Why Does Nosferatu Feed From the Chest and Not the Neck?

In his version of ‘Nosferatu,’ Robert Eggers experiments with a lot of stuff regarding the character and the myths surrounding him. From changing the way he looks to the true connection between him and Ellen, the writer-director introduces a lot of elements that are either completely new or are a variation of the tropes established by its source materials. One of the most important changes that he brings into the story is the manner in which the vampire consumes the blood of its victims. In the general vampire lore, the consensus is that blood is drawn from the neck. In Eggers’ movie, however, the vampire feeds from the victims’ chest, and there is a good reason for that. SPOILERS AHEAD

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu Relies on Old Folklore and Beliefs Surrounding Vampirism

Before he set down to write and direct ‘Nosferatu,’ Robert Eggers immersed himself in the folklore about vampires. He wanted to do away with the notions established in popular media about vampires, which made him go back as much as possible and dig out the stories that were made up about the creatures. Interestingly, he found that there were places where the accounts mentioned the vampire feeding from a person’s chest. The idea of drinking blood from the chest strikes me as odd, but it certainly catches my attention. Further research revealed that the reason the chest was targeted was because of the location of the heart. He discovered that this belief was connected to sleep paralysis, where a person believes that an entity is sitting on their chest. In some cases, people connected this weight on their chest to a vampire sitting on their chest and feeding from it.

Because Eggers intended to revamp the genre as much as possible, the idea of having Count Orlok feed from the chest looked like an interesting change in the narrative. This detail gave more weight to the story in terms of its psychosexual connotations and the eroticism that lingers along with the horror of facing Orlok. He has to climb on top of his victims after he takes off his clothes to drink their blood, and several times in the movie, with Ellen as well as Thomas, it looks like a sexual act that further accentuates the toxic charm that keeps Ellen bound to him. His drinking from his victims’ chest also refers to his effort to get to his victims’ hearts. In one scene, he tells Ellen that he cannot love, and yet he cannot be sated without her. This feels like a remark about him not being able to have someone’s heart the right way, so he tries to dig his own way into it.

The act gives Orlok an animal-like quality, further separating him from anything that might make him feel human. His beastly nature scares the audience of him as well as any attraction that they might feel for him, just as Ellen does. In a lot of other stories in the genre, the act of drinking blood from the neck or even from the wrist has been presented as a sexual and romantic act. Changing the position gives Orlok an edge over those other vampires who barely come off as horrific as they become too attractive for the audience to be scared of them.

There is a time when we see Orlok feeding from his victims’ necks, but that’s when he kills Anna Harding and her daughters. The act is more of a retaliation for him rather than consuming his victim. In that moment, he is not concerned about satiating his appetite, but has nothing but murder on his mind. Thus, Eggers’ version reinstates the horror of the creature by associating him more with things that normal people don’t tend to do. It highlights the danger of being attracted and connected to such a thing, escalating the trauma of being terrorized by Nosferatu and making the audience reconsider their desire for having what Ellen wanted in the severe bouts of her loneliness.

Read More: Difference Between Dracula and Nosferatu, Explained