loosely based on Bram Stoker's Dracula, with the title and certain things changed to avoid copyright claims from the Stoker Estate, who did not allow adaptations of his popular work at the time.

The film was remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog and had its making Orlok a former practitioner of dark magic, which allowed powers involving shadow manipulation and darkness.

Count Orlok Uses Shadows To Perform Physical Actions

Orlok Used Shadows To Move Quickly And Touch Objects & People

Count Orlok was not a regular vampire. In Nosferatu, he was much more than that and had more power than even Dracula. In the film, Orlok was a dark magician in his life before he died and became a member of the undead. This means he used his dark magic to ensure that he lived forever. The abbess at the Eastern Orthodox abbey tells Thomas Hutter when he comes to them that the Devil sentenced Orlok to return from the dead and walk the Earth.

The abbess also says that Orlok was a member of the Solomonar, studying at a school of dark magic in Transylvania. They learned how to speak to animals, control the weather, and use various powers, including Orlok's control of shadows. This is known as umbrakinesis, a form of darkness manipulation. This not only allows him to draw on shadows to travel great distances, but it also allows Orlok to manipulate others through the darkness.

By using the shadows and, vicariously, the darkness, Orlok can invoke specific instincts in his victims, the utmost of which is fear and dread. With the darkness, a person quickly develops a fear of the unknown and dreads unseen threats in the shadows. By increasing these primal instincts, Orlok seeks to drive a person to madness and weaken them to make it easier to force them into submission. It also allows Orlok to remain in the shadows, which Robert Eggers said adds to the fear factor (via Gold Derby):

"I wanted to go back to the folklore because the early Balkan and Slavic vampire lore is written by or about people who believed that vampires existed and were terrified of them. So clearly, there must be something scary there. And these early folk vampires looked like rotten corpses — more like how we think of zombies in current cinema."

At the same time, Orlok has telekinetic powers and supernatural speed. This means he can create shadows and then use his other powers to move things, quickly move to other places without being seen, and appear even more supernatural than he is. By doing so, Orlok adds to the confusion and sense of despair of the people he torments.

What Orlok's Shadow Abilities Represent

The Darkness Manipulation Represents Orlok's Dark Desires

Count Orlok is several things in Nosferatu, including a regular vampire similar to Dracula. However, he has other aspects to his powers, including those of the strigoi, which are more of a phantom energy vampire, and a zburător, a more phantom-like being, which is where his shadow abilities come into play. Director Robert Eggers also uses shadow manipulation to show what Count Orlok represents in this telling of the classic horror story, creating a unique, fresh vampire (via IndieWire).

"Vampire cinema is so prolific that we have all these tropes and rules that we think we know that have been established, and Anne Rice refined them further. [While] trying to understand the origins of the vampire myth and understanding folk vampires, I had to forget everything that I had learned."

The shadow moving quietly across the walls shows that true evil is coming and that no one is safe from this deadly specter. When the shadow es over where someone is located in any given scene, it proves that Orlok is always next to them and is within striking distance. They are not safe, even in the comfort of their own homes. The shadow can touch anyone and corrupt anyone, which shows the true lasting power of Count Orlok and the death and despair that he brings with him.

Orlok's shadow walking and manipulation metaphorically represent the dark parts of the city.

Nosferatu shows death and decay in the streets due to the spread of disease. However, the use of shadow powers adds an even greater threat to the proceedings. Orlok's shadow walking and manipulation metaphorically represent the dark parts of the city, the people living within, and even the souls of the characters viewers are meant to follow, especially Ellen, who has had the shadow of Count Orlok hanging over her for almost her entire life. The darkness of the shadow is a poison, and it kills anyone it touches, literally and figuratively.

The Shadow Power Is A Nod To The 1922 Film

The Shadow Was A Huge Part Of The Original Nosferatu

The use of Orlok's shadow powers in Nosfetratu is a callback to the original 1922 film, where some of the most iconic scenes involve the shadow moving across the wall. The original F.W. Murnau film used shadows to an extreme, showing Orlok at the top of the stairs, outside a door, walking across a room. It was a sign of the German expressionist filmmaking that Nosferatu was part of, taking what Murnau used in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and making it even more terrifying with his vampire horror story.

Robert Eggers used shadows in a different way. Rather than using the German expressionist form of making things seem off stylistically, he used them to show that things were askew in the story world. Thanks to the early use of these shadows in things like Murnau's movie, Eggers was able to do so in a shorthand for Nosferatu that both paid homage to the classics and used the form to add to the horror and terror of his own story.

Source: Gold Derby, IndieWire