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What is with our fixation on fear?
As humans, we are biologically programmed to be in constant fear – it may seem caveman-ish, but it’s our survival instinct. When it comes to watching films, jump scares, tense music scores, and sharp sounds can all heighten our feeling of fear. So why do we love horror so much? Well, when that feeling of fear passes with no actual threat, it switches to a rush of adrenaline. Without having to confront any real fear, we still feel that surge of excitement of survival without actually doing anything to survive. It’s an easy way for us to experience tension with the ultimate knowledge that the threat isn’t real, and can’t hurt us.
When we experience ‘staged’ fear, for recreational purposes, our brain releases dopamine – and our brain associates feeling scared from a horror film or book with pleasure and reward. So, with that in mind, here is an overview of Nosferatu for our horror lovers.
We begin, naturally, with Nosferatu itself. While widely known as a 2024 horror release, the film has a rich history that spans over 100 years. ‘Nosferatu’, an archaic Romanian word synonymous with ‘vampire’, is a term that was popularised with the release of the 1922 silent German film, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. This film was an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, Dracula – names were slightly changed, but the storyline remained largely the same. The film was born out of the horrors of WWI and the Spanish Flu pandemic, as viewers were drawn to the horror genre as a coping mechanism to grapple with the mass death and disease. Following the film’s release, Florence Stoker, the widow of Bram Stoker, sued the filmmakers of Nosferatu over copyright infringement. The court ordered that all copies of Nosferatu be destroyed, but its popularity as a film ensured its survival, and it is available to stream today.
Nosferatu (2024) is an American Gothic horror film, remaking the tale from 1922. Visually spectacular and captivating, director Robert Eggers created this beautiful, haunting tribute to the 1922 narrative with the utmost passion and attention to detail. It is clear that Eggers adores telling this story through his directorial precision and care. Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen is hauntingly beautiful, as Bill Skasgard’s Count Orlok is unsettling and forebodingly gruesome. The film has an underlying air of seduction, lust and desire, relating to our understanding of the Gothic genre as established above. The impeccable score, cinematography, costuming, production design, sound and editing contribute to the meticulous, brilliant portrayal of a much-loved tale.
Written by Mollie Matthews
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