Editing Nosferatu (section)

===Occultism===
[[File:Nosferatu (1922) Knock-Orlok contract.jpg|thumb|A contract between Orlok and Knock]]
Murnau and Grau gave Orlok in the film a demonic lineage and an occult origin: Orlok is the creation of [[Belial]], one of the Satanic [[archdemon]]s. Belial in [[Psalm 41|Psalm]] 41:8–10 is also associated with pestilence, with Orlok in film being a manifestation of contagion, rats pouring out of his coffins onto the streets of Wisburg, spreading [[Plague (disease)|Black Death]]. Orlok's link to Belial is also significant because Belial is "one of the demons traditionally summoned by [[Goetic]] magicians" – making Orlok someone who practiced [[Black magic|dark sorcery]] before becoming a vampire.<ref name="annwnjones">Annwn Jones, David (2023), ''Vampires on the Silent Screen: Cinema’s First Age of Vampires 1897–1922'', pp. 169, 184</ref>

Orlok and his servant Knock are communicating in occult language – the documents between Orlok and Knock are written in [[Enochian]], a constructed language said to be that of the angels, which was recorded in the private journals of English occultist [[John Dee]] and his colleague English [[Alchemy|alchemist]] [[Edward Kelley]] in late 16th-century [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] England.<ref name="annwnjones"/><ref name="Movie Magick 2018 p. 52">''Movie Magick: The Occult in Film'' (2018) by David Huckvale, p. 52</ref>

The character of Professor Bulwer in the film is named in reference to English occult novelist [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]].<ref name="Movie Magick 2018 p. 52"/> The idea of astral entities, arising from the dark thoughts of human beings, responsible for epidemics that call for blood sacrifices in order to prevent them, is also closely linked to that of the alchemist [[Paracelsus]], whose figure is partly embodied in the film in the character of Professor Bulwer (who is mentioned in the film to be [[Paracelsianism|Paracelsian]] himself). This is made concrete in the film in the plague epidemic that spreads through the town of Wisburg, which cannot be remedied by scientific methods, but by the blood sacrifice of a woman, thus destroying forever the dark being responsible for this catastrophic situation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://elhype.com/en/nosferatu-esotericism-and-terror/ |title='Nosferatu': A Century of Esotericism and Terror |date=30 October 2022 }}</ref>