artery is an end all be all. Either option is a contract to sign one’s soul to the dark side. One simply might act from a seductive perspective, an effect of silence and seductive murder; as opposed to a full-on bodily decision to succumb the heart to a bleak end of existence. This might be more dramatic, it might ask for mot attention. The sunlight that kills a vampire has become its established and satisfying end, easily provoking that which is the shadow of a demon. As do the lights that shine at the end of a film. The thoughts that stay present in the mind of the viewer, result to desire and loneliness, for without the insatiable desire for another’s belongings, what would one make of this loneliness? The melancholy that is bleak and existential in its dread are nothing without these shadows. The minimalistic attributes of the nosferatu only add to this isolation. Any fear of the other or the unknown easily follows that which is easily provoked. That which might easily succumb to the darkness. Like the social and political uncertainties that follows us through these distorted perspectives. The extremities in these reflections of turmoil are occulted in nature, but with this knowledge, what can we do to find the sunlight? How must we bring these Dark Luciferians to the light?
The ego’s drive to never cease this living experience in the carnal incarnation is universal, but we not need succumb to this impossible demand.
