Background While the basic story is derived from
Bram Stoker's novel
Dracula, director Herzog made the 1979 film primarily as a homage remake of
F. W. Murnau's
silent film Nosferatu (1922), which differs somewhat from Stoker's original work. The makers of the earlier film changed several minor details and character names. They also did not have permission to use the intellectual property of the novel, which was owned (at the time) by Stoker's widow
Florence. A lawsuit was filed, resulting in an order for the destruction of all prints of the film. Some prints survived and were restored after Florence Stoker had died and the copyright had expired. By the 1960s and early 1970s, the original silent returned to circulation, and was enjoyed by a new generation of moviegoers. Herzog considered Murnau's
Nosferatu to be the greatest film ever to come out of Germany, and was eager to make his own version of the film, with
Klaus Kinski in the leading role. By 1979,
Dracula had entered the
public domain, so Herzog opted to include the original character names. Herzog saw his film as a parable about the fragility of order in a staid, bourgeois town. "It is more than a horror film," he says. "Nosferatu is not a monster, but an ambivalent, masterful force of change. When the plague threatens, people throw their property into the streets; they discard their bourgeois trappings. A re‐evaluation of life and its meaning takes place." Adjani said about her heroine: "There's a sexual element. She is gradually attracted towards Nosferatu. She feels a fascination — as we all would think. First, she hopes to save the people of the town by sacrificing herself. But then, there is a moment of transition. There is a scene when he is sucking her blood — sucking and sucking like an animal—and suddenly, her face takes on a new expression, a sexual one, and she will not let him go away anymore. There is a desire that has been born. A moment like this has never been seen in a vampire picture". Herzog himself filmed the opening sequence at the
Mummies of Guanajuato museum in
Guanajuato,
Mexico, where a large number of naturally
mummified bodies of the victims of an 1833
cholera epidemic are on public display. Herzog had first seen the Guanajuato mummies while visiting in the 1960s. On his return in the 1970s, he took the corpses out of the glass cases where they were normally stored. He propped them against a wall to film them, arranging them in a sequence running roughly from childhood to old age. Kinski's Dracula make-up, with black costume, bald head, rat-like teeth, and long fingernails, is an imitation of
Max Schreck's makeup in the 1922 original. The makeup artist who worked on Kinski was the Japanese artist Reiko Kruk. Although he fought with Herzog and others during the making of other films, Kinski got along with Kruk, and the four-hour makeup sessions went on with no outbursts from Kinski himself. Several shots in the movie are faithful recreations of iconic images from Murnau's original film, some almost perfectly identical to their counterparts, intended as homages to Murnau. Burg Pernstein.JPG|
Pernštejn Castle as Drakula's home Pernstein Hof.JPG|Inner ward of Pernštejn Castle with the entrance to Dracula's crypt in the movie on the right Partnach.jpg|
Partnach river near
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, at which Harker's journey to Transylvania was filmed Overzicht voorzijde - Delft - 20048913 - RCE.jpg|
Delft city hall and market served as center of Wisborg (Photo 1975) View of a canal from a bridge in Voldersgracht, Delft, Netherlands - Pcs34560 IMG6722.jpg|Voldersgracht in Delft as Wisborg (Photo 2013) Overzicht van de Nieuwe Haven bij de Westvest - Schiedam - 20415922 - RCE.jpg|Nieuwe Haven of
Schiedam as Wisborg harbour (Photo 1942)
Music The
film score to
Nosferatu the Vampyre was composed by the West German group
Popol Vuh, who have collaborated with Herzog on numerous projects. Music for the film comprises material from the group's album
Brüder des Schattens – Söhne des Lichts. Additionally, the film features
Richard Wagner's prelude to
Das Rheingold,
Charles Gounod's "Sanctus" from
Messe solennelle à Sainte Cécile and traditional
Georgian folk song "
Tsintskaro", sung by Vocal Ensemble Gordela.
Animal cruelty Dutch behavioral biologist
Maarten 't Hart, hired by Herzog for his expertise with laboratory rats, revealed that, after witnessing the inhumane way in which the rats were treated, he no longer wished to cooperate. Apart from traveling conditions that were so poor that the rats, imported from Hungary, had started to eat each other upon arrival in the Netherlands, Herzog insisted the plain white rats be dyed gray. To do so, according to 't Hart, the cages containing the rats needed to be submerged in boiling water for several seconds, causing another half of them to die. The surviving rats proceeded to lick themselves clean of the dye immediately, as 't Hart had predicted they would. 't Hart also implied sheep and horses that appear in the movie were treated very poorly but did not specify this any further. ==Release==