Nosferatu’s Cats, or: The Birth of the Cinematic Pandemic Vampire

Abstract

This paper looks at how the three Nosferatu films by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Werner Herzog, and E. Elias Merhige have influenced presentations of vampires and established the Nosferatu figure as a cinematic counterpart to the literary Dracula. In addition, all three films establish the pandemic theme early on in a genre-defining scene, featuring the female protagonist and one or more cats. The significance of the cat scenes is analyzed both in terms of the final film versions as well as in relation to the original scripts and other source materials, which show the significant changes that were made. Spanning the full spectrum of genre films from their experimental to their baroque stages, the three Nosferatu films present a unique type of vampire, which is particularly relevant for our present times.