In the wake of Nosferatu, let’s not forget the hotness of Bram Stoker’s Dracula

If you want takeaway from Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu was “Damn… Ellen is a quiet freak 👀”, I want you to know that Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) is far from the freakiest character in a Dracula amendment.

(Ed. remark: Spoilers ahead Nosferatu (2024), Dracula by Bram Stoker (1992), and Dracula in general.)

I’ve seen mixed reactions to Ellen’s desire to work with the vampiric Count Orlok. Some people think Nosferatu was just the right amount of horny. Others think so at horny. And some, like me, think it could have been hotter!

Maybe that’s just because I was thinking all the time Dracula by Bram Stoker (1992) in all its hot, campy glory.

Starring Keanu Reeves in what is widely considered one of his worst roles (along with Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman), Dracula by Bram Stoker is unabashedly campy and over-the-top – something I personally believe in all of it Dracula adjustments must be made. Director Francis Ford Coppola played up the decadence and hedonism in the film, with beautiful set design, lavish costumes and a lot of characters going crazy.

Unlike Eggers’ Nosferatualmost every character Dracula (1992) is hot. There’s Miss Lucy Westenra and her three potential suitors that she can’t possibly choose between (one of them is a cowboy; not that it matters for the hotness meter, but I just have to emphasize that there’s a cowboy in there Dracula). She and Mina also have a deep, intimate, homoerotic friendship. Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) has a strange ghost orgy with Dracula’s monstrous brides.

But the scene that I think best illustrates the difference between them Nosferatu (2024)’s hotness and Dracula by Bram Stoker is the one where Dracula (Oldman) visits Mina Harker (Ryder).

In this version of Draculathe count believes that Mina is the reincarnation of his beloved bride Elisabeta. His fixation on her is not just because he craves her blood, but because he wants to make her his immortal lover. It’s a bit like the psychic connection between Orlok and Ellen in Eggers’ version, but what makes it even juicier is that Mina not have some connection with Dracula. He just walked in – all friendly, charismatic and European – to woo her, and although Mina loves Jonathan, she is entranced by this mysterious stranger and falls under his spell.

So when he comes to her room late at night to feast on her blood and turn her into a vampire, it’s intense and tortured and just… delicious – and they never even have sex. But they writhe in bed as Mina moans in his arms. Dracula has doubts and does not want to condemn the woman he loves to this unlife. But she begs him to make her his and then looks him straight in the eyes as she lowers her head and licks blood from an open wound in his chest!

Compared to Mina and Dracula, the scene of Orlok and Ellen in Eggers’ Nosferatu is almost tame. That’s wild, because Mina and Dracula don’t even really fuck. But there’s more mutual obsession, more heightened passion, more focus on both characters’ internal struggles. This isn’t a sacrifice Mina is making to save the world; it’s a selfish decision that could potentially spell doom, but one she makes because she wants it so damn bad.

Eggers’ Nosferatu is more in line with FW Murnau’s original 1922 silent film (itself a loose adaptation of Dracula), where the ending is more elegiac and sad. In this case, the scene with Orlok should not be the culmination of her desires. Making it super hot would undermine the poignancy.

However, Coppola’s Dracula really leans into the hotness all around. So it makes sense that the night Mina and Dracula share is based on mutual love and desire, even as certain doom looms. That’s what makes it so intriguing!

And I say this as someone who normally hates modern adaptations that lean toward the Dracula x Mina of it all (justice for Jonathan Harker, wife). The 1992 Dracula scene was just so erotic that it completely sold me.

Into the horniness Dracula is not a modern perversion. It’s actually the right way to adapt the source material. Vampires have historically represented taboo, especially when it comes down to it sexualityand Stoker’s original Dracula was no exception. Different filmmakers will play on different aspects of the themes in the story. But Coppola has nailed that particular vibe of mutually destructive horniness that is so specifically aimed at me – and at anyone who might have wanted Eggers’ version to more openly embrace the indulgent sexuality portrayed by the source material.

Dracula by Bram Stoker is available for rent on Amazon Video and YouTube. Nosferatu is in theaters now.