Various names and other details were changed from the novel, including Count Dracula being renamed Count Orlok then finally Nosferatu, an archaic Romanian word with a suggested etymology of Nesuferitu`, meaning "the offensive one" or "the insufferable one".
Nosferatu is a word for “undead” in some Balkan and Carpathian lore. Dracula and Nosferatu are really the same though, in fiction. Here's how that worked: In 1897, an Irish writer, Bram Stoker, published a novel about a “Transylvanian” vampire named “Dracula”.
It's true: Nosferatu, the German silent classic directed by FW Murnau, was undeniably a Dracula knock-off – an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel with the names changed and the plot whittled down. Among the excised elements was Stoker's polymath-turned-vampire killer Van Helsing.
Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431 because of his bravery in fighting the Turks and was dubbed Dracul (dragon or devil), thus his son became Dracula (son of the dragon).
Count Orlok (German: Graf Orlok; Romanian: Contele Orlok), commonly but erroneously known as Nosferatu, is a fictional character who appears in the silent film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) and in its remake Nosferatu (2024), which is based on Bram Stoker's character Count Dracula.
The problem is, Nosferatu director F.W. Murnau adapted the 1897 novel without permission from Stoker's estate. The film's producer, Albin Grau, was inspired to make a vampire movie after learning about the lore in Serbia while serving in World War I.
It contained many elements that were considered too shocking or in bad taste for the Victorian population. This included frank descriptions of blood, violence, and sexuality. Many readers were especially disturbed by the portrayal of Dracula's three brides and Lucy Westenra after she is transformed into a vampire.
Alucard is a common vampire name in fiction. As many know, it is Dracula spelled backwards, and is usually used either as a disguise for Dracula, or to signify some sort of relation to Dracula.
Legends of vampires go back centuries, but few names have cast more terror into the human heart than Dracula. However the fictional character, created by author Bram Stoker, was in fact based on a real historical figure called Vlad the Impaler.
Dracula was at its best as a period piece, allowing Moffat and Gatiss to languish in the gorgeous gothic settings and Hammer Horror inspired mood. They couldn't replicate that tone with the modern setting and they also didn't seem to have a reason to do so beyond the gimmick.
These archetypes, each spawned by two early, competing film adaptations of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, re-contextualize Stoker's eponymous villain in entirely divergent ways. Nosferatu, F. W. Murnau's 1922 silent vampire film, begins with a declaration that it is adapted from Stoker's Dracula.
Nosferatu is not technically an adaptation of Dracula, in the sense that it was produced without the permission of Stoker's estate and changed the names of all major characters, as well as the setting and some of the story.
Dracula was a real person, more commonly known in medieval Romania as Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or Vlad the Impaler. I know, the “impaler” is not a nice nickname, and unfortunately Vlad III did like to impale people and was famous for it. But nobody is perfect.
The name Dracula means “son of Dracul.” In the Romanian language today, dracul means “the devil”—drac is “devil,” ul is “the”—but it is derived from the Latin dracō, “dragon.” (Dragons have been historically associated with Satan, hence the evolution.)
Born in Transylvania as the second son of the nobleman Vlad II Dracul, he took the name Dracula, meaning “son of Dracul,” when he was initiated into a secret order of Christian knights known as the Order of the Dragon. (In Romanian, Dracul means “dragon.”)
The beliefs of Stoker's generation magnified the already obscene tendencies of the character himself, adversely creating a shock-factor amongst the Victorian audience, making an epic contribution to the controversial views of sex and sexuality within the society.
Van Helsing describes him as '… strong in person as twenty men, he is of cunning more than mortal…he is brute, and more than brute, he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not,…' Dracula's brutal strength, callous lack of care for others, and heartlessness are what make him so evil.
He also jokes that his decision to have SpongeBob say the title of the film instead of the character's name, both because of Nosferatu's recognizability and because it made a better fit for the sing-song line delivery, has resulted in years of messages from "trolls" correcting him.
That person was Florence Stoker, whose late husband Bram Stoker was the author of Dracula. And Nosferatu had “Dracula” written all over it. Because the 1897 novel was still under copyright, Prana Film couldn't legally adapt it for the screen without permission from Florence, who was her husband's literary executor.
