Despite the vampire arc of the story it is actually about the Second Cholera pandemic in 1837 (though set in 1838). And its actually about the Spanish Flu of 1918, or perhaps its a retrospective about our little Pandemic in 2020 made by a Time Traveller...
Lots of Spoilers...
The male character heads to south-eastern europe to oversee a realestate sale of a townhouse in germany to count orlok (an inbred and deformed nobleman). He is 'infected' while there and locked up in his room by the count but escapes confinement and flees back to Germany.
We have a shipment of dirt samples (along with live rats) in coffins by boat. The manifest says they contain scientific samples but the ships crew break one open in search of valuables and the rats escape onto the ship. Later one of the crew falls ill, and it quickly spreads to the rest of the crew- the first mate jumping overboard choosing option B and the captain lashing himself to the wheel as he dies so it sails into port with all hands dead, the pandemic that has spread in south eastern europe reaching a german port.
After the town authorities examine the captain's corpse and ships log they declare it to be plague. They order a total lockdown and doors and windows bolted. They also declare hospitals off limits to the sick as this will only spread the disease.
Now to the female character whose husband has been in eastern europe at the moment of the plague outbreak. She of course goes batshit crazy but is happy when he returns, having read some book her husband acquired on the signs, symptoms, and treatment of vampyrism decides she knows the cause of the pandemic, and not responding well to lockdown, proceeded to open the windows of her room. She is dead from the plague by sunrise. -film ends.
Pandemic Tropes
It basically contains all the tropes of the modern pandemic:
- Mistrust of Scientists involved in the source of the initial outbreak.
- Spillage of biological samples resulting in spread into civilian populace.
- Public access to superstition-based misinformation. After all, the Nosferatu isn't real.
- Government imposed city-wide lockdowns with bans on hospital visits to stop the plague spreading.
- Lockdown violators who succumb to and further spread the disease.
The Physical Manifestation of Superstitions
We get to see more than just the Nosferatu in this film...
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| The Werewolf |
Except its decidedly Hyena-like or some other deformed super-Predator. And just the sort of 'preys on peasants' kind of Pet a backwater Monarchy might keep.
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| Nosferatu |
The Nosferatu roams the halls of his lonely and ancient ruined keep... when not sleeping in the family Crypt.
Except Count Orlok is just a man, though one creepy and deformed due to generations of repeated inbreeding in the Anime 'my Sister is my prefered Wifu' kind of way. But a man none the less.
Superstition vs. Truth
If you believe the film is about a Vampyre named Nosferatu, then that is what you see, and the Nosferatu unleashes plague rats into fragil civilization so that he might feed on the populace unnoticed amid the chaos.
But if you understand that the Nosferatu is just the Superstition rampant in your mind and everyone elses, then its about the struggle of Science to fight both the ongoing Pandemic and the Superstition and fake news spread in opposition to their activities that has more sway over human minds than scientific truth.
Either way the performance by Max Schrek is amazing and frightening.
Antisemitism?
I'm going to say yes and no, thats not what it's about though blaming Jews for a plague is like blaming vampyres- something that surfaces from the superstitious counter-narrative in opposition to facts. Coming out of the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918 and WW1 its not about a Jewish boogy-man though projecting forward, it will be.
It is at its core and beyond the 4th wall, about Science vs. Superstition in the middle of a Pandemic.
The Film
Enjoy...
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