Nosferatu

Robert Eggers (2024)

* This review contains spoilers, proceed with caution *

Nosferatu adds to Robert Eggers' plateau of horror films. This time, the horror is presented through the lens of a woman during the Victorian Era. Much like in Eggers’ past works, ‘The Vvitch’ (2015): ‘The Lighthouse’ (2019) and ‘The Northman’ (2022), he explores themes of religious trauma, devotion, and the concept of social outcasts.

Plot:

The story follows Ellen and how a terrible creature comes to be obsessed with her. Ellen is afflicted with melancholy and seizures, on top of that, she’s odd. She says things out loud that even her newly wedded husband finds unsavoury, despite his immeasurable love for her. In an attempt to better their lives Thomas, Ellen’s husband, agrees to a mission from his boss to go to Transilvania and get a lease signed by Count Orlok. This action will have consequences. Orlok feeds from Thomas and prepares to go find Ellen in Germany. In delirium, and half-dead, Thoams manages to escape the count’s grasp and journey back home to warn Ellen. With the Count’s arrival in Germany comes also a plague, and in order to save everyone, Ellen must give herself to Count Orlok.

I understand that people might have a different perspective on what the story might be an allegory for, but personally, I see it aligning with Gothic Romance stories, where desires and human nature are brought out from the depths of the soul into the light. Pairing this overall theme with the setting of the story, Victorian Era Europe, where enlightenment and morality were taken to extremes ( and when it came to women, these standards were exuberated to obscene levels), you have the perfect cocktail for a story that explores the consequences of repressed sexuality.

"I have felt you... crawling like a serpent in my body"

- Ellen Hunter

Characters:

Orlok: The expression of unwanted and repressed feelings, especially surrounding sexuality.

Thomas: A loving husband who tries really really hard to ignore Ellen’s dark side, until he is confronted with his own.

Anna: Bisexual.

Ellen: My beloved. No one gets you as I do. Ellen is plagued by her own nature. Deeply sensitive, yet forced by a strict and stoic society to repress all her melancholy.

“I am an appetite. Nothing more. O'er centuries, a loathsome beast, I lay within the darkest pit. 'Til you did wake me, enchantress, and stir me from my grave.” - Count Orlok

Cinematography:

Above I gave you a quick summary of the plot, but below I will be giving a more personal interpretation of some specific scenes.

The film being set in Victorian Era Germany brings depth to the cultural and historical hints from the film. For example a lot of scenes bounce between properness and untamed behaviour, devotion to religion and the magnetism of the occult. Ellen says to Count Orlok“I felt you… crawling like a serpent in my body” ( a nod to the biblical story of the snake and Eve), to which Count Orlok answers “It is not me, it is your own nature”. This quote, I believe, explains the overall message of the film; that Count Orlok is a manifestation of Ellen’s perceived ‘dark’ nature. Ellen views her emotions and her sexual appetite as something dark and shameful. We learn that Ellen first calls on Nosferatu when she is desperate, feeling alone and outcasted. Nosferatu isn’t the beast that answered; Nosferatu is Ellen’s subconscious answering her, telling her she’s not odd or otherly. The rest of the film shows Ellen repressing this odd side of her, and we see her struggling to do so. Until, she surrenders herself and lets her demons ( her shame) see the daylight, ultimately ending her suffering.

Ellen and Anna go on a walk by the beach, and when Anna’s husband comes to find them, Ellen is left alone and has a seizure by the sea. We know that historically, especially during the Victorian Era, women afflicted by ‘hysteria’ or ‘melancholia’ would be sent to the sea to cure them. I think that placing Ellen by the sea, but showing her still haunted by her condition seems to imply that while everyone around her might have good intentions of wanting to help her, they are clueless and unhelpful. The sea has also been a symbol for witches, women who deal with the occult and sexually free women. Therefore, placing Ellen frantically shaking and with her undergarments showing invokes a sexual undertone to the scene. This tells the audience that Ellen is doomed by her nature. No matter how much she fights, she will, voluntarily or involuntarily, return to a primal state that connects her to nature.

Ellen and Anna share a bed, while Anna’s husband patrols the docking port he manages, in the wake of Nosferatu's arrival. During this scene we see Anna showing a crucifix jeweled necklace to Ellen. Ellen takes it and slowly circles her thumb on the jewels. Given the closeness of the two women in this scene, as they lay together, hair unbound and only the cold light of the moon illuminating them, the scene whispers intimacy. Although this is very much up for discussion, I think Ellen gently rubbing the crucifix hints at a sexual and romantic dynamic between the two. The crucifix is a reminder of their faith and devotion to the divine, but in this case, I believe it serves as a metaphor for their devotion to each other.

Rating:

4.5/ 5 *

I really enjoy Gothic Romance and monsters, so this was a film I was really excited to see! It did not disapoint.