The Nosferatu remake's biggest changes from the original film

Spoiler alert! We discuss plot details from the remake of “Nosferatu” (now in theaters). Stop reading if you haven’t seen it and don’t want to know.

Filmmakers have been telling the story of Dracula for almost as long as there have been horror films.

The latest version is Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, a remake of the 1922 silent film, which was itself an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Those expecting a radically different approach will be surprised at how faithful Eggers’ film remains to its source material. But the director turns the sexual undertones into overtones, fleshes out the supporting characters and makes some key changes to ensure his version has bite.

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“Nosferatu” remake changes the relationship between Ellen and Orlok

The remake’s biggest change is the revelation that young newlywed Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) has awakened Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), who returns years later like a jealous ex after she marries Thomas (Nicholas Hoult). In the 1922 version there is no indication that she is responsible for convening the Count. Ellen is Orlok’s target in the classic film, but has no pre-existing, darkly romantic connection to him, nor does she have a backstory of past dreams and “spells”.

Like Ellen, Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his wife Anna (Emma Corrin), the couple with whom Ellen stays during her husband’s absence are further developed with meatier roles. In the original, Ellen lives with Harding and his sister – not his wife – but neither of them gets much screen time. Harding wasn’t previously portrayed as a stubborn skeptic, he didn’t get into an argument with Ellen, and Orlok didn’t kill his children. Thomas’ boss Knock (Simon McBurney)’s devotion to Orlok is also expanded, including an additional scene in which he worships the Count surrounded by candles.

However, Willem Dafoe’s vampire-hunting Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz is not seen in the 1922 film. The closest equivalent is Professor Bulwer, a character in silent films who explores the mysteries of nature, but plays almost no role in the story, appearing in only a few short scenes.

The outline of the plot is the same in both versions, but many details have been adjusted. What’s new, for example, is that Thomas witnesses the exhumation of a corpse. In the original, he leaves his inn in the morning without finding it deserted. When Thomas arrives at the castle, Orlok is drawn to a locket containing a lock of Ellen’s hair. Orlok was also attracted to a picture of Ellen in the original, but the hair is Eggers’ addition and Orlok now uses it to talk to her. After Thomas finds Orlok in his coffin, Eggers’ version tries to kill him. Originally he just ran away.

Another change to Orlok is that he bites victims in the chest, whereas in the original it was always the neck. Eggers tells USA TODAY that this was inspired by folklore in which vampires often drank blood from the chest.

“For a story that is a gothic romance, a story of obsession and love, there is something poetic about the motif of drinking from the heart,” he notes.

The two films both end with Ellen’s sacrifice, but the remake adds a concurrent mission to defeat Orlok. There is no such mission in the original. The climax of the 1922 version focuses more on Knock escaping and being hunted by the townspeople because he is made a scapegoat for the plague. Knock’s escape is less of a focus in the remake and he is now killed in a coffin. Knock dies in his cell after Orlok’s defeat in the original.

The Nosferatu remake updates Count Orlok’s look as Bill Skarsgård takes on the role

Eggers takes great pleasure in creating suspense about what the Count looks like, keeping him out of focus for long periods of time. This is a new approach, as in 1922’s Nosferatu Orlok is presented in its entirety without much build-up.

When we finally see him, the new Orlok looks less like the large, pointy-eared creature played by Max Schreck and more like a zombie, his flesh visibly decayed. This goes back to Eggers’ idea of turning to folklore.

“The early folk vampires walked around with rotting corpses,” explains the director. “Then the question arises: What does a dead Transylvanian nobleman look like? This is what he looks like.”

Orlok’s clothing is meant to look like a decomposed version of “what a Hungarian or Romanian nobleman would have worn in the 16th century,” Skarsgård tells USA TODAY.

Most noticeably, Orlok now sports a mustache, a departure from his original, clean-shaven appearance. Skarsgård says the hairstyle and facial hair were inspired by “real paintings from that period.”

How does “Nosferatu” compare to “Dracula”?

The original Nosferatu was essentially a Dracula adaptation, but since it wasn’t officially authorized, the characters’ names were changed. There were and are a number of differences, most notably the idea that the female protagonist defeats the Count by sacrificing herself. Unlike Dracula, Orlok does not turn people into vampires and unlike Orlok, Dracula is not killed by sunlight.

Still, the plots of the two films are remarkably similar. So it makes sense that Eggers’ “Nosferatu” ties in with “Dracula,” such as Orlok’s appearance. Like Skarsgård’s Count, Dracula in Stoker’s text wears a mustache.

While Dafoe’s character does not appear in 1922’s Nosferatu, he is clearly a version of the vampire hunter Van Helsing from Dracula. Both are recruited by a former student to help a sick woman, pass on important information about the vampire, and join a mission to kill him.

Furthermore, Anna’s friendship with Ellen is reminiscent of the relationship between Mina – a woman whose fiancé goes on a trip to sell property to a vampire – and her friend Lucy in Dracula, and in both cases that friend ultimately dies. In “Dracula,” however, she first becomes a vampire.

The scene in the remake where Knock bites off a bird’s head is from the book, in which Dracula’s servant Renfield eats birds and Orlok kills the Hardings’ children, is reminiscent of the vampire version of Lucy attacking children in the book. Finally, the new film’s finale, which involves killing the Count, closely resembles the climax of Dracula, except in the book that led to the Count’s successful assassination.

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