When the Abyss Gazes Back: Nosferatu, Paul Tillich, and the Weimar Republic

As many of you may already know, I also run an educational YouTube channel called BYTE-GEIST. As a special bonus episode this week, I'm uploading one of my recent video essays.

Monsters, especially when it comes to horror films, are never just monsters. Sure, they’re human creations, but what they reflect is anything but simple fantasy. Horror, as a genre, has always acted as an unsettling mirror to society’s deepest fears and insecurities. The shit that keeps us awake at night and makes our hearts skip a beat, all personified as imaginary beasts of every shape and size. Few films capture this dynamic as powerfully as F.W. Murnau’s 1922 masterpiece, Nosferatu. It’s not just a cheap vampire movie—it’s a haunting window into the spiritual and cultural anxieties of the German landscape immediately following World War I. So….what happens when a society collectively stares into the abyss? Let’s find out

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices