Nosferatu, German Expressionism, and Goth Culture

Is German Expressionism one of the oldest ancestors of goth culture?

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I cannot be the only one who thinks that, right? I may have started thinking this because expressionist film’s heavy use of dark makeup around actors’ eyes, but then I started thinking more about the aesthetics of German Expressionism and the works they have influenced. The art direction in Nosferatu is not as prominent as the highly stylized yet claustrophobic design of the sets in the masterful Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, so it may be more helpful to think of that film while humoring me. The things that I have always noticed in German Expressionist films are the geometrical designs and careful balance of black and white, and I know this may just be because the films themselves where shot in black and white, but it still is worth noting. The use of color and placement of shapes seem all follow a precise abstraction that evokes a sense of surreal unease, but still laid out in a clear pattern.

The German Expressionist movement was undeniably a big influence on Tim Burton and traces of its aesthetic can be seen all across his films. One of his earliest feature-length animated films, The Nightmare Before Christmas, has the strongest German Expressionist influence. The whole look and feel of Halloween Town echoes a clear feeling of the town in Dr. Caligari. This is especially true in the iconic scene of Jack Skellington singing on the twirling hillside in front of an abnormally large moon. The straight edges of Jack’s model are a direct contrast to the curves of the hill, similar to the displaced shapes in Dr. Caligari. The other reason this film is worth mentioning is because of it has had a strong presence in goth culture, with Jack and Sally sometimes being portrayed as goth icons.

The other place I have noticed the presence of German Expressionism and its influence on goth is in comic books. While stuck in quarantine, I have been reading my way through Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed dark comic book series The Sandman. One of the main settings of the series, the realm of all dreams, is mainly composed of dark colors and full of odd shapes and designs to represent the fragile structure of dreams. This setting clearly draws from German Expressionist artwork to portray the complex abstraction of the mind. The main character, Morpheus, is always drawn in completely black and white. Morpheus himself has become somewhat of a goth icon, sometimes to Gaiman’s dismay. Nonetheless, The Sandman is another demonstration of the effect of German Expressionism on goth culture.

Back to Nosferatu. The thing that stuck out to me the most about it was its presentation of a sometimes-unseen monster and how applicable that can be to both Harry Benshoff’s “Monster in the Closet” and real world events. Towards the end of the film, when the ship carrying Count Orlok arrives in Winsburg, only the lifeless body of the captain is found aboard, which the doctor blames on the plague. More deaths occur in the town after the ship’s arrival, which are also blamed on the plague. This causes an order for the members of the town to stay indoors. Because they do not realize that the cause of the deaths is actually Count Orlok, they think they are losing civilians to an invisible killer like the plague. This is comparable with the irrational fear of homosexuality that some have. Those with homophobia sometimes think that homosexuality is like a disease, and that homosexuals need to keep their distances to avoid infection. This was particularly exemplified by the AIDS outbreak and the country’s response to it, as Harry Benshoff observed that “the representational codes and narrative tropes of the monster movie (plague, contagion, victimization, panic) have been grafted onto much television and newspaper coverage of AIDS” (Benshoff, 92). I think that part of the fear in the AIDS outbreak (and of homosexuality in general) came from the fact that it was not something that people could see but was still dangerous. This is the same reason that the thought of a monster in your closet is sometimes scarier than seeing an actual monster in the closet, which may give more meaning to the title of Benshoff’s essay.

The other reason this part of the film stood out to me is because of the situation we are all in today. During this “safer at home” initiative, we are all ordered to stay indoors, sitting in fear of a deadly disease. Not only that, but even if we do venture outside for something, we have no way to tell who has the virus and who does not. It is almost as if Nosferatu predicted the response of the coronavirus. Only today, it is affecting more than just one small town and will not disappear with the defeat of a singular vampire that may or may not be Dracula. Even with as many fantasy elements that Nosferatu utilizes and explores, the horror is all layered an applicable to real world fears, which is what makes it all the even scarier.