I just watched the movie "Nosferatu" directed by Robert Eggers, whose premiere was on December 02 in Berlin, and the movie began to be screened in cinemas in the USA and abroad only yesterday. How was I able to see the full movie little than a fewer hours later? I'll tell you at the end of my review of this work.
I am not hiding that I was and seemingly will stay a critic of fantasy, discipline fiction and horror, and the issue of a vampire (especially a vampire described in the unforgettable Gothic fresh "Dracula" by Irish Bram Stoker, published in 1897), blood as symbols of life, but besides blood related to immortality, passing through death, the perversion of life (after all, a vampire is an undead, giant bat that feeds human blood—not simply a synonym of a common, dead body), is 1 of the subjects that curious me as a cultural investigator most. So I waited impatiently, but besides with a certain amount of uncertainty for this fresh communicative about number Dracula/Orlok.
Creative Remake
The movie "Nosferatu" by Robert Eggers is only a remake of the celebrated and superb movie of the silent "Nosferatu – Symphony of Horror" by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau of 1922, but of course already here, at the beginning of my review, I note that this is not a "heated cutlet". assured in R. Heggers' excellent capabilities, he created fascinating films "The Witch" from 2015, "The Lighthouse" from 2019 and "The Northman" from 2022, but with a constant question: could R. Heggers capture the dark, bloody and brutal legend from Carpathians and Germany / England, wrapped in fogs of Albion?, I began to watch the movie calmly. At first I realized that this is simply a remake not deprived of courageous (and so controversial, due to the fact that courage even implies controversy) solutions and ideas. On the contrary: it is fortunately a remake highly creative and original. It definitely comes from remakes. With 1 swing, R. Heggers created a rather successful work that reconciles the tradition developed by the films and the fresh by B. Stoker "Drakula" about the 1897 Dracula vampire with its own originality, free fantasy and creativity – and, as we know, all artistic work requires freedom of imagination. Especially since it's a remake, not another vampire movie. Let us remind that a remake by definition of the name itself is actually a repetition, although in fresh ornaments, but above all a repetition, but in the case of "Nosferatu" R. Eggers, the concept of "genuine remake" makes sense. In the 'Nosferatu' the creator of 'The Witch' or 'The Lighthouse' refers not only to the superb work of F. W. Murnau, but besides indirectly and to another films. Like what? I'll tell you more in item below.
All-present darkness and lots of shades of grenade
Let's get down to business. First of all: the scenery, background and architecture of the places of action, which takes place in the movie R. Heggers. In the movie there are mostly ubiquitous darkness, black, dark colors (all shades of grenade and grey). For example, the marketplace scenery or interior of Thomas and Ellen Hutter's flat are natural and in light alternatively grey. The movie in the overwhelming dimension of time is immersed in dark colors, which condemns not only anxiety, fear (which is understandable, given that it is simply a horror – "obvious obvious"), but besides any depression. And what bright, golden and flammable colors occasionally appear, yes, but only as candles and fire, almost always accompanied by disturbing, overwhelming and repulsive (yes! – repulsive), endless darkness. There's a thundering mixture of horror.
Dracula Castle – a bastion of evil, darkness and harshness
We go on: Orloc's castle (in fact Dracula, as the movie "Nosferatu – Symphony of Horror" was – as we know – an unauthorized adaptation of B. Stoker's work) is in the movie R. Heggers is out of human nightmares: the omnipresent darkness, the walls of the castle are a small languished, dark, gloomy and truly old, it seems that there is simply a palpable evil lurking there, you can simply feel claustrophobia, disgust, disgust and horror – a bit like in the earlier remake of "Nosferatu" F. W. Murnau, or the movie "Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht" (Polish version of the title: "Nosferatu Vampire" Werner Herzog and with Klaus Kinski in the wonderful function of Orlok) and at the same time in the screening of the fresh B. Stoker. There are no familiar, romanticist interiors or well-maintained, very elegant chambers in castles, specified as friends from the Hammer Films Production films of the 1950s or 1970s ("Dracula" (relatively "Horror of Dracula") Terence Fisher and Christopher Lee in the superb function of Dracula of 1958). There he rules a repulsive, full, as if "soulful," filled with an abomination of evil—a evil whose personification is Orlok himself. There you can't feel compassion, the very recognition of the viewer with Orloc, the fascination, the boundless admiration of this vampire.
No more romanticist love?
So in this film, don't number on another, romanticist 1 until the nausea of the communicative of “love”, “loss”, “distraction”. By the way, in the 1992 movie “Dracula” by Francis Ford Coppol, unfortunately Dracula had specified “romantic” fluctuations: the desire for blood (and consequently the failure of his surviving beloved) or the ongoing love and resignation of his lust, or love—or wild, atavistic, direct animal appetite for blood). The character of Orlok itself is the essence of evil (by capital letter). The only feelings of a healthy man who can feed the vampire Orlock and all the evil in this movie are only disgust, fear, real disgust, even hatred, and the full movie by R. Heggers captured this evil perfectly – both visually and psychologically. And I think that R. Heggers should be congratulated for that. It's like this movie says that you can't and shouldn't be fascinated by Orlok, due to the fact that Orlok, as an embodiment of evil, is simply a servant of Satan himself. Yes, there are inactive romanticist traces in this movie (longing for eternal love) after “Dracula” by F. F. Coppoli, but at this point they were successfully suppressed by a layer of sinister qualities of this Orlok.
A vampire archetype as a demonic and inhuman force
Besides, it is worth noting that the top asset of this movie is the creation of the character Orloc. Well, R. Heggers shows Orlok as a vampire – attention – actually vindictive, cruel, evil to the bone marrow, a real sadist. Indeed – a vampire as described by R. Heggers can and must by definition be repulsive, just anti-human, and his nature is closer to the dark instincts of the deviating of life, animal (in a pejorative sense of course) nature than human nature. Orlok – as if he says “between the lines” R. Heggers – is always cruel, ruthless, master of demolition and death, just as I have already said – a servant of Satan. It's most likely the darkest, darkest, sadistic, evil, antihuman creation of Orlok in this film. And I'll say more: so far it's actually the only movie that shows specified a very disgusting nature of evil: brutal and disgusting. And the evil and nature of Orloc in this movie is right in front of the human nature. And here, at this point, R. Heggers best captured the content related to the character of Orlok in "Nosferatu" F. W. Murnau, the closest to the first of Orlok from "Nosferatu" of 1922. Don't you believe it? Consider: Even in the remake of W. Herzog, the character of Orlok was thoughtful, seemingly intoxicated with certain psychotropic drugs, even harmless, he had a human nature under the form of a deformed being, and his movements were very, very slow. We continue: “Dracula” by Tod Browning and with Bela Lugosi in the celebrated function of number Dracula of 1931 and – in rather a different form – already mentioned “Dracula” Terence Fisher offered the character of Dracula as a predatory, in part animal, even cruel face, but in these films it was as if it were all "scared" under a attractive, sometimes rather gloomy, but mostly charming and distinguished aristocrat. And now, after the release of the movie "Nosferat", R. Heggers showed a real, disgusting face, without curtains. Here it is simply a figure so evil, so sadistic, so cruel, that it is impossible to hide this ugly face. Already at the first minute Thomas Hutter – a real property agent in Weimar, erstwhile he arrives at the ruinous castle of Orloka – we can feel the coldness, the anxiety, the sense of evil: Orloka's chamber is bathed in endless darkness, and the light only beats from a distant background. The phase of Thomas' first encounter with Orlok draws attention – at first we do not see Orlok's face clearly, but we already feel anxious, proceeding the gloomy, sinister voice of him.
In particular, Orlok’s facial features and stature deserve sincere admiration. They show these features of animal nature, sometimes like “Dracula” F. F. Coppola, but – attention – here the character of this vampire only gives emergence to horror: Orloc’s figure is massive and at the same time tall; facial features show that Orlok is demonic, evil, cruel, capable of ruthless killing.
Vampire? It's Vlad III the Digger!
Interestingly, R. Heggers shows vampire Orlock as a strong man, with massive bars that have rare, long hair and has – attention – a mustache. Yeah, yeah, a mustache. Here R. Eggers bravely broke out of the patterns of Orlok / Dracula's appearance, where the same vampire always had no beard or mustache. Yes, in the movie “Dracula” F. F. Coppoli, the said vampire in 1 of his calculations had elegant mustaches, but there in another “incarnations” he did not have them. By the way, I will mention that this vampire had 3 of his "incarnations":
a) as an older and even unnaturally light old man, with very long hair,
b) as a giant bat,
(c) as a Victorian, young and handsome gentleman, just with a well-maintained mustache, a fraque and a hat.
Only in the movie Heggers for the first time are the mustache so powerfully emphasized and all the time we see a vampire with a lush mustache and with rare, long hair. Why am I paying attention? Well, look at the images of Vlad III, a 15th-century Wallachian peasant known for his cruelty to the enemies of the Italian hospodars. The physical similarity between Orlok in the movie R. Heggers and the images of Vlad IV the Paler is full striking. I fishy that possibly R. Heggers was deliberately referring straight to the images of the said peasant. Besides, utilizing mustaches to make physical creation. Besides, a mustache is most likely the only exception, due to the fact that a mustache in Dracula / Orlok is simply a truly brave and controversial move. Last, I looked at any comments on social media. Indeed, all controversy and allegations into the image of a vampire in R. Eggers' optics are actually introduced to the lush mustaches of this Orlok. For me, the mustache in this movie is simply a large plus. For those who are already accustomed to the images of Dracula through the prism of films by F. W. Murnau, T. Browning, T. Fisher or F. F. Coppoli, they will feel at least surprise. So it is worth to focus on open-minded modes and let for the freedom of R. Heggers' work.
The Vampire Slavic East
There is inactive an interesting aspect of this film. Namely for the first time, possibly unconsciously, R. Heggers captured and brought to light all, just subconscious concerns, fears, but besides irrational fascinations of the Western man of the time (more specifically: Western Europe): Englishman, German, Irlanian, etc. in relation to the Slavic world, which is about east of Oder and in the Balkan area, where, among others, secret forests and majestic chains of the Carpathian Mountains are spreading. It is there, in the collective consciousness of the Slavs in areas specified as the Balkans, steppes and forests, that the archetype of the vampire has developed as an ominous being seeking human blood. Yes, akin myths about undead beings who drink human blood can be met in another continents, but in the European constellation we can only think of a Slavic vampire, of course via B. Stoker's novel.
Well, R. Heggers was based on Slavic folk stories rather powerfully on the directors of the filming of Irish novel. In my opinion, historical fidelity and mention to all tradition, and especially to Slavic tradition, dating back to pre-Christian times, belief in the planet of plagues, drownings, watermen, strigoi, vampires, meridians, the presence of an underground land of Navia, etc. is simply a large merit in the reconstruction of Slavic culture, besides in those darker aspects of it. Moreover, R. Heggers, as if "between poems", or rather, for the sake of accuracy, between the lines of scripts and the shots of his film, maintains the most powerfully bond not only with the tradition of Slavic folk legends and with the imagination of the vampire, shown in the image of F. W. Murnau, but besides – interestingly adequate – with the image of the full Slavic and east world, interpreting by the then people surviving in the age of couple, electricity, manufacture and science, of Western Europeans, who were then lit up by the imagination of the unknown areas of east Europe, where there are secret forces of darkness, which at the minute sleep in the abyss of the subconscious collective self, hiding under the layers of Christianity, conducted by the east Church.
R. Heggers one more time tries to creatively reproduce and rather faithful, this time not the political planet of Vikings, the planet of heroism, brutal struggle, fame and vengeance for the death of his father ("The Northman") and not the old English legends of the witch ("The Witch"), but the Slavic folk heritage of vampires, the reinterpretation of B. Stoker, and especially the "Nosferatu" F. W. Murnau (the final, most moving scene with the way of Orloc's death), but besides refers to celebrated popular myths in the subconscious of Western Europeans not only in relation to the imagination of vampires, but besides the imagination of Slavics. And I think that the most intriguing point in the image of the vampire Orlok is to mention involuntaryly not only to Vlad III the Paler, but besides – very indirectly, as a distant echo – to... you will not guess – a typical, just stereotypical imagination of Cossack from the steppes over Dnieprem. Well, the vampire Orlok has not only a lush mustache, but besides a hairstyle that resembles the 17th century Cossacks' hairstyles, as depicted in the 2009 movie “Taras Bulba” by Vladimir Bortko. Well, the vampire Orlok in R. Heggers' painting is actually partially bald, but for long hair, located on the top of his head, swept to the left. "The Real Vampire-Cossack of Transylvania" would respond to individual disgusted by the fresh Heggers image of the vampire and longing for a more romanticist and Western-Aristocratic variant of vampirism, showing, for example, in "Dracula" by T. Browning and T. Fisher, and much little F. F. Coppoli. “Or possibly Heggers confused Transylvania with Ukraine?” another would be angry watching the fresh Orloc staff. In fact, even I would argue that creating the creation of Orlok R. Heggers identified it not with the historical paintings of Vlad III the 16th century burner, but with the stereotypical image of the steppe Cossack of Sicza. By the way, in 1 of the most popular paintings of this age we see this Vlada with a lush mustache and long hair, somewhat wavering and falling down on the stalks). However, I would argue with the above, skeptical voices of viewers.
Well, R. Heggers – possibly unconsciously – faithfully reconstructs even the way B. Stoker himself and others, then surviving people of the West. After all, then the East in a wider, forest-steppest understanding, and thus not only Vołoszczyna or Hungary, but besides Belarus or Russia, was an object of passionate, radical, irrational, ambivalent feelings: from fear to fascination, delight. Inaccessible forests, treacherous swamps, hidden lakes, arrogant mountains – all of this aroused the imagination of the common bourgeois in an industrially developed and desacrified, full of socio-economic disparities either to fear the unknown, or to the inexplicable delight of untangled emotional decks, and in peculiar to the fascination of the dark side of Slavic and – more broadly – humanity. I don't know if R. Heggers has deliberately created an Orlock-like painting of Cossack. However, I think it is the unconscious attitude of the Western to Ukraine today, whether pejorative or positive. R. Heggers reconstructed Orlok as an archetype just – attention – seen by then Western ladies and gentlemen, due to the fact that the East – from the point of view of the then inhabitants of Britain or Germany, of course – are not only forests and mountains, but above all steppes and another landscapes associated with the East, with a large forest-steppest space, land-based Eurasia, as well as any clothes, lifestyles or hairstyles typical of there, outside the planet of industrialism and bored flat life, a planet filled with rationalism, scientism, besides harsh annihilation and hypocrisy of the bourgeois culture, without mystery, mysticism, higher, to the spiritual dimension, destroyed by the cult of “new idols” and “science.” R. Heggers, as it seems, involuntaryly referred to a conflict between the rationalist civilization of the West, whose geographical boundaries end somewhere in central Europe, and the civilization of the Eurasian East (widely understood of course), whose pole is, of course, Russia, a secret civilization, a mystical civilization unknown to Western people, profoundly spiritual, irrational, filled with dark spiritual forces, frequently lurking before Jesus Christ, a civilization with all its belongings, including its dark dimension. Let us remember that the confederate part of east Europe – as a frontier in its entirety, subject to the kind of 2 worlds: the planet of Western Christianity and the planet of east Christianity – is already the western periphery of the influence of Orthodoxy, and thus in fact and Orthodox-Eurasian-Russian civilization [1]. Wołoszczyzna Hospodarstwo or Moldawskie Hospodarstwo are already forms of statehood, which were closely associated not only with the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire, but besides with the statehoods of Russia and Russia. And with the stereotype of the Eurasian, “barbaric” East, the imagination of only Vlad III the Burner is associated even little in the West than the imagination of the steppe Cossack.
Is it, then, that R. Heggers applied this procedure, following the lead of Western Europeans' reasoning at the time, and as if “insighting” their subconscious with respect to the mysterious, spontaneous, oversaturated vampires, strigoi, water and another dark forces of the East? The question remains open (I uncertainty in individual that R. Heggers specifically created specified a “Cossack” image of the vampire), but, in my opinion, the resemblance of Orlok to Cossack from above Dnieper, it is absolutely not an appeal to Ukraine, even though discreet and veiled. On the contrary, the Heggers' image of a vampire, reminiscent of Cossack's vivid stereotypical vision, is inintendently interpreted here as an image of the vampire of the mysterious East, a vampire of cruel, ruthless, an authoritarian nature in his behaviors and how natural. After all, Kozak is usually associated stereotypically with “wild” freedom, barbarism understood, of course, as an opposition to the hard principles of civilization and with endless steppes, and steppes are located just in the vast space of the Eurasian land. Shyly creating a imagination of a vampire with long, uncommon hair on its tip of the head and with lush mustaches, R. Heggers reminds us that vampires in Europe are only where Slavs live, where the boundaries of the planet of Slavic culture and mentality begin to appear. It shows us that Dracula / Orlok is simply a nineteenth-century literary reinterpretation of legends, which are crucial elements, specified as their dark sides, Slavics, and this Slavic is in turn a real core and an integral part of forest-steppe and traditional-authoritative Eurasia. Yes, I stress that referring R. Heggers to archetypes of the East, Slavic, forest-steppe Eurasia with a image resembling a steppe hand Cossack is very veiled and highly indirect, 1 must pay attention to peculiar moments and pay attention to details of rituals or (the more so) of course Orlok's dress and figure, but it is surely the most marked by "eurasianism", "easternity", than in another earlier screenings of B. Stoker's novels about Dracula.
Nosferatu / Orlok / Dracula R. Eggersa is simply a vampire derived from the soul and body (if you can put it) of the comparatively Slavic, and consequently – more broadly – Eurasian. There's not specified an crucial component of Western aristocratism here. Orlok R. Eggers is in no way any Western aristocrat. Orlok – the manager of the latest Nosferatu installment as if it were reproving – in fact, it is only Vlad III the Inner. It is not an earl, but rather: a hospoder – cruel and authoritarian, of course, with lusts for human blood, naked, brutal, direct animal domination, dominion, strength, immorality, darkness.
Moreover, specified timid and indirect appeal in the latest installment of R. Heggers about the vampire to more traditional, conservative, indigenous Slavic ethnocultural roots, or more specifically, to dark pages schered deep in the Slavic subconscious (Polish, Russian, etc.), oriments from times erstwhile there were no Christian missionaries yet, but inactive in Christian legends among peasants, in part coincide – what is amazing – even with what the philosopher Alexander Dugin treats as a vampire archetype – as a demonic, inhuman being who drinks human blood only to be in spite of the established laws of life and death – as a manifestation of the perversion of the cycle of existence: life – death – life, where death is just a passage, another phase after which man begins to live a fresh existence. According to this philosopher, the archetype of a vampire is an archetype of evil, or perversion of life, an evil whose pedigree dates back to the ancient, ancient, pre-Christian period. Although there is naturally no open mention of the pre-Christian ancestry of the vampire archetype in this film, or of the relation between a vampire and myths, rituals or gods of Perun or Swarożyce, but he throws himself at the "Nosferat" of R. Heggers, even the scene of Roma peasants who kill a vampire by killing his heart with a stake and believe that a vampire is evil. Of course, this way of killing the undead is besides the licentia poetica for fresh B. Stoker and quite a few films based on it, but one more time R. Eggers mentions folk legends of a vampire as a creature contrary to God and Christian principles, a being subject to evil and darkness, a being itself confirming the deviance of life, or existence feeding on the blood of men, and thus killing the life of man – after all, "blood is life," as the vampire motto says. Like the manager of “Nosferat” of 2024, that only peasants in the full Balkans and another areas inhabited by the confederate The Slavs know what a vampire truly is. And above all: R. Heggers reveals the actual face of the vampire character Dracula / Nosferatu / Orloka – an inhuman face, terrible, devilish, just described by Christian folk legends.
Let us callback the genesis of the Slavic vampire archetype, described by the mentioned Russian philosopher in his 2005 book "Conspirology", published in Moscow:
"The ancient story of the winter solstice, typical of many another most sacred themes about archaic and more contemporary mysteries, lies at the heart of the vampire story. ...
The vampire legends are, of course, demonized and carried into the dark corners of the folk memory of the story, associated with the oldest solar initiation mysteries. Just as pre-Christian gods (even the most superb and good ones) were later identified with dark demons, specified a large sun of the first tradition was combined with dark stories of seven-garden monsters. ...
"Vampir" is simply a pre-Christian concept >>souls passing through a critical point >>the solstice of winter, the pause of death followed by a fresh life, a fresh birth. In Christianity, this old, sacred tale turned into a narration of the destiny of the Savior, who through his death led mankind to a fresh and full of grace of divine life. The first subject of the sun's descent into the labyrinths of darkness and its fresh resurrection is besides present in Orthodox teaching. And it is astonishing that participation in this new, divine life of Christians is done by eating the blood of the Lord!
In another Christian Sacrament, baptism, the believer dies (through 3 immersions in the baptismal font) to be resurrected with Christ and to wear fresh white robes of the chosen.
Moreover, in Orthodoxy there is simply a subject that is even more like the oldest archetype – >>the descent of the Savior into hell. After the crucifixion, Christ descends to the lowest parts of creation to bring distant the ancestors, the patriarchs, the prophets, the kings, and the righteous, who waste in anticipation of the Resurrection.
In vampire stories, the same script is repeated in a dark, grim way – alternatively of a solar resurrection of the body at the time of the Second Coming, we are dealing with an ominous awakening of the corpse in the darkness of the grave. alternatively of a new, sunny life, in a vampire, a fragmentary, smoky existence. alternatively of the sacrificial blood of the boy of God, the monsters of the 7 Garden drink the animal blood of average people by force... ...
The stories and myths of old surely contain disturbing elements, as most frequently their lowest, magical-material aspects are preserved, while the spiritual and heavenly parts are absorbed into the fresh spiritual institutions and incorporated into the fresh context. ...
In another words, vampire legends in their archetypal dimension are echoes of the erstwhile tradition associated with the largest fresh Year's solar mystery. They embody the belief of a conventional man that death—as a complete end— simply does not be that behind the fatal grave line surely begins a fresh existence, and that existence is just as concrete and material, just as real (or equally illusory, if you will), as earthly" [1]. In another context, A. Dugin says that the archetype of a vampire is simply a confirmation of perversion, aberration, deviation of life: “What scares a Russian is not so much a deficiency and alienation of life as its excesses and aberrations. Hence the dominant Slavic vampire motive. A vampire is an excess of life. He should be dead, but that is not the case [2]. The Dark One, associated with the realm of evil and darkness, the vampire archetype evolved into the consciousness of the Slavs, transforming from the fates of the soul and its passage through the cycle: life—death (winter solstice)—life in the aberration of the undead's history, which in order to be (not just to live in the fullest sense!), must drink human blood from the victims. The vampire, as a dark archetype, ranks in the Slavic subconscious, in the company of, among others, erstwhile pre-Christian indigenous Slavic gods who have departed into the abyss of their collective subconscious. A. Dugin emphasizes that the archetype of a vampire has pre-Christian pedigree and besides has Slavic-Christian character, or more specifically: it is an component of the negative, dark side of the life of nature, including the life of humanity, attest to the deviance of life. And the movie "Nosferatu" by R. Heggers of 2024 emphasizes 3 aspects, but under the visual, western and Gothic layers, in a very veiled way:
– pedigree reaching back to mysterious, ancient, inactive pre-Christian times,
– Christian character (vampir as a dark and demonic being),
– aberration connected with life and the mysteries of man's transition through successive stages: life – death – life (the motto “blood is life”).
Archetypes tribe
However, there are also archetypes in this work by R. Heggers, which naturally the same movie becomes even more attractive. Philosopher Albin Eberhart von Franz – based on the hero Abraham van Helsing in the fresh “Drakula” B. Stoker – this is an archetype of a circumstantial magician in the service of the Light, due to the fact that he deals with old and forgotten beliefs and rituals, alchemy, esterism, mysticism and all that conventional, rationalistic discipline cannot explain. In my opinion, this is simply a kind of alternative, darker science, but on God's side, good, beautiful, love, is simply a vampire antagonist. He has a more open and free head than the schematic scientists of that age. In addition, von Franz's painting is even clearer in opposition to another hero, Dr. Wilhelm Siever, who tried to treat Ellenie Hutter with conventional medicine. Of course, ineffectively. Wilhelm Siever is an archetype of the then, just enlightened science.
A separate subject is Ellen Hutter mentioned above. It is an archetype of femininity in its pro-family appearance: it is straight angelic, good, honest and modest in character, caring for a home fire with T. Hutter's husband. Incidentally, this is where Lily-Rose Depp played an excellent role. Actor Bill Skarsgard besides played an outstanding function in the function of Orlok, and the final scene with Orlok and Ellena is simply unforgettable and the best.
In addition, Ellen Hutter is an archetype besides sacrificing his own existence for the common good. Well, in a thrilling, final scene, he voluntarily sacrifices his life allowing number Orlok to drink her blood and so to hold her cunningly until dawn, erstwhile the hen is crowing and the sun comes out—the mortal enemy of the vampire and thus die together: Hellen due to deficiency of blood and Orlok due to the presence of sunlight. With Hellen's sacrifice, life of the human species will proceed again according to the appropriate cycle, not according to the laws imposed by the vampire, or existence as undead, seeking human blood and being in darkness.
Speaking of T. Hutter, this is another archetype, namely the archetype of a man gentle, calm, cultural and above all faithful and loving Ellen in his disposition. Besides, Ellen and Thomas Hutters are a model of Christian marital virtues.
In the end, it would be unfair to compose this review unless we mention Herr Knock – a hero based on Renfield's hero in the fresh "Dracula" by B. Stoker. It is an archetype of a mad-slave, with no will and no opinion of its own, without individual dignity, as essential for human nature. Shown in the movie as a disgusting character.
A Sinister Voice
It besides threatens Orlok's voice. Orlok has a low speech and speaks even unnaturally slowly, and in sayings we hear either anger or deceit or an order which knows no opposition, even the smallest. Yes, in the scene of drinking blood from the body of Ellen Orlok openly admits that he loves Ellena, but this “love” is dictated by blood lust, shallow, “animal” sex, cruelty. The love of a vampire for a human female – and yet this is 1 of the reasons for popularity and “warming” the image from a demon in a longing for a sincere, romanticist love of a being – was treated without ceremoniality. It's as if it's moving and floating like a fog in the fields in this film, it sneaks into our minds the thought that a vampire may sometimes even love a woman, but in the last instance as an object, a useful object to satisfy his desire to drink blood equivalent to life, or even indirectly and symbolically veiled desire for sexual intercourse.
This is the nature of cruelty, hatred and evil, and the gloomy speech of voice is perfectly expressed. What's precipitating – a vampire in the movie R. Heggers drinks blood just not through the victim's neck or limb, but through the breast. It's at least strange, given the tradition of another Dracula movies.
Moreover, the movie "Nosferatu" by R. Heggers mostly faithfully adheres to both the script of fresh B. Stoker and another films based on this fresh as well as the characteristics of another characters. Most of the time, due to the fact that the action sometimes deviates from the action line, as shown in W. Herzog's "Nosferatu Wampir", e.g. the scene erstwhile T. Hutter finds a coffin in the castle of the vampire Orlok, and this 1 wakes up from the same coffin and both start fighting each other. Orlok defeats T. Hutter and consequently drinks the blood of that young man. Moreover, there are besides scenes specified as the aforementioned killing of another nameless vampire by the Roma peasants on the way of the expedition of the said real property agent to Orloka Castle or the exorcism scene, performed by Orthodox clergymen on T. Hutter, erstwhile earlier Orlok drank the blood of T. Hutter. By the way, even Orthodoxy in this painting of R. Heggers – in part like the “Dracula” of F. F. Coppola – along with mysticism and rich ornamentation of icons, a multitude of candles and clergy garments – is interpreted as a church structure fighting against unclean forces of darkness, but besides as an integral part of the “wild”, “barbarbaric”, dangerous, inactive natural, irrational, yet uncontrollable by cold reason and eludes the iron limits of science, into the mystical, secret Slavic.
Summary, or R. Heggers' polemic with a pop culture version of vampires
In summary, the movie by R. Heggers "Nosferatu" is an ambitious, original, mostly rather faithful to the "Nosferatu – Symphony of Horror" by F. W. Murnau and B. Stoker's fresh "Dracula" from the 19th century, to the dark, exquisitely grasping evil that is, without unnecessary beauty, without bleaching, allowing us to see "pure" evil – evil that we know even in satanic films, e.g. "Omen", "The kid of Rosemary" or "The Exorcist". Yes, this movie takes into account the Gothic atmosphere (the action takes place in the 1930s, the age of elegance and advanced taste, the age of aristocracy and burgherhood), but it does not forget that it is primarily horror – here it is not possible to make for the principles of romance or fantasy. In another words, it is an excellent balance between genre elements: horror rules govern here, and the themes of fantasy dark (which marked importantly in the "Dracula" F. F. Coppoli) – are limited to a minimum. It is simply a movie of advanced quality, and above all: courageous and creative, as it sets out fresh paths in the work connected with the character of Dracula, and in peculiar the way of its description (the mustache – although it is simply a tiny thing, but given the images of Vlad III the Paler, the irrepressibly similarity of Orlok in the movie R. Heggers to the cruel hospodra mentioned) is cast out, and at the same time it does not reject the film's heritage so drastically, outlined by earlier films about Dracula. Here, in particular, in addition to the "Nosferat" by F. W. Murnau, B. Stoker's novels (naturally) and, of course! – Slavic myths about vampires – R. Eggers indirectly besides referred to selected threads from the "Dracula" by F. F. Coppol (the love mentioned above), as well as – later – and from the general heritage of literature and cinematography concerning the vampire phenomenon (the way of killing the vampire by beating the stake right into his heart – vide scene of peasants and unidentified vampire in "Nosferat" by R. Eggers). However, this is simply a kind of dispute with a newer vampire heritage. In total, it is simply a very grim, dark, alternatively brutal tale, but it is pressing on a freezing temper and with the stigma of Slavicism with its dark, vampiric, inhuman, cruel side, even with the Eurasian stigma, which stands in opposition to the enlightened, rationalist, sterilized West story—a tale which, albeit indirectly, is based on Christian messages, through which we know perfectly well that a vampire is simply a demonic being, descended from darkness.
And most importantly, the movie surprises us rather strongly. Positive, of course.
These are our roots, roots common to Poles, Serbs, Russians, etc., roots of our common, Slavic, and hence, more broadly, Christian, Indo-European and Eurasian Beings, Dasein. So let us not laughter at horror films, especially those more grim ones, showing the actual face of the inhuman, cruel evil, including the vampire archetype – how Slavic, our archetype. And the movie "Nosferatu" by R. Heggers is the darkest and simultaneously between the poems practically and comparatively the Slavic (obviously under his Gothic cloud) due to the fact that it shows the vampire as a scary and cruel being accompanied by rats, pestilences, death and who preys on the victims of innocent people—the antagonist of God. After all, since God exists, there are besides forces of darkness, including the archetype of a vampire.
Finally, as part of the postscript, let me explain that R. Heggers' movie is already on Russian net portals, with a Russian speaker. Unfortunately, it is rather a mediocre version, a cinema, but 1 can see. Anyway, I urge hot – an outstanding film, a masterpiece. This is true, full of evil, formed in the form of a Slavic archetype: a vampire. After all, we must learn about our full Slavic ethnocultural heritage, and so not only its luminous figures of saints, heroes and rulers, endowed with the grace of God, with the nymb of divinity, but besides its dark, secret pages, its archetypes sleeping and hiding in the depths of the collective subconscious, e.g. vampires, strigohs, pestilences, and another forces of evil, darkness and Satan in the station of the serpent.
Dr Krzysztof Karczewski
[1] V. A. Dugin, Ноомахия: войны ума. Восточная Европа. Славянский Логос. Славянский Логос. Балканская Навь и сарматский, Moscow 2018, p. 7.
[2] Idem, Конспирология, Moscow 2005.
[3] Idem, To the general explanation of terror
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