Duality in Human Nature as represented by the films Nosferatu, Vampyr, and Dracula .
In film, as with any art, one must read between the lines a bit in order to fully understand the multitude of possible represented social values, beliefs, or ideologies present within certain works, and more specifically, which ones are unique to certain genres. Certain genres work better to present certain ideas. In the realm of the horror film, many ideas and issues dealing with human nature in relation to our own mortality, the supernatural, moral responsibility, or loss of control are addressed in horror film simply because of their relation to fear, an integral part of horror. All of these human feelings and questions are based in the unknown and therefore constantly analyzed and hypothesized upon. It is the attempt to answer these timeless questions through art that makes art so valuable in the first place. In horror films many of these themes appear again and again, throughout the genre. Even if the stories aren't exactly the same, many of the same themes remain identical. Such is the case with the films Nosferatu, Vampyr, and Dracula. They all use mental and visual inferences in relation to light and dark to represent not only the duality present in us all, but the dual nature of our existence.
The first and most obvious example of these similarities lies with the constant presentation and consequent association of the differences between light and dark. The most overtly incorporated division of light and dark is shown in these vampire films by the integral nature of day and night to the plot. In all three films the vampire cannot venture into the daylight, remaining a prisoner of the night. In Nosferatu, we learn that "evil spirits become all powerful after dark," and that the name Nosferatu conjures up images of " the very midnight call of death". We also learn that "Nosferatu- " [lives] and [feeds] on the blood of mankind, and [abides], unredeemed in the land of darkness".
