The Monstrefact: Count Orlok

In fact, F. W. Murnow's unauthorized adaptation drew the ire of Stoker's widow, whose legal actions threatened to see all copies of the now legendary silent film destroyed. Luckily, of course, Murnow's masterpiece survived, as horror film historian David J. Skahl points out in his book Vias for Vampire, The a to Z guide Do Everything Undead. The German expressionist picture can largely be seen as a quote metaphor of the

plaguelike destruction of Germany in World War one. He also points out that in its initial release, it was far from the silent, black and white nightmare that we think of today, and was actually elaborately colored, tinted, and accompanied by a modernist orchestra score. The film influenced not only

subsequent Dracula adaptations, but horror cinema as a whole. While Dracula deservingly enjoys the greater following and has seen countless screen and TV incarnations, count Orlock has enjoyed his own cinematic legacy as something of a deeper cut. Klaus Kinsky famously played the bald, cadaverous vampire in Werner Herzod's Nosferatu Fantom der Nacht and then once more sort of and with a full head of hair, in nineteen eighty the

Yates Vampire in Venice. Versions of the character were subsequently played by the likes of Willem Dafoe, Doug Jones, and

on SpongeBob SquarePants Alexander Ward. The originator, however, was German actor Max Schreck, who lived eighteen seventy nine to nineteen thirty six, a man whose gaunt features and expressive eyes works so well with the makeup to summon the specter of a hideous corpse like vampire, one more in keeping with Stoker's original vision for Dracula, but somewhat distant from the mainstream cinematic visions popularized by the likes of Bela Lagosi,

Christopher Lee, and Gary Oldman. Robert Egger's twenty twenty four remake cast Bill Skarsgard as the bloodthirsty count, this time with a full regal mustache. As pointed out by Jazz Tenke in the twenty twenty five Variety article Creep Show, the Nosferatu makeup artists worked magic to create the King

of the Undead. David White's makeup effects for Orla included sixty two prosthetic pieces, including both a penis and a tongue soak to cover everything but the souls of Scarsguard's feet and of course, his expressive eyes, though even those benefited from contacts. Quoted in the Variety article, Eggers pointed out that the prosthetic penis was necessary, especially as Orlock rises from his coffin naked quote that in itself is a bit of a phallic act, as is most of

everything that Orlock does in the movie. If you've seen twenty twenty four's Nosferatu. You're well aware that the entire film, and especially its villain, walks a line between eroticism and repulsion. In this, the filmmakers explore a common realm of inquiry in vampire media, the mingling of sex and death. When we see Orlock feed in the film, he feeds naked and writhing, his whole body seeming to function as a

blood pump in a most alarming fashion. Now, of course, one can go much deeper than this in analyzing the sexual nature of vampires in general. Skall, for instance, in his book, references Freudian interpretations in which a vampire's sexual energy is displaced into oral feeding, the fluids of living reproduction and deathly predation confused and or substituted in death denied sex, they feed, spawning undeath, not life, in the

bodies of their victims. As for the word nosferatu, cited in the film and indeed in Stoker's original novel as a Romanian word for vampire, it apparently means nothing at all. Askall points out the word is likely a corruption of the Romanian adjective nesuferite, which means not to suffer. As in vampires are insufferable. The error appeared in Emily D. Lazawaska Gerrard's eighteen eighty five essay Transylvanian Superstition, which Stoker

consulted in writing Dracula. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster, Fact, The Artifact, or Animalius Dupendium each week. As always, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.