Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen Hutter in Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu.” (Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features)
By Isabella Cantillano-Sanchez
The horror genre has always been used to examine subjects often left unexplored in the mainstream, either explicitly or allegorically, and director Robert Eggers has done both throughout his filmography with stunning results. His films, which blend the historic with the supernatural, often deal with themes of belief and perception. He is also no stranger to exploring the historical subjugation of women, with his 2015 directorial debut “The Witch”focusing on a girl coming of age in Puritan New England during the 1630s. Eggers’s “Nosferatu,”an adaptation of the 1922 silent film of the same name by F.W. Murnau about a vampire terrorizing a German town, stays true to its source material while also expanding upon it. This expansion is most evident in the character of Ellen Hutter.
Ellen, played by Lily-Rose Depp, is the conduit for the dark force personified by Count Orlok, played by Bill Skarsgård. Like most horror monsters, Orlok is representative of underlying societal fears and his presence in the narrative serves metaphorical purposes. In “Nosferatu,”the vampire is the monstrous embodiment of Ellen’s desire and shame. Depp’s performance evokes the fearless and frenzied performance of French actress Isabelle Adjani in the 1981 film “Possession,” a film that similarly deals with a woman reckoning with her inner darkness and monstrous desire. Ellen subverts idealized Victorian womanhood through her unabashed emotionality, sensuality, and outspokenness.
She asserts herself consistently throughout the film despite the restraint of patriarchal oppression. Nearly all of the men in the film refuse to believe her until it is too late, and she must take the responsibility of vanquishing Orlok and all that he represents on her own. Metaphorically, she is making peace with her own shame and desire. Her embrace of Orlok is really an embrace of her true self, and through this she forsakes the society which has only served to cage her. This ending mirrors the similarly cathartic ending of “The Witch,”as the heroine of that film also abandons an oppressive society in favor of the company of a monster. Eggers’ heroines are not the victims of these monsters, as they themselves have been declared abject. Instead, they reach a sort of transcendence as these monsters offer the freedom that they long for.
