Nosferatu: exploring the clash between magic and science

2024 saw the directorial debut of Robert Eggers with a gothic horror adaptation of Nosferatu. It serves as a canvas portraying the ancient conflict of science versus magic. In a spirit reminiscent of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Murnau’s Nosferatu, Eggers offers a haunting experience and insight into the dependency humanity has on science, which becomes unsettling when reliance gives birth to unfulfilled expectations.

The limits of logic in a supernatural world

Set in Victorian-Era Europe, Nosferatu chronicles the life of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard), a vampire who poses the question of baffling an Empire that has set itself on rationalism.

While Orlok goes about performing his ghastly deeds, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), and Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) grapple with the very existence of Orlok’s powers, making them face an existential dilemma that there is a great deal that remains scientifically unexplainable.

Pseudoscientist Professor Von Franz (Willem Dafoe) is the film’s moral compass. He supplements the rational worldview as a counterbalance to science’s overpowering dominance and encourages people to escape lab fantasies. He provides the film’s quote, “We are not so enlightened as we are blinded by the gaseous light of science,” which deeply resonates with the film’s central premise.

Von Franz: A bridge between two worlds

Von Franz's character straddles the line between faith and fact. Where others are fixated on microscopes and constructs, he knows that Orlok is more than a biological riddle, for he is also the embodiment of ancient evil. He becomes the harbinger of bygone reason, asking people to wield the metaphysical and mystical tools that were naively abandoned to fight the unfathomable.

This knowledge will not suffice. Defeating Orlok is more intricate than mere utterances; it requires deep sacrifice, primal surges, and feminine power.

Ellen: The modern priestess of the occult

Completing this circle of the film's emotional and mystical aspects is Ellen. She is the only character quiet enough to sense that using her body as a weapon and Orlok’s belief in the mystical would achieve victory over him.

In one of the film's lines packed with emotion, Von Franz tells her, “In heathen times you might have been a Great Priestess of Isis. Yet, in this strange and modern world your purpose is of greater worth.”

Her ultimate step––luring Orlok into the sunlight––symbolizes not merely self-sacrifice, but the triumph of human freedom and magic over sterile reason and logic.

Magic as a forgotten weapon

In Nosferatu, Eggers believes modern society is so preoccupied with technological development that they have lost the ability to deal with the unfathomable. Count Orlok epitomizes a threat—or a plethora of threats that science cannot offer enough reasoning for, because they exist transcending biology and comprehension.

The movie does not dismiss science. It rather contemplates the notion of it having all the solutions. The film asserts that Orlok’s curse paints a picture of the wisdom lurking within chaos and the strength buried in the primitive.

Conclusion: Horror that haunts the intellect

Nosferatu, reimagined through a lens of contemporary angst, has a distinct, if not bizarre, function. While some may argue that Eggers was trying to exploit suspense, to others, he paints a cautionary tale of equilibrium. In the domain of magic and science, instinct and reason, and what history attempts to conceal.

The vampire in Nosferatu might be deemed a portrayal of evil, but a more symbolic interpretation would suggest that the true horror lies lost deep within unexplored forces that remain unfathomable.