The Vampire's Mirror: A Journey Through Eggers' Nosferatu 

Robbert Eggers’s Nosferatu is a retelling of the masterpiece of the German Expressionist movement, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922). This silent movie is considered one of the few classics of horror cinema and has several significant remakes and adaptations. 

But in this blog, we will analyze Eggers’ version (2024), which explores the vampire motif and the themes of sexuality, shame, loneliness, alienation and repression. The blog will also touch on the societal issues and structure of the time, along with the symbolism of the 'other'—in short, a critique of society through the lens of the vampire theme. 

The Vampire as a Symbol of the Haunted Self  

The vampire figure in Nosferatu is much bigger than a horror element, it's a metaphor representing societal, cultural and psychological conflicts and themes. The name comes from the Greek word nosophoros, which means the 'plague bearer'.  

The movie explores Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) as disease and the decay of social structures, questioning themes like alienation, loneliness, desire, hunger and so on. Count Orlok represents modern society’s rooted alienation, serving as an embodiment of the ‘other’ that mirrors the estrangement of those who don’t correspond to societal norms. 

And Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) on the other hand, with her loneliness and repression caused by society, is the most proper target for Orlok’s hunger. We see her deep sense of alienation throughout the movie, which eventually leads to her self-abandonment. 

Ellen is both metaphorically and physically bound by social rules and her call for help is mostly misinterpreted. Even her dear friend Anna interprets the situation as Ellen’s failure and attributes it to her lack of piety. In fact, Ellen possesses psychic abilities, but the people closest to her and the society of the time fail to understand or appreciate her gifts.  

She embodies the pitfalls of industrial Victorian society, and in an interview with the New York Times, Eggers states that she is as much a victim of 19th-century society as she is a victim of the vampire. 

When Ellen’s husband Thomas leaves, her situation even gets worse and she is left with her darkest nightmares and melancholia again. Orlok is the most powerful when she is alone. In an interview, Lily-Rose Depp said that her character Ellen carries so much darkness within her and Orlok is a manifestation of that darkness, describing their situation as ‘’mutual yearning’’. 

Loneliness and alienation are not the only emphasized themes in Eggers’ piece. He largely stays true to the plot of the 1922 film but adds a new layer by suggesting that Ellen played a part in summoning the creature from the afterlife, while also intensifying the psychic bond between them. It also differs from the 1922 version in terms of intensified sexual undertones by creating characters with animalistic sexual urges. 

We see Ellen disturbed by the erotic nightmares of Count Orlok in the first part of the movie. Even though she doesn’t want to accept this idea, Orlok is the manifestation of her repressed sexual desires and is the companion she is seeking; they share the same sense of alienation caused by the restrictive social norms. There is a striking dialogue between the two, which sheds light on Ellen’s repressed desires: 

Ellen: You. I felt you crawling like a serpent in my body.  

Orlok: It is not me. It is your nature.  

Ellen: No. I love Thomas.  

Orlok: Love is inferior to you. I told you, you are not of humankind.  

Ellen: You are a villain to speak, sir.  

Orlok: I am an appetite. Nothing more. Over centuries, a loathsome beast, I lay within the darkest pit. ‘Till you did wake me, enchantress, and stirred me from my grave. You are my affliction. 

This dialogue reveals the profound and disturbing relationship between Orlok and Ellen, indicating her repressed dark desires and the societal opposition she faces. The word 'serpent' symbolizes lust and sin, representing a force she cannot control. It's not just him that is rejected, but also Ellen's own nature is something maladaptive. The line ''I am an appetite. Nothing more.'' refers not only to Count Orlok's bloodthirsty nature but also to Ellen's inner hunger and passion—her desire for sex and her own suppressed urges. 

Orlok also implies that she is something superior to humankind, something divine and unworldly, accepting her nature as it is. The awareness of their shared desires and the recognition that they are similar in some way form the bond between them. Because Orlok is not just an external threat, but also resides within Ellen. He is a representation of her repressed identity and the darkness that lies deep within her. 

The Final Sacrifice: The Act of Rebellion and Redemption 

Robert Eggers: ‘’People talk a lot about Lily-Rose Depp’s character’s sexual desire, which is a massive part of the character, of what she experiences — being shut down, and corseted up, and tied to the bed, and quieted with ether. Misunderstood, misdiagnosed. But it’s more than that. She has an innate understanding about the shadow side of the world that we live in that she doesn’t have language for. This gift and power that she has isn’t in an environment where it’s being cultivated, to put it mildly. It’s pretty tragic. Then she makes the ultimate sacrifice, and she’s able to reclaim this power through death.’’ 

By the end of the movie, we see a different Ellen. She finally takes control and has sex with Orlok to kill him. She sacrifices herself for the very society that puts her into boxes, ensuring she is not bound to Orlok and ultimately freeing herself from everything. Lily-Rose Depp said in an interview with USA Today that Ellen is doing a good deed and she’s breaking the curse, but she is also indulging a dark desire she has.  

As Eggers described in an interview, the ending of the movie depicts death yet it is also filled with lilacs and sunbeams, emphasizing the bittersweet nature of Ellen. Her ending is tragic on a human level, yet it is liberating in an otherworldly sense. She is seeminglyborn in a time that doesn’t align with her nature, and that final shot makes it clear that she is destined for something transcendent.