The Title: “Nosferatu”

Welcome to the twenty-eighth day of my daily October posts! Throughout these next 4-days, I will be posting different spooky fun facts, tricks and treats. Today, I will be sharing an interesting fun fact about why F. W. Murnau’s classic 1922 horror film, Nosferatu and Robert Eggers’ 2024 film, Nosferatu are titled “Nosferatu” rather than “Dracula”!

This has to be one of my favorite fun facts about any book to film adaptations in history. Back when F. W. Murnau was making the 1922 film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, he had not sought out proper authorization of the copyright— simply because Florence Stoker did not authorize the adaptation, therefore, he was unable to title the film “Dracula”. 

Bram Stoker’s widow, Florence Stoker was still alive when the 1922 film was being filmed. In fear of her suing them for using the title “Dracula”, they decided to go forward without using the Count’s name from the novel. Instead, they renamed Dracula to ”Count Orlock”, renamed all of the other characters, and titled the film “Nosferatu”—a term only used once toward the end of Dracula (1897) by the character Van Helsing. However, this didn’t help much as Florence Stoker still sued the filmmakers for copyright infringement after the films release (which she won). The court ordered for all copies of the film to be destroyed—however, some are still out there!

I just find their actions quite silly as renaming the characters does not take away from stealing the story! I had heard a lot of people on social media making comments about how the film Nosferatu (2024) is just the story of Dracula (1897) in fits of anger. Now, if you were throwing fits over this, then I am here to tell you that this is the exact reason as to why—Dracula is Count Orlock, and Nosferatu is the story of Dracula (1897)!

Thank you for reading and make sure to come back for tomorrow's post!

Sincerely, 

        your 21st century poet <3