The true story behind Nosferatu is almost too unhinged to believe

To the untrained eye, Nosferatu is a terrifying work of fiction – but the horror movie is inspired by some truly eerie real-life scares. Is it a true story? Some seem to think so.

Closing out the year is Robert Eggers’ take on the vampiric, the film follows Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) after she reawakens a centuries-old spirit. When she marries Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) years later, the spirit now known as Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) tries to take back what he believes belongs to him.

But this new movie didn’t just spring up out of nowhere. It’s a version of the 1922 movie of the same name, which in itself is a retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula… just with a different name.

Not only is the story of Nosferatu itself steeped in true story, but the process of getting it made is an urban legend itself.

Nosferatu’s true story started during World War I

Nosferatu’s producer Albin Grau served for the German army in WW1 – and it was what he experienced while in the trenches that inspired the original movie.

Universal Pictures

During the war, Grau spent a great deal of time on the Serbian front. While there, he met a rural farmer who told him a story about his father. In a nutshell, the farmer believed his father had become an “undead vampire” (as one does).

The film’s director F. W. Murnau and star Max Schreck also fought in the First World War, though it’s unclear how much of their personal experiences influenced the film. We do know however that there’s a direct link to the occult movie here, though, particularly through its infamous rat plague.

As you might remember from your school history lessons, the front-line trenches were no stranger to an overwhelming plague of rodents, which is seen in both the 1922 and 2024 versions.

The 2024 remake has another real-life inspiration

For Robert Eggers, inspiration for the 2024 remake of Nosferatu came from an incident in Southern Romania only a few years ago.

The director said in a statement “As recently as twenty years ago, in Southern Romania, a man believed to be a vampire was exhumed, and his corpse ritually mutilated. He was a difficult man and a heavy drinker. After he died, his family said he returned as a strigoi, attacking them in the night. His daughter-in-law particularly suffered from these nocturnal assaults and became ill.

“When his body was destroyed, as per the folkloric procedure, the vampiric visitations stopped. His reign of terror ended. His daughter-in-law was cured. What is the dark trauma that even death cannot erase? A heartbreaking notion. This is at the essence of the palpable belief in the vampire.

He continued “The folk vampire is not a suave dinner-coat-wearing seducer, nor a sparkling, brooding hero. The folk vampire embodies disease, death, and sex in a base, brutal, and unforgiving way. This is the vampire I wanted to exhume for a modern audience.”

If you’re understandably unfamiliar with the term, a strigoi is “bald on top of the head, does not eat garlic and onions, avoids incense, and towards the feast of Saint Andrew they sleep outdoors. Their spine is elongated in the shape of a tail, covered with hair.”

Essentially, Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok looks something more akin to this… when we do see him.

The 1922 movie was plagued with controversial issues

Not only was the 1922 version of Nosferatu illegal, but it was also looked down on for alleged antisemitic undertones and links to the occult.

Film Arts Guild

Our OG movie was an illegal adaptation of Bram Stoker’s infamous horror story Dracula because the Bram Stoker Estate wouldn’t sell Murnau the rights. This also means it was not public domain in Germany at the time. Despite being a copyright issue, the film was made regardless, but there were quickly problems.

After it was released, Stoker’s estate filed a suit claiming infringement. This in turn bankrupted Grau’s production company, with a judge ruling that all copies of Nosferatu had to be destroyed. If you’re wondering why Eggers can make his own version all these years later, it’s because Dracula is now in the public domain globally – so it’s all fair game.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The movie was banned in Sweden – a ban which wasn’t lifted until 1972 – due to “excessive horror.” Orlok’s original appearance, which includes a hooked nose and long fingernails, also came under fire for resembling antisemitic caricatures of Jewish people. It was also criticized for promoting a fear of “The Other” (essentially anybody that isn’t you).

Both of these last two themes are thought to be at least partially derived from Stoker’s novel, but added fuel to the fire of the Nosferatu controversy nonetheless.

Nosferatu is in US cinemas on December 25, and in UK screens on January 1. In the meantime, check out the scariest horror films based on true stories, the best horror anime, and horror movies for kids to get into. You can also catch up with more new movies out this month.