Count Orlok

Running low on Movie Maniacs to re-do better, NECA is apparently now turning its eyes to Mezco's Silent Screamers. Nosferatu. Does this word not sound like the deathbird calling your name at midnight? Beware, you never say it - for then the pictures of life will fade to shadows, haunting dreams will climb forth from your heart and feed on your blood. This figure is subtitled "A Symphony of Horror," letting us know that it's based on the original film/Spongebob character, and not on the inexplicable remake that came out last year, nor on Werner Herzog's 1979 version with Klaus Kinski as the titular monster. As we said in the Graf Orlok review, Nosferatu was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, and was ordered destroyed by German courts. It's arguably the first pure horror film in the world, but the only reason we have it today is because media preservationists have been saving culture since way before pirating Nintendo games was a thing. Book Dracula may not be as handsome as movie Dracula, but even he has nothing on Orlok. FW Murnau's art director/producer, Albin Grau, has given the vampire long claws, pointed animal ears, a long nose, rodent teeth, and off-putting eyes with dark circles around them. There's a reason modern vampire fictions make "Nosferatu" a separate, more bestial class than the normal bloodsuckers. Remember, the movie may be set in 1838, but it was made in the wake of the Spanish flu epidemic, and acted as a plague story, so Orlok looked like a rat. Der Graf ("graf" being the German title equivalent to English "count") is wearing an exaggerated Biedermeier-era frock coat, with dozens of buttons down the front. It reaches nearly to his knees, and he wears all-black clothing beneath it. This restrained look has become an iconic part of the Nosferatu appearance, despite not being very flashy at all. The figure was sculpted by Kyle Windrix and Jason Frailey, who have opted for realism in the look, more than the wild stylization on the Silent Screamer. The figure also includes four sets of hands: one open, one with extra-long claws, one closed left hand with a notch in the top of the fingers to accommodate one of the accessories, and three right hands with various grips to accommodate the rest of the accessories. Yes, that means a lot of the pieces can only be held one at a time, not in concert. He comes with a chain full of keys, an inkpot and quill, a bottle of presumably wine, and a letter. The letter is gibberish symbols, so the fact that Knock (Nosferatu's version of Renfield) could read it like it was perfectly normal was the first sign that something odd was going on. There's also a shapeless hat molded from soft PVC that can fit on any of the figure's three heads. These are all fine, but there are more artful things they could have included. For instance, upon arriving in London, England Wiborg, Germany, the Count scrurries around carrying his coffun under his arm like a large parcel. If that was impractical to include, how about a flat silhouette panel, similar to the one that came with McFarlane Toys' Sin City Marv or Mezco's Walpurgis, that depicted the famous "shadow creeping up the stairs" scene? Heck, even just printing that on the cardboard behind the figure in the box would have been welcome. But no. The heads are all nicely distinct from one another. The standard one has the mouth open slightly to show off his big front fangs, and he's staring straight ahead from beneath those great eyebrows. The second head is slightly devilish, with a smile as he stares at something he desires, carefully side-eyeing it so as not to appear too interested. The third has the mouth almost fully closed, to hide his teeth, and the ears tucked back so they fit inside the hat - basically, this one is him when he's pretending to be human. Unsurprisingly, the figure is decidedly dark and drab - gray skin, black clothes, brown coat. There's a hint of pink in his eyes, just as there was with The Man in the Beaver Hat, but that's all. As with their various Universal Monsters figures, NECA has also released a greyscale variant, with the promotional copy claiming it's "presented in movie-authentic black and white," but that's not the case: the movie was never in black and white. True, there wasn't color film in 1922, but the style at the time was to tint scenes by hand to match the intention - so like, scenes at night would be blue, scenes inside by a fireplace would be yellow, scenes at sunset or sunrise would be red, etc. If you ever see a version of Nosferatu that's actually in black and white, it's not authentic. The most iconic scene in the film is Nosferatu climbing the stairs, but that's not even him, just his shadow; therefore, "the" memorable moment in the story is when he rises smoothly from his coffin, otherwise moving not at all. According to Roger Ebert, that effect was as popular and well-known in its day as Reagan's head spinning in The Exorcist is today. This figure can easily not-move, but because this is 2024 NECA and not 2004 McFarlane, he can do other things, as well! The coat does limit the usefulness of the torso and hip joints, but otherwise this is as fun and poseable as any other modern movie monster toy. Since Nosferatu is in the public domain now, it's no surprise NECA isn't the only company to put a figure out. Mezco did a more stylized One:12 Collective version a few years ago, and Super7 did their own Ultimates version that looks almost cartoony next to this one. There's a ReAction, a Toony Terror, various Funko things... in the past few years, toy collections have gone from Nosferatu to Yesferatu, but NECA's is the most movie-accurate one there is. -- 07/06/25 Where does the word "nosferatu" actually come from, anyway? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.