It’s interesting to note that Herr Knock gets almost none of the pity given R. M. RENFIELD in the novel (Much less a comparable, deadly-sincere change of heart).

My dear fellow, tastes will differ and we don’t hold that against you – though we do hope you’ll have a better time at Schloss Orlock the second time around.🙂

Fellow Paradox appreciator!

That was definitely not intended as a swipe against the shadow-stalking. I loved it.

From your and ED’s comments, it sounds like I have an excuse to rewatch this and see if maybe I was in the middle of some indigestion or something when I first watched the Orlok’s castle stretch.

Yeah, I wouldn’t say it’s a bigger achievement in cinema than, like, Murnau’s film, but I do think I liked this more.

I guess “Nosferatu” is best understood as a cousin of Dracula and I should calibrate my sloppy compare-and-contrast accordingly!

I did feel that Knock was a little under-served here, but he does leave an impression in his couple of scenes.

I do expect that German historiography has a name for their mid-to-late 19th century, and quite possibly different periodization given the events of that era, but if it takes place during the gameplay timeframe of the computer game, Victoria, it’s close enough for me.

“Meanwhile, the wonderfully executed pastiche of the 1922 Nosferatu shadow-creeping registers as near-camp.”

I will cosign on that. Still fun, though!

In all seriousness, Queen Victoria’s mother was a German, her beloved husband was a German (The family name was arguably Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until George V did some tactical rebranding during the First World War) and her firstborn daughter (Another Victoria) married the Crown Prince of Prussia, became German Empress and produced the future Kaiser Wilhelm II.

It’s theoretically possible to get more German than that, but the process presumably require Lederhosen and deep existential uncertainty.

Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll ever love this film, but it keeps threatening to become a favourite the more I think about it.

Also, I KEEP thinking about it, which suggests an above average experience.

“Graf Orlock is only as much of a Dracula as Spider-Man is a Superman” (Which is to say that they start from the same notion, but go in rather distinct directions).

Also, if you think Professor Von Franz is a howling lunatic, you really ought to reserve some credit for Herr Knock – who for my
money leaves him standing when it comes to sheer insanity, albeit being much less amusing.

(I also think you’re being a trifle unkind to Chez Orlock: that place FREAKED ME OUT by going from The Dining Room from Hell to Vampire Rape Bedroom to WHY THE HELL IS THE ZOMBIE VAMPIRE NAKED? Crypt).