Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for 2024’s Nosferatu.Sexual violence is horrific.And yet, when it pops up in horror movies — and it pops upa lot —the abuse can feel glamorized to the point of pornographic. This specific brand of on-screen sexual violence is so common that it’s created a subgenre known as “sexploitation” films. It begs the question: if the portrayal of sexual abuse so often falls flat, why bother?Robert Eggers’ new 2024Nosferatuanswers this question by expertly depicting just how terrifying sexual violence is without ever toeing the line into gratuitous revelry.
Count Orlok Is Scary Because He’s a Metaphor, Not Because He’s a Vampire!
In Eggers’ remake ofNosferatu,Lily-Rose Deppstars as EllenHutter, a young woman plagued by somnambulism due to her psychic connection with the titular Nosferatu, Count Orlok. Obsessed with Ellen, Orlok nearly killsEllen’s husband, Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), and crashes a ship full of plague-ridden rats onto the shores of Wisborg, Germany. Played byBill Skarsgård, Count Orlokis not scary because he’s a vampire, but because of what he represents.Orlok can be read as a physical manifestation of sexual abuse, and the plague he triggers in the city and the mysterious ailment Ellen suffers from is the experience of a victim in the aftermath of an assault.
Beyond Orlok’s disturbing creature design, he is so frightening to the audience due to Depp’s visceral performance. Depp lurches into seizures, bends backward in a movestraight out ofThe Exorcist, and rolls her eyes back. Ellen’s fits often leave her in a pointedly sexual position, but the camera is careful to never leer at Depp. Instead, these clips leave the audience feeling complicit for looking at her in a moment of attack.By emphasizing Ellen’s experience, Eggers never allows her connection to Orlok to become glamorized.Even when Orlok is not psychically attacking Ellen, she is suffering. When speaking to Thomas about how she came to know Orlok, Ellen describes the Count as “her shame.”
‘Nosferatu’ Director Robert Eggers Reveals Why His Vampire Looks Different From the 1922 Horror Classic
Count Orlok in Eggers' film may not resemble what audiences saw in the 1922 version.
Nosferatuis based onDracula, a Victorian-era story when female desire was shameful. In the opening scene, Ellen begs, “Come to me,” and Orlok says later that Ellen’s desire woke him from his eternal sleep. This shame Ellen describes, and the specific language used in the opening scene, mirror the self-loathing of sexual assault survivors. In every scene, Eggers reminds his viewers how Ellen is tormented by Orlok. Every aspect of horror inNosferatu, from Orlok’s eerie powers to the rats carrying plague, to the scene of necrophilia, can be linked back to this metaphor of sexual violence. In making the assault so fundamental to the horror, it never feels like a superfluous add-on, or an excuse to leer at Lily-Rose Depp. Instead, the themes of violence and abuse are given the appropriate weight and feel essential to the story as a whole.
Lily-Rose Depp is Not the Damsel, but the Secret White Knight of ‘Nosferatu’
Eggers stated in aTimeinterviewthat he wanted to write Ellen as the heroine of the whole film. Rather than havingthe script follow Thomas, orWilliam Dafoe’s Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, every major plot point inNosferatuis dependent upon and can be traced back to Ellen. When the time comes forthe big showdown,it is only Ellen who can defeat Orlok, not Thomas or the professor. Orlok has given Ellen a countdown of three nights to decide whether to “willingly” renew her vows to him, or he will continue killing people she loves, ending with her husband. While this threat makes it impossible for Ellen to consent in good faith, the sequence of Ellen accepting Orlok’s offer to kill him frames Ellen as empowered.
Ellen, whose constant bouts of illness have framed her as something of a Victorian damsel, can finally reveal her true role as the white knight of the story. It is not Ellen who is the damsel in the final act ofNosferatu, but Thomas, who Orlok has vowed to kill. Though a female character using her sexuality to distract a villain is not new, Ellen’s evolution throughout the film makes this final act essential to her development.If Orlok is a representation of sexual assault and shame, then the only way for Ellen to destroy him is to face him head-on. For two hours, Ellen’s symptoms have been chalked up to missing her husband or menstruation. When she confronts Orlok, she is also confronting the root cause of her suffering. She quite literally drags him into the light of day, where everyone can finally see him for what he is.
Horror has long sought to poke and prod at what makes a viewer uncomfortable. Sanitizing sex and sexual abuse from horror narratives would strip artists and audiences of the relief and enjoyment that scary movies provide.Horror is a safe space for spectators and creators alike to interact with the things they fear.Robert Eggers takes great care to stitch the metaphor of abuse and shame into his vampire flick. These aspects ofNosferatuare essential not just to the plot and character arcs but to the entire viewing experience as well. After two hours of watching Ellen get both physically and psychologically tortured, the audience then gets to watch her steel herself to face off against the villain, alone. The ending may not be a stand-up-and-cheer moment, but the relief is powerful.
Nosferatuis in theaters now.
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