Nosferatu Plot Summary
Nosferatu is a dark, brooding, Gothic-inspired Horror, paying homage to Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the best possible way as the infamous Count Orlok returns.
This time we’re in Germany 1838, as estate agent Thomas Hutter, newly married to his sweetheart Ellen, travels to Transylvania for a fateful meeting with Count Orlok. He’s a prospective client and looking to move but unfortunately, our sinister Count has other plans.
In his absence, Ellen, is left under the care of their friends, Friedrich and Anna Harding. Plagued by horrific visions and sensing something afoul is inbound, Ellen soon encounters an evil force that’s far beyond her control. Even worse, Thomas is forced to flee from the Count too, setting up a dramatic and pulsating third act.
What happens in Wisborg?
Thomas manages to escape the Count and make it back to Wisborg, just as Ellen’s visions start to intensify. Knock escapes from his confinement in the middle of this, which I guess is just as well since we don’t get any more stomach-churning scenes of him chomping down on live pigeons.
Unfortunately, the ship that the Count happens to be stowed away on holds more than this undead vamp. It also carries a literal plague of rats, who scurry out onto land and immediately begin to swarm across the city.
As the plague spreads, killing anyone unfortunate enough to catch the disease, Count Orlok visits Ellen that night. The Count explains that he’s bound to Ellen (which we’ll explain shortly) and she has 3 days to submit to him. If she doesn’t, Orlok promises to kill Thomas. When Ellen rejects him on the first night, the plague spreads fast.
In the wake of this, Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz knows this isn’t just a plague, and he too sets out a plan to try and stop its spread.
What is the connection between Orlok and Ellen?
During the first night, Ellen speaks to Thomas, who’s shocked when his wife explains that it was she who summoned this evil entity in the first place.
As a young woman, Ellen was lonely and reached out in prayer to a kind entity that would provide her companionship. Given Ellen’s extra-sensory psychic ability (which the Doctors basically confirm across the movie), she managed to connect with Orlok, whom she pledged herself to. Unfortunately, this also set up a twisted psychic relationship between them.
Despite initially seeming tender, that connection soured and became sinister. It was Thomas who helped give her courage to be free of her shame, but when the Count discovered their marriage, he set out to sabotage them and bring back his beloved forever. The only way to stop all of this is to go to the Count.
Now, after deceiving Thomas and sending him out to his estate, the “formal documents” he had our protagonist sign was actually an agreement to dissolve the marriage and allow the Count to worm his way in.
Orlok moved across to Wisborg because he needed Ellen to formally agree to re-pledge herself to him, which ties into vampire lore of being “invited in”. In this case, to Ellen’s heart.
What is the plan?
Professor von Franz knows that Ellen is the key to stopping Count Orlok, but the second day brings even more death. This time of Friedrich and Anna’s children, along with Anna herself, who are all visited by the Count that night.
At the funeral, our ragtag group join together and intend to destroy the sarcophagus and kill the Count by driving an iron spike through his chest. Ellen knows that she’s the one who must do this, given the connection they have
Before the good Professor leaves, he promises to keep Thomas at bay that night to Ellen while she goes and lures the Count to her, basically serving as bait. The Professor burns the bodies before they can rise or infect more, heading into the Count’s chambers, intending to destroy the sarcophagus. When they open up the lid and stab the body inside… it turns out Knock is there. He’s killed as the sacrificial lamb for his master, as Thomas realizes that the Count is actually with Ellen. To finish things off, the Professor burns the room and lets it go up in flames.
Is Orlok defeated?
Ellen lures the Count over to her place, wearing a wedding dress and allowing herself to be part of this unholy communion for real this time. She utters “I do” and disrobes, lying back and allowing Orlok to “consummate” the marriage. Of course, there’s no actual sex here but instead, the Count feeds on Ellen, which she allows willingly, as he sucks the blood from her.
The sun does rise but as the Count looks set to leave, the sunlight already burning his face, a weakened Ellen pulls him down and allows him to carry on. She basically sacrifices herself for the will of everyone around her, and lets Orlok’s lust be his ultimate downfall.
The Count dies, but Ellen has had to sacrifice herself in order to make this happen. Thomas shows up just as she passes, holding her hand and knowing he’s lost his “fair maiden”. This is all written, and is part of the curse of Nosferatu, which is now broken thanks to Ellen’s work.
The final shot, showing Nosferatu and Ellen in an embrace together, both dead, is cleverly captured through the renaissance art-piece, ‘Death and the Maiden’ by Egon Schiele, which depicts the ongoing struggle between good and evil. In the end, Ellen did what was right for everyone else, but lost her life in the process of banishing this evil creature back to the depths of Hell.