Nosferatu: Dracula Could Never
By Benjamin Gubb
Warning: Spoilers
In a rare moment of spontaneity last night, I asked my boyfriend (hard at work as always) whether he wanted to see the recent remake of the hundred-year-old vampire film, Nosferatu. As luck would have it, his schedule permitted it. We dressed, drove, and miraculously found parking on sleepless Kloof Street. Eggers’s film enchanted, disgusted, seduced, and terrified the two of us (at one point I got such a fright that I spilled some popcorn on the cinema floor). This two-hour masterpiece about desire and the fear of the unknown overflowed with mesmerising visuals, excellent sound design, a historic and fashionable wardrobe, and impeccable performances from its stellar cast.
The film retells the occult tale of a newly-wed husband, Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), who has been misguided by his superior to sell a Manor to the mysterious Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) in efforts to support his wife, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) in the early 1800s. Ellen has been under the Count’s seductive spell since she was a child, having asked him to comfort her in her loneliness. Upon Thomas’s arrival at Orlok’s castle, the Count’s desire for Ellen (and blood) overtakes. He feeds off Thomas and sets sail to find Ellen. Thomas escapes Orlok’s Transylvanian castle and manages to find his wife before the Count. In a dream, Orlok appears to Ellen and confesses his desire to possess her, but only if she too desires this. Knowing only she can put an end to the Count’s darkness, she submits and allows him to feed off her until sunrise. The morning sun kills Orlok, but the damage has been done and Ellen, too, perishes.
Centred around themes of desire and fear of the unknown, Nosferatu warns us that desire might just lead to detriment, and, in Ellen’s case, death. Instead of fearing the unknown, make it known. Before you reject a concept or social movement simply because you know not what it is, research it, understand it, and you might find yourself adopting it. Maybe not with the supernatural, though. Lucky for us, vampires aren’t real (but I keep garlic in my pantry just in case).