The Monstrefact: Count Orlok

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the monstrous villain from the 2024 film “Nosferatu,” directed by Robert Eggers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Your Mind, focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters. In
time at last, I can speak to you of the
most recent cinematic treatment of Count Or Locke, the off
brand Dracula from nineteen twenty two's Nosferatu, a symphony of horror,

(00:34):
who went on to become a horror icon in his
own right. We have to remember that in nineteen twenty
two Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was only thirty five years old.
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,

(00:58):
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

(01:20):
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

(01:40):
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

(02:04):
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

(02:27):
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

(02:49):
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

(03:13):
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

(03:33):
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

(03:56):
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

(04:17):
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.

(04:41):
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

(05:06):
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.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
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