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Alike his character mirror foil Professor Von Franz, Count Orlok is the one character who can understand and see Ellen: "he's the only person who can understand and fulfill a part of Ellen". As Robert Eggers explained: “Ellen’s husband loves her, but he can’t understand these ‘hysteric’ and ‘melancholic’ feelings she’s experiencing, and he’s dismissive of her,” Eggers said. “The only person she really finds a connection with is this monster, and that love triangle is so compelling to me, partially because of how tragic it is.” As Willem Dafoe elaborated to "Deadline": "I’ve heard Robert describe it as a triangle between Ellen’s husband, who’s a loving guy, he loves her dearly, and he’s conscientious. He wants to be a good husband, but he doesn’t quite see her, and he doesn’t understand what she’s going through. And then on the other hand, you have this demon lover that attracts her, and she doesn’t know why, but somewhere there is a deep understanding there and a deep attraction."
When confronted with the interpretation of Ellen's sacrifice being about saving Thomas (similiar to 1979 "Nosferatu"), Lily-Rose Depp said: "she [Ellen] has this side to her that he [Thomas] can’t understand, unfortunately, but I think is fulfilled in her pull to Orlok.” And "this" side is connected with her psychic gifts, as Robert Eggers explained: "Ellen is a somnambulist or a sleepwalker," he says. "In the 19th century that meant to people, including many doctors, that you had an insight into another realm…. She's called melancholic. She's called hysteric. Then she's pulled to this darkness and the only person — in big quotes — that she can connect with is a demon lover, is a vampire, you know? So that was all very exciting to explore." Eggers would add: "No one can understand her. She has a very loving relationship with her husband, but he can’t see this other side of her. The one person she does find a connection with, who can understand this other side of her is, unfortunately, a vampire. That makes for a very tragic love triangle." This is an idea the director would repeat in several other interviews: "the only ‘person’ that she can kind of connect with is this demonic force, this vampire, this demon lover. [And] Orlok is also alone.”
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I. Deception and False Vampire Hunt
In Werner Herzog adaptation, Van Helsing refuses to help Lucy Harker in stopping Count Dracula and his plague, dismissing her words as superstition, and she is left to handle the issue, on her own; and, similar to the vampire hunters in the "Dracula" novel, she tracks down Dracula's coffins of cursed earth and sanctifies them with sacred wafers. Robert Eggers, however, adapted other plot from the novel and had his Professor Von Franz arrive to help uncover the truth behind Ellen's "sickness". In his version, Eggers followed Murnau's original, but made Professor Bulwer/Von Franz an active element of Ellen's deception.
In 1922 "Nosferatu", Ellen pretends to be taken ill and asks Hutter to go fetch Professor Bulwer, in order to take him out of the house, and sacrifice herself to Count Orlok. However, in Robert Eggers' adaptation, this ploy starts much earlier, and Von Franz himself lays out a "trap" for Ellen to accept her covenant with Orlok and break the curse of Nosferatu, as he read in Orlok's Solomonari codex of secrets.
Ellen’s choice has been made, but she is not fully certain of it, or even if it's the right decision to accept a demon's compact, as she confides in the Professor:
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And Von Franz gives her the answer to her question from when they first met:
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And the Professor doesn’t talk about “destroying” evil, anymore, but redeem evil. As Robert Eggers explained, Professor Von Franz “is a Proto-Jungian”, and, in Jungian psychology, the Shadow is to be redeemed and integrated, not destroyed. “Redemption” is also a term in Alchemy, connected to the “Magnum Opus” of the Philosopher's Stone. And Von Franz recognized the man cursed as Nosferatu as a fellow occultist and alchemist, contemporary to all men he admires (Agrippa, Paracelsus, Dr. John Dee, etc.), whom is seeking his redemption (to be free from his Faustian bargain and his curse).
This is somewhat a subversion of his book counterpart, Van Helsing, although he, too, recognizes Count Dracula's greatness in life: "he was in life a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist. Which latter was the highest development of the science knowledge of his time. He had a mighty brain, a learning beyond compare, and a heart that knew no fear and no remorse. He dared even to attend the Scholomance, and there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay."
As Willem Dafoe elaborated about his character: “He’s an occultist. He’s someone that’s involved in alchemy and mystical things. He’s the only character that really sees what the Ellen character is going through. He gives another perspective because everyone else just thinks she’s possessed and they want to solve the problem. But he posits the idea that you have to recognize the dark side to appreciate the light. The light doesn’t exist without the dark. And he is a person that is studied at exploring the unseen and studied at wondering what is beyond this life that we have.”
Professor Von Franz empowers Ellen's choice by calling it "redemption"; to accept her covenant with Count Orlok, be one with him ever-eternally, which in Jungian terms means to integrate her Shadow self. Not to destroy it, but to redeem it. As Lily-Rose Depp explained about her character: "she is dealing with kind of an internal war, accepting aspects of herself that the society she’s living in has no room for. Coming to terms with the darkness within herself, she’s desperately trying to suppress it. What’s beautiful about Ellen’s relationship with von Franz is that he gives her the opportunity to do a good deed with this part of her. It speaks to larger human beings of just accepting things within yourself that are hard to accept".
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As Willem Dafoe explained about this scene: "But because it’s told from Ellen’s point of view, it’s nice that he [Von Franz] is the only one that sees Ellen. There are these beautiful scenes where he almost encourages her on a path which is a whole other dimension. Because then you get into the whole thinking of, it’s all about beyond bodily death. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, right? Maybe this obsession, this passion, you’ve got the husband that loves her but doesn’t see her. And then you have this toxic monster that he’s into and she’s into him."
"Salvation" is, after all, one of the core themes in the "Dracula" novel, where the characters' souls are to be saved from eternal damnation caused by Count Dracula's vampirism. As Renfield begs Dr. Stewart for a cat: "When I came in he threw himself on his knees before me and implored me to let him have a cat, that his salvation depended upon it." And Professor Von Franz, like his book counterpart Van Helsing, highlights how one's earthly existence is less important than their eternal life. However, in a subversion of Van Helsing, he does not try to stop Lucy Westenra's degeneration into vampirism, but rather enables it due to the Jungian theories at work in this story.
At the Hardings funerals, Ellen says she's not crying because she has "no more tears to shed", and yet she cries when Professor Von Franz tells her that, in heathen times, she might have been a great priestess. This also represents how detached she has become from 19th century.
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Professor Von Franz promises Ellen he will keep Thomas out of the house for the night (similiar to 1922 Professor Bulwer, whom, indirectly, takes the same plot), for her to able to fulfill her covenant with Count Orlok, and break the curse of Nosferatu he has on himself, or better, yet, they both have, since Orlok, in his eagerness to get her soul in the prologue, connected her with this demonic force, as well.
Von Franz tells Ellen to go home and "attend him [Thomas] that he is sturdy for this false hunt", and so she does.
Ellen empowers Thomas with his dreams of heroism (“you will put an end to all of this?”), and makes him promise not to return until he has completed his task. She says her goodbye, and, per the 2023 script, Ellen knows this is their last moment, together.
In the "Victorian lenses" of the story, Ellen forsakes love in favour of obsession and self-destruction. In this perspective, Ellen and Thomas are the "love story", because "love" and "passion" were considered opposite concepts during the Victorian era, and love was meant to nulify passions (deemed as corruptive), which it did, for a while. In this angle, the ending of the film signifies "love lost". Ellen has chosen death, passion and nature over life, love and society.
In "The Northman" (2022), the protagonist Amleth is faced with the same dilemma: "It was prophesied that I must choose between kindness for my kin and hate for my enemies". Yet, he declares: "I choose both." And this is also Ellen’s choice.
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II. Redemption and Beatification
“Please, we must onward […] I will not wait til morning! We must stop him now.“
Professor Von Franz says they must set fire to the Hardings “infected” bodies, and this will explain why he wants to burn Grunewald Manor, later. As he performs his Solomonic inspired prayer, he believes he’s exorcizing the “disobedient spirit” Nosferatu, which can find reference in Francis Ford Coppola “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), where Van Helsing performs a similar ritual with Dracula’s boxes of earth (only to discover Christian items are of no consequence against Dracula, similar to Robert Eggers’ Count Orlok).
The vampire hunters arrive to Grunewald Manor, and Thomas Hutter leads the group, and, even though he has trouble walking, he sprints for his target, and is certain Count Orlok’s sarcoghapus is at the chapel (there’s a chapel beyond the courtyard”), and the only way he knows this information is because he’s connected to Nosferatu.
At the same time, Ellen is preparing to summon Count Orlok and give him invitation into her home. She stands in front of her mirror, as she did when she created her “maiden’s token” at the beginning of the film. Unlike 1922 Ellen and 1979 Lucy, she is calm and serene. There’s an absolute resolution in Robert Eggers’ Ellen; she has no doubts about her decision. And it’s not connected to her somnambulism (1922), nor is she petrified with fear (1979).
From his part, this Count Orlok, unlike his predecessors, is not at the window of his manor calling out for Ellen/Lucy, either.
He just risen from his grave, and is in front of his sarcophagus, at the altar of the chapel of Grunewald manor, as the vampire hunters are about to get to him. He has his back against the door. He’s waiting for his fate to be decided on the "Third night": for either the vampire hunters to arrive or for Ellen to summon him.
On his adaptation, Robert Eggers made reference, not to the scene where Ellen summons Count Orlok at the end of the film, in Murnau’s original, but when she calls out to her husband from afar. And this is the second time the viewer sees Ellen talking to Count Orlok, telepathically, in “Nosferatu” (2024); the first being at the prologue (“come to me”).
This scene parallels Ellen's prayer at the prologue, when she calls out to some unknown spirit because she's seeking comfort, tenderness and company. And, here, the reference to her book counterpart, in vampire form, becomes clearer: "Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!"
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This scene is evocative of what Nosferatu told Ellen in the "First night" at the Hardings household, when he gave her "three nights": "upon the third you will submit, or he you call your husband shall perish by my hand", which in turn finds reference in Werner Herzog adaptation: "will you come to me, and be my ally. Be the salvation for your husband". At this point in the narrative, it must be clear for the viewer: Count Orlok is her dead husband. Not only Thomas has already divorced Ellen, but she is the reincarnation of his wife, his living widow, and the target of his strigoi haunting.
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Here, Robert Eggers also made a subversion of the "Dracula" novel ending, where the vampire hunters succeed in seizing Dracula's coffin and destroy the Count, while he's in a half-death sleep state, just before sunset, with a "iron stake" (Quincy Morris' bowie knife) through the heart, and decapitation.
As analysed in previous posts, and Robert Eggers explained, Ellen's soul is all this Count Orlok wants, and, as Craig Lathrop revealed, he even decided to lock himself inside his sarcoghapus for hundred years and only came out when she called out to him, at the prologue. If Ellen rejected him, he had no point existing anymore, as he, per Bill Skarsgård's words, is "not very happy about" his Faustian bargain, either, and is seeking to escape it (through the instructions on his Solomonari codex of secrets). As such, Orlok would embrace his own destruction at the hands of the vampire hunters, evocative of his book counterpart, allowing the Devil to have his soul, for all eternity (which is what Ellen realised when she overheard him influencing Thomas in his sleep). Unlike his predecessors (and his book counterpart), he doesn't carry any boxes of cursed earth with him to Wisburg, either; it's his sarcoghapus, alone. He has come to fulfill his covenant with Ellen and to be free of his curse, which only she can do ("he has come to Wisburg for you"; "I'm convinced only you have the faculty to redeem us").
As the vampire hunters are about to get to him, Ellen summons Count Orlok to come to her, which is reminscent of Mina Harker (the reincarnation of Elisabeta) trying to stop the vampire hunters from destroying Count Dracula at the end in Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), and she's the one who decapitates him (instead of Jonathan Harker), as he asks of her: "It is finished. Give me peace". And he's seemingly reunited with Elisabeta's soul in Heaven. As reincarnated souls go, this doesn't make much sense, which is why Robert Eggers went a different route with this plot, as Lucy Westenra is always "doomed to die" by the narrative of Dracula, here with an entirely different meaning.
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When the "vampire hunters" arrive at the chapel, thousands of rats are there, evocative of the "Dracula" novel, when Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, Dr. Stewart, Quincy Morris and Arthur Holmwood go to Carfax: "The whole place was becoming alive with rats [...] The rats were multiplying in thousands". In the book, both Dr. Stewart and Van Helsing believe Dracula commands and summons the rats to him through his demonic power: "Count's command are yet themselves not amenable to his spiritual power, for look, these rats that would come to his call, just as from his castle top he summon the wolves"; "The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil [...] he can, within his range, direct the elements, the storm, the fog, the thunder, he can command all the meaner things, the rat, and the owl, and the bat, the moth, and the fox, and the wolf."
On his own adaptation, and as discussed previously, Robert Eggers made a distinction between the "wolf" (connected to the Dacian civilization, Dacian wolf warrior, Solomonari and Zalmoxis religion) and the "rat" (Nosferatu, the "prince of rats"). There are thousands of rats here, attracted by the demonic power of Nosferatu, but Count Orlok is not here, anymore, as it soon will be revealed to the viewer. Thomas has his eyes set on the sarcophagus. The professor empowers him to "Go forward Thomas. Set free the demon’s body", and they approach the altar, using the fire to keep the rats at bay, for them not to bite them.
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With an spike of cold iron in hand, emulating both the Devil during Saint Andrew's Eve and a mix of his book counterpart and Quincy Morris when they destroy Count Dracula in the novel, Thomas: "with desperate energy, attacked one end of the chest [...] the top of the box was thrown back […] I saw the Count lying within the box upon the earth […] He was deathly pale, just like a waxen image […] But, on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan's great knife. I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat. Whilst at the same moment Mr. Morris's bowie knife plunged into the heart. It was like a miracle, but before our very eyes, and almost in the drawing of a breath, the whole body crumbled into dust and passed from our sight.”
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It's Herr Knock who's inside of the sarcophagus, and Thomas takes a step back at his apparent mistake. Neverthleness, it's Count Dracula who kills Renfield in the novel, after his betrayal by telling Mina to flee because Dracula has his eyes set on her: "When I came to Renfield's room I found him lying on the floor on his left side in a glittering pool of blood. When I went to move him, it became at once apparent that he had received some terrible injuries. [...] "I think, sir, his back is broken. See, both his right arm and leg and the whole side of his face are paralysed." [...] Then there came a breath so prolonged that it seemed as though it would tear open his chest. Suddenly his eyes opened, and became fixed in a wild, helpless stare. [...] `Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, millions of them, and every one a life. And dogs to eat them, and cats too."
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However, this Renfield does not have an attack of conscience, nor is worried about anyone' safety. On the contrary, he remains as every bit as loyal to his Master, the Devil, as before, and similar to 1922 Knock. It's not Count Orlok (soul) he serves, and, in this scene, he's doing his master's bidding to prevent the Count from escaping their bargain and lose ownership over his soul. The "millions of rats" is the demonic Nosferatu (the "prince of rats", a reference to Werner Herzog adaptation where Renfield calls Dracula the "master of rats"), and the "cats" and "dogs" who will "eat" him is Ellen (cat) and Count Orlok (dog, wolf), with the help of Professor Von Franz (cat).
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This scene is evocative of Mephisto betraying Faust to Gretchen's brother in F.W. Murnau "Faust" (1926), for him not to escape their bargain, either. Faust goes to Gretchen's room, and makes love to her. Mephisto, fearing he might lose ownership over his soul, goes to the tavern and betrays Faust: “To the prettiest girl in town! [There’s no girl as pretty as your sister. Long live Gretchen!] A pretty girl who is not well-behaved. Long live Gretchen! Long live Your Gretchen! Hurry before Gretchen’s lover slips out of her room!”
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Robert Eggers discussed how he explored the themes of punishment and shaming of female sexuality on his own version of "Nosferatu": “Particularly in the 1980s, there was a lot of literary criticism talking about all these Victorian male authors who created these female heroines who have sexual desire and sexual energy, and need to be killed and punished for that,” Eggers says. “It’s this misogynist thing. But I think a lot of female literary critics who I was also reading were saying, ‘But isn’t it also interesting that, from this repressed cultural period, there’s the idea of this dark, chthonic female heroine who would be the person who could understand the depths?’ And in telling that same kind of story in a modern context, even trying to stay through the lens of the 19th century, we could have potentially some more nuance there, potentially, hopefully.”
There is irony in this Ellen, a sexualized character, being the one who saves Victorian society by embracing her most dark desires, to seemingly appease this demonic force: "There’s a lot of literary criticism about Victorian male authors who have strong female characters with chthonic energy and understanding, who are then punished unconsciously by the male authors by making them die. While there’s certainly validity in that (critique), I’ve also read feminist literary criticism that says how it’s interesting that in this very repressed Victorian society, over and over again, this archetype that was needing to consummate itself in the patriarchal imagination is a woman who understands the darkness and the sexuality and the earth juju, and should be the savior of the culture."
There is also a evocative element of Ellen as a sort of "Christ-like" figure in her last scene with Professor Von Franz, which is very much intentional from Robert Eggers' part, as he wondered, alongside Willem Dafoe: "As Dafoe puts it, “The vampire is someone from the other side visiting the living, and that stirs something in all of us." Eggers echoes this sentiment, “You can feel the power and weight of that character. I don’t know how else to put it, but Jesus and Dracula both came back from the grave, and they both have more movies made about them than almost anyone else. There’s got to be something to that.” Eggers flirts with these Christian themes, and yet there's a deity in this story who is often compared to Jesus Christ by historians: Zalmoxis.
Nevertheless, several authors recognize the virgin/whore dichotomy, or Madonna-whore complex, in the "Dracula" novel. Julia Bergstrand on her essay "Mina, the “Angel”, and Lucy, the “Monster”: Two sides of femininity in Bram Stoker’s Dracula", explains: "Lucy as the monster and Mina as the angel in the house [...] Mina, the woman in possession of the traits that characterize the angel in the house-femininity, is “allowed” to survive when Lucy, the woman with the characteristics of the monster femininity, has to be sacrificed".
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The author elaborates: "The concept of the monstrous female or monstrous femininity also relates to Victorian ideals of femininity in literature. This is illustrated when Swartz-Levine quotes Ruth Bernard Yeazell: “an Impudent woman is looked on as a kind of monster” (Swartz-Levine 346) and is further explained by Swartz-Levine that women who do not conform to the roles set for them are regarded as monsters. Monstrosity is also examined by Prescott and Giorgio and is described as a label put on marginalized individuals to be able to blame them for misfortunes and to “purify” society by ridding it of them", which is evocative of the "scapegoat" theme discussed in the previous post; the townsfolk of Wisburg blame female sexuality outside of patriarchal control (sex workers, adulteresses, etc.) for the plague (divine punishment), while the Hardings blame Ellen, herself, and Professor Von Franz (madness).
As Bergstrand argues against Leah Wyman and George N. Dionisopoulos ("Transcending The Virgin/Whore Dichotomy: Telling Mina's Story in Bram Stoker's Dracula"): "the notion of attraction and sexuality as a power or weapon is further explored by Wyman and Dionisopoulos in their concept of the “powerful whore”. They claim that the “powerful whore” is a character who “uses sex for her own pleasure and to gain advantage”. In this regard, Lucy is blamed for the “power” her sexuality has over the men, and this leads to her needing to be punished for it. Wyman and Dionisopoulos note that the “powerful whore” is “depicted as evil and viewed as a danger that needs to be stopped” (215), which might make the male characters feel justified in their mission to kill and mutilate Lucy. The notion of Lucy as being able to use her sexual power against the men, coupled with her being the monster that needs to be sacrificed in order to rid the community of the threat she poses, establishes why the men need to rid themselves of Lucy. The men also try to rationalize punishing her because she “let” Dracula try to corrupt their view of femininity".
Bergstrand argues "Lucy, who became the monster and, through her transgressive sexuality, is seen as “evil” (Wyman and Dionisopoulos 215), has been made pure by being sacrificed, but she was never fit to be a mother and wife [like Mina] [...] Lucy never fills the role of the angel in the house in the novel, and it can also be argued that her role transforms from whore to monster". In contrast with Mina, who is described as "one of God’s women fashioned by His own divine hand", Lucy, in her vampire form, is "callous as a devil”. As Anne Cranny-Francis “Sexual Politics and Political Repression in Bram Stoker's Dracula", notices "whereas vampiric Lucy represents a threat to the male order, the passive, feminine Mina functions as a kind of patriarchal patsy". As Julia Bergstrand concludes: "Mina is represented as the angel in the house throughout the novel, not deviating from this role even when going through her vampire transformation. Lucy, on the other hand, starts as a whore and then, through her increasingly transgressive behavior, is seen as a monster. The repercussions these different roles have for the womens’ fates in the novel is that Mina, while being punished in the form of exclusion from the group, gets to be “purified” while she is alive, while Lucy has to be killed and mutilated before she gets to be viewed as “purified” in the eyes of the men".
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All of these notions are, evidently, present in Robert Eggers' adaptation of "Nosferatu", as the director acknowledges, yet with a twist: he "sanctified" both the "whore" and the monster. On his re-interpretation of "Dracula", the "whore" becomes the "Madonna" of Victorian culture, and that's the irony. And these male characters kiss Ellen's hand, like they do with Mina's ("their best beloved one") in the novel, while Lucy is undeserving of such attention, expect when she is dead and "the foul Thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate" has been destroyed, and she returns to her perceived "purity", no longer "unclean".
This is further exemplified in the occult meaning behind Ellen and Count Orlok in this adaptation, affiliated with 1922 "Nosferatu" (the coming of the New Age of Aquarius), only Robert Eggers included the divine feminine element: Babalon and her Beast, Aleister Crowley's reinterpretation of the biblical Whore of Babylon, the “Mother of Prostitutes and All Abominations of the Earth” (mentioned in the previous post), turned into a symbol of liberated female sexuality by embracing the powers of the Divine Harlot. This complex and mysterious figure was established in 1904 in “The Book of Law”, however her origin is far older, and can be found in the Enochian tradition from the late 16th century.
Initiatrix, Creator and Destroyer, Babalon is the “Great Mother” as she represents Mother Earth. Like Isis, she’s the Archetypical Mother, the Womb, the Great Sea and the Divine Blood itself. According to Crowley, the “whore/harlot” facet is about enjoying sex without the burden of reproduction; and the “mother of abominations” connects with destruction like natural catastrophes, plagues, etc. She’s the ruler of the cosmological sphere and a dual-spirit entity, both good and evil (as evil as elemental forces can be or are considered as). Babalon is the guardian of the Seven Principles of the Underworld, a place of darkness and transformation. Babalon is also the goddess of the liminal point, who can access other realms. As Goddess of vengeance, Babalon punishes when life is out of balance, and exerts violence and corruption upon those who are in the wrong. Ellen ("mother of abominations") unleashes Count Orlok onto the world, and him bringing plague to Wisburg can be interpreted as Ellen’s reckoning against Victorian society, which ostracizes her and will never accept her.
In Ophidian Thelema, Babalon is, also, the Goddess of magick (“Heka”), of the Liberation of the Spirit (ecstasy), and of the Principles of Life. Her priestesses use the female body (vulva and womb) to channel their power during their magic rituals (similar to Ellen’s trances). The “liberation of spirit” is in the form of a serpent, which manifests in the flesh: "my vocation is the serpent”, says Babalon. Priestesses of Babalon are also in control of their “trances” when they access the spiritual world. According to Crowley's Thelema, Babalon is the “Sacred Whore”, and her primary symbol is the Chalice or Graal (symbolic womb). She’s the consort to the Beast, who has seven heads, which is symbolically represented in her heptagram sigil (parallelling Orlok's heptagram).
In the photo Scarlett Woman Leila Waddell “Layla”
To Crowley, these are archetypes in his Sex Magick beliefs: the “Scarlet Woman” is the High Priestess, and the “Beast” is the Hierophant: Ellen (the priestess, enchantress) and Orlok (priest-shamam; enchanter); the witch/wizard archetypes. Orlok is described as a “beast” several times in the film, and he says Ellen’s passion is bound to him, like Babalon’s passion is united with the Beast. All rites and initiations of the Underworld Goddesses include rites of sex and death. By Thelemic occult tradition, Babalon (Ellen) has sex with the Beast (Orlok), “representing the passion which unites them” and her womb (Holy Grail; cup) is “aflame with love and death” (sexual climax, orgasm, with an un-dead vampire), to give birth to the New Age of Aquarius ("sacrament of the Aeon”).
Yet, this is not the literal meaning behind Ellen's sacrifice, as when talking about Ellen's choice, Robert Eggers explained: "people talk a lot about Lily-Rose Depp 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 of the shadow side of the world what we live in that she doesn't have the language for. This gift and power that she has isn't in a environment where it's being cultivated to put it midly. It's pretty tragic. Then she makes the ultimate sacrifice, and she's able to reclaim this power through death", through Count Orlok and their mutual sacrifice.
Robert Eggers reframed the human sacrifice from the previous adaptations into the context of Pre-Christian European beliefs, connected to the Dacian religion, where human sacrifices to Zalmoxis, the "messenger to Zalmoxis", were a vital part. In his re-tale, Eggers adapted the thesis which links the folkloric Solomonari to ancient Dacian religion. This topic is explored in more depth in another post, but, unlike other civilizations with similiar practices, in Ancient Dacia human sacrifices were considered an initiation rite for the sacrificed, and done of free will and by free men; and it's a well-documented pratice, present in Ancient Greek and Roman accounts (Herodotus, Clement of Alexandria, Aeneas of Gaza, etc.) and archaeological sources.
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According to Mircea Eliade on his book “Zalmoxis: The Vanishing God”, the mythology around Zalmoxis was "related to ecstasy, death, and the peregrinations of the soul"; out-of-body experiences, transmigration and reincarnation. In "Nosferatu" (2024) seen in Ellen's shamanic ecstatic trances (seeress) and on the ouroboros of Count Orlok's sigil. His iconography is filled with Dacian Dracos (Dacian battle flag) to, according to Craig Lathrop, represent "Orlok’s connection to an ancient, supernatural realm [...] to a world of myth and mysticism". Lathrop would tease how old Orlok truly is: "way before 1838, the time of our film. Obviously it’s much, much earlier than that. But then, of course, Orlok is also much, much earlier than that". Robert Eggers revealed his "Orlok is an ancient noble, predating even the foundations of the Romanian Empire." An idea also discussed by composer Robin Carolan, due to the use of Dacian in the OST of the film: "Rob’s backstory has Orlok as this super ancient noble that speaks in a forgotten tongue. So it had to be Dacian and the choir had to sing in Dacian." Count Orlok's soul has known more reincarnations than his 16th century existence (at least, two: Ancient Dacia and late 16th century). For his character, the ending, as mentioned above, represents redemption before Zalmoxis, for forsaking Him and his teachings (Solomonar).
In Zalmoxis religion, according to Mircea Eliade, “the journey to heaven is made in “ecstasy,” that is, in the spirit: it is only the shaman’s soul that undertakes the celestial ascent. But according to certain mythological traditions, in the beginning, in ilia tempore the meeting with the god took place in the flesh”: the "ritual of ecstatic (“shamanic”) ascent to heaven”. Aside from delivering a message to Zalmoxis, the purpose of these human sacrifices was “the assurance of the soul's immortality and bliss” (of the one who’s being sacrificed, that is). And this is the religious significance of Ellen and Count Orlok's sacrifice, as they'll both ascent to heaven in ecstasy, here also with the sexual subtext of orgasm.
This concept is also evocative of the ending of “The Northman” (2022); as both Amleth and Count Orlok represent wolf warriors of different Pre-Christian European cultures (Amleth from Old Norse-Viking culture, and Orlok from Daco-Thracian), and their death scenes incorporate core religious beliefs of their respective civilizations. But while Amleth and Olga represent lovers separated by fate (birch tree, and the birch groove Thomas Hutter went to during St. Andrew's Eve), Ellen and Count Orlok symbolize lovers reunited by fate (lilacs; remembrance and widows).
- At the end of “The Northman”, Amelth fulfills his destiny and is carried to Valhalla (the film uses the Old Norse term Valhöll) by a Valkyrie; only warriors killed in battle would be chosen by Odin and his Valkyries to join them in the great hall of slain warriors, where they would spend the Afterlife, training by day and feasting by night, until the arrival of the Ragnarök.
- At the end of “Nosferatu”, Ellen fulfills her destiny and willingly sacrifices herself alongside Count Orlok to break Nosferatu curse, by the instructions in the Solomonari codex of secrets. Human sacrifices to Zalmoxis were a major part of the Daco-Thracian religion, where the sacrificed messenger ascended to the Afterlife in ecstasy, to assure the soul's immortality and bliss, until they would return, again (transmigration of souls; reincarnation).
The visual callback to "The Northman" and Amleth's dying vision of Olga and their two children is even more poignant in this context, since Robert Eggers adapted Leonard Wolf's hyphoteses from his “The Annotated Dracula” (1975), where the "fair girl" of the "weird sisters" is Dracula's wife and the other two their daughters. As Bill Skarsgård revealed: "The Count had a family and was once married". Here, the most likely scenario (also connected with him killing the Harding children) and as Count Dracula in the novel, this Count Orlok might have killed his two beloved daughters when he raised from the grave a strigoi, for the first time.
III. Death, Ecstasy and Love
Ellen is looking at the fire at Grunewald Manor, from her window, when Count Orlok arrives at the Hutters household. She is wearing her wedding dress (to Thomas), with a lilac bridal wreath. According to costume designer Linda Muir, Ellen's wedding dress is filled with lilac details: “the lilacs in Ellen’s wedding outfit at the very end, when she accepts Orlok. All the tiny lilacs in her veil were handmade by an incredible artisan outside of Florence, who spent weeks crafting each one. These delicate flowers were then sent to the UK and fashioned into the headdress. The veil itself was a separate vintage piece I found, which we treated with immense care”.
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According to the designer, Robert Eggers wanted the contrast between a black-dressed Count Orlok and a white-dressed Ellen, which is why "Ellen’s wedding dress had to be “white”, even if at the period women wore many other pale colours, often simply their best dress, to be wed, as Queen Victoria was the one who introduced the white wedding dress convention in 1840". And this contrast was meant to be seen "when Ellen and Orlok come together in the end, she’s wearing a complicated multi-layered wedding outfit and all of the foundational pieces. And Orlok is wearing a number of garments. When we see them come together, that silhouette of the bride and the groom is very important."
In this scene, Robert Eggers pays tribute to the original Murnau "Nosferatu" by the use of shadow.
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Count Orlok conducts this ceremony in (reconstructed) Dacian, as Ellen re-plegdes herself to him: "Then the covenant is fulfilled. Your oath re-pledged. As our spirits are one, so too shall be our flesh."; which parallels his previous incantation while on the ship on his way to Wisburg: "Soon, I will no longer be a shadow to you. Soon our flesh shall embrace and we shall be as one", which is their covenant: "be one with me, ever-eternally". As the “covenant papers” decreet, Ellen weds Count Orlok according to the “laws of Solomon”, a reference to the instructions in the Solomonari codex of secrets, which is why Professor Von Franz didn't need to share them with her, they were already part of her covenant with Orlok.
Orlok also speaks Romanian in this scene (a language he only used to describe the scent on Ellen's hair inside of the maiden's token, "liliac", which remind him of his human life): "Tu eşti a mea” ("You are mine"), which is a reference to Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), where Dracula also says to the reincarnation of his wife: "Tu eşti dragostea vieţii mele… vieţii mele" (“You are the love of my life… of my life”). In Robert Eggers' adaptation, this is beyond life and death.
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As introduced in previous posts, the sole interest Count Orlok has on Ellen's body is her heart's blood, where her soul is ("He cannot resist her blood!"). And, most likely, the body he once knew was very different from this one, which explains why the portrait was ditched in favor of a perfume. This also finds reference in Heathcliff begging Cathy's ghost to haunt him, in "Wuthering Heights": “You said I killed you – haunt me then. The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe– I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”
Robert Eggers has explained the folklore which inspired this scene: “Some early folk vampires when disinterred from their grave were noted for having erections. Some of them came back to fornicate with their widows until the women died of an excess of intercourse.” "They [folk vampires) would sometimes return to their widows and fornicate with their widows until they died from being oversexed”, "But there are also folk vampires who didn't drink blood but just fornicated with their widows until their widows died from it. So, I think, it's all part of the source material”.
The director is talking about the "strigoi lover", one of the most popular themes in Romanian folklore, where the reanimated-corpse type ("strigoi morti") may have the attributes of a lover, as Agnes Murgoçi writes in “The Vampire: A Casebook”: “the vampire comes to fetch his [living] lady love, and takes her with him to his tomb”. As mentioned several times throughout this series of posts: Robert Eggers adaptation of "Nosferatu" is a strigoi lover folktale.
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As costume designer Linda Muir explains, Ellen’s costumes also represent how she’s liberating herself from Victorian society, and provide an explanation as to why she ends the film naked: “her true nature [takes over] in the end. She liberates herself by ripping herself open, ripping her striped dress open. She liberates herself by wearing the same garment over and over and over again when she's staying at Harding's home. So she's liberated herself in that she doesn't feel the need to dress up completely each and every day. And then she liberates herself completely in the end.”
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According to Lily-Rose Depp, Ellen feeling the rotten skin of Count Orlok's back was very much intentional from Robert Eggers' part: "Rob was asking me to feel these crevices in his back that were filled with maggots, like there were literally maggots on him,” Depp says. Were they real maggots? “I think there was a question of real maggots, at some point". Which connects with Ellen's dark desires for the vampire: "she's doing a good deed and she's breaking the curse, but she's also indulging in a dark desire that she has,” Depp says. “We wanted all of those things to be palpable, to feel real.” As Robert Eggers elaborates: "there’s some stuff in my film that is, you know, pretty blatant necrophilia.” He laughs. “Hopefully I’ve made it beautiful and repulsive.”
Quite literally, Ellen is embracing Death ("we embraced") as her dream foretold, and her own "uncleanliness" ("I'm unclean!"), as this scene parallels the "demonic sex scene", and Lily-Rose Depp also added: "he [Nosferatu] also represents the darkness within her that she’s trying to come to terms with. Again, without giving anything away, I think indulging in that also represents accepting within herself.”
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Prothestic designer David White explained Count Orlok's coloration: "that scene, that final scene, is a different paint job. It’s a little more sedate and not as visceral as the first time he comes out of the coffin. That was just to give it some sort of sense that there’s some kind of twisted romance going on here, in a way. It wasn’t just grossing everyone out. It’s quite delicate. The beats that Robert’s looking for, he’s very good at pacing those things."
This scene also parallels Count Orlok feeding on Thomas Hutter in his and his wife's bedchambers at his castle, when he compells Ellen to "dream of me. Only of me". And here, it's the set design that's significant. As analysed in previous posts, and explained by Production designer Craig Lathrop, the Hutters bedroom "is a Medieval interior that’s been fixed up to try to be Biedermeier, but without the budget", and, among other things previously discussed, it "cements the sense that Ellen belongs to an age before all these eminently modern trappings". Robert Eggers has described his Ellen as “a woman born in a wrong era”, "stuck in this period [is] a victim of 19th-century society". Both beds have canopies, and, both, represent, Ellen's marriage and death beds.
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As Robert Eggers wonders on his own essay to "The Guardian", when discussing the general concept behind his re-interpretation of "Nosferatu": "What are we to make of stories like this? What kind of trauma, pain and violence is so great that even death cannot stop it? It’s a heartbreaking notion. The folk vampire embodies disease, death, and sex in a base, brutal and unforgiving way.”
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As analysed in previous posts, this Count Orlok is a representation of Count Dracula on his wolf form. As such, this sex scene between Ellen and Count Orlok is also evocative of Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992), when wolf Dracula has sex and feeds on Lucy Westenra, at the same time. As Robert Eggers discussed in one interview, about how influential Coppola's version was to him: "the Coppola version was massive for me. I watched it a million times [...] one thing that's kind of alarming to think about is too-young me seeing the werewolf form of Dracula having sex with Sadie Frost [Lucy Westenra]. But - well, it explains a lot!"
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The dawn is near, and Count Orlok, as Nosferatu, is already engorged with blood, and begins to raise. As mentioned above and in previous post, he, as a folk vampire, feeds on souls, and Ellen's is already his (and the Devil's), at this point. Ellen begs: "more... more..." which parallels her introduction scene with Thomas, because he's not merely feeding on her heart's blood, but having sex with her, at the same time, and her death, as mentioned above, also includes her being "oversexed".
Here, Robert Egger is seemingly subverting Werner Herzog’s adaptation, where Lucy Harker stops Dracula from leaving, as the dawn is approaching. Neverthleness, when discussing this moment, Klaus Kinski (who played Count Dracula) said, in 1978: "Lucy is a complete departure from previous heroines in vampire films. There's a sexual element. She is gradually attracted towards Nosferatu. She feels a fascination — as we all would, think. First, she hopes to save the people of the town by sacrificing herself. But then, there is a moment of transition. There is a scene when he ist'sucking her blood — sucking and sucking like an animal— and suddenly her face takes on a new expression, a sexual one, and she will not let him go away any more. There is a desire that has been born."
In Robert Eggers' "Nosferatu", Orlok begins to raise not because he wants to leave (like 1979 Dracula) but Ellen’s soul is already his, and he doesn’t need to continue feeding on her. But she wants more, because she’s not yet sated. Or better; they are not sated, yet, because they are already “one” at this point. As Bill Skarsgård, discussed about Count Orlok and Ellen's relationship: "it's a craving and it's an appetite and it's lust and desire to devour.” Evocative of Count Orlok's mirror foil character: "I cannot resist you."
The first cock-crow is heard (the meaning of which has been addressed in previous post), and Count Orlok stops feeding on Ellen to look out the window, like his predecessors. Bill Skarsgård described the ending as "death and ecstasy", and teased "maybe that is what Orlok wanted all along". The actor says the Count is "seeing the sun for the first time in hundreds of years. So he's mesmerized by it and fear and all of these different things". Unlike the previous adaptations, the Count doesn't leave the bed, nor makes any attempt to escape; precisely because this is what he wants.
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Count Orlok has been kept in the shadows, until this moment, when he's fully revealed to both the audience and to Ellen, herself. As analysed in previous posts, and as Bill Skarsgård explained, "the shadow [is] an ally for Orlok, especially in the scenes with Thomas, where he’s hiding his appearance. So he lives in the shadow, and he uses his big fur cape and the hat to not give away what he is. The shadow became a friend". Here, he, as Ellen herself, is naked, and he can no longer use the shadow or his clothes to hide his rot and decay, as it's fully exposed by the rising sun. As Ellen's true nature takes over at the end, his is barren; he cannot hide what he is, anymore.
This was also addressed by Robert Eggers in an interview, alongside David White: “The most challenging part was that whenever you’re doing a monster, you have the most success if you follow something like Alien, where you barely show the xenomorph and keep it in shadows. You see bits and pieces. But we knew that while we were doing that, the movie’s climax would be in bright sunlight. Suddenly, this big hunk of artifice would be seen with the most immense amount of scrutiny possible.”
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As Robert Eggers explained, the idea behind Count Orlok's design is “a beautiful man at some point, but now he’s covered in maggots,” the director said. “That’s interesting to me.” And, here, just before the rising sun shines on him, Count Orlok in his least appealing shape, but this reveal parallels him stepping out of the shadows at the Hardings household during the "First night" to reveal part of his decay to Ellen, as he tells her: "You are my affliction". At the end, it's fully revealed to her.
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The final sequence between Ellen and Count Orlok, at dawn, is unscripted, and resulted from discussions between Robert Eggers and choreographer Marie-Gabrielle Rotie. As Bill Skarsgard revealed, the director wasn't certain how the final moments between Ellen and Count Orlok would be when he wrote the script: “[shooting the scene] was hard and it's the climax. You also told me during rehearsal, "This is the only thing in the movie where I'm not exactly sure what it's going to be."
According to the director, it took 31 takes to get his vision right, and "the way they died in the play I did as a kid was very similar to what we ended up doing in the film. But I thought that what I had done in the play was wrong, and so I was trying to do something else. And when we kept rehearsing with Marie-Gabrielle [Rotie] and I realised that my instincts when I was 17 were actually spot on, it was much more about Orlok and Ellen's relationship - whatever that may be. But it took a long time to get back to that innocent idea.”
The choreographer highlighted how the script wasn't working with Robert Eggers vision for his "Nosferatu": "Nonetheless, some of the major conversations we had were about the ending. The question of: Is she just this sacrificial maiden? [That is] true of the original version of Nosferatu where the woman is super passive, and she's basically sucked the life out of her, and then she's saved humanity. I had tried that version in rehearsal with Bill [Skarsgard] where he falls out of shot, as in the original Nosferatu and Rob's original storyboarding. Rob and I were like, "Something's missing here,' and I said, ‘Look, at this point, she's had her blood half sucked out of her, so she's nearly dead.' And we had to work really carefully to modulate her death."
Rotie explained how the sequence represents Ellen's love for Count Orlok, but also, for herself, symbolizing self-acceptance and self-love: "I thought, Why doesn't she float back up to the frame and then bring her down with him? It's almost like, 'Is she a ghost? Is she alive? Is she dead? Is she on the edge of existence?' I felt that was a really interesting conclusion to the love that she actually genuinely feels for, not something external to herself, but actually a part of herself. It's a way of accepting herself, and that's what makes the ending so beautiful. It is not just a love story between two entities. It's a love story about herself; she's accepted something in herself."
Prosthetics designer David White talked about Count Orlok's coloration during this sequence: "The coloration was something I remember we discussed - where should we go with the color on this? I remember that it was a question of pulling back all those rich tones and making him slightly more attractive in a strange way because he's in this kind of dark romance scene, and his hair is in good condition at that point. Normally, in the sarcophagus and everything, he's covered in grease, dirt, and grime, which is great. But he's actually a much more appealing character in that very last scene, on his best behavior." White would repeat this concept, in a different interview: "For Orlok, we didn't want him to look kind of grizzly and grim, so the thought was to mute it slightly and make him slightly less colorful in many ways," White adds. "So if you notice, his tone is very subdued, his coloration is quite set back, and his hair is much better than ever."
The reason for this decision in changing Count Orlok's coloration, and him looking more appealing than ever before is due to the breaking of Nosferatu curse. As Professor Von Franz said: "For when the sun's pure light shall break upon the dawn, redemption! The plague shall be lifted! Redemption!" As the Professor will confirm, the instructions in the Solomonari codex of secrets have been successful, and the curse Count Orlok had on himself was broken, and he escaped his Faustian bargain.
Hair Department Head Suzanne Stokes-Munton described the scene as star-crossed lovers in a suicide pact: "it's actually Romeo and Juliet", meant to invoke "what do you sacrifice for love?" Tracy Loader, the Head of Make-up Department, said special attention was given to Ellen because it's "her most possessed look". In the same interview, Traci Loader explains the goal: "it's keeping her still beautiful at that moment, keeping her luminous. But her possession is like a weird contentment at that point".
Costume designer, Linda Muir, explained Ellen's skin is a key part of the character's costuming throughout the film, leading up to this moment, when she’s, at last, “possessed” by Count Orlok and her soul is one with his, forever. Traci Loader, also addressed the importance of Ellen's skin to the narrative, and how she used "silicone makeup that possessed a luminous quality so it wouldn't look as matte or dry as a foundation would. She also had four different levels of paleness for Ellen, each becoming progressively lighter as filming went on. Loader then added subtle veining". According to Loader: "when you take a photo of her at the beginning of the film, and then the end of the film, there's a huge difference, but the progression is very planned out so it's not like, 'Oh, they're possessed now.' It's very subtle."
This scene between Ellen and Count Orlok is also evocative of Cathy and Heathcliff’s last earthly encounter in “Wuthering Heights”, when he goes to visit her, behind her husband’s back: “"You have killed me—and thriven on it, I think." [...] Heathcliff had knelt on one knee to embrace her; he attempted to rise, but she seized his hair, and kept him down. "I wish I could hold you,’ she continued, bitterly, ‘till we were both dead! [...] my Heathcliff. I shall love [him]; and take him with me: he’s in my soul.”
Count Orlok, in both scripts, is described “to contorn himself into a twisted position, as Ellen’s blood oozes from all of his orifices, and he screams, his lungs shredded by the cry”. This finds reference in the “Dracula” novel, in the description of Vampire Lucy’s death: “the thing in the coffin writhed, and a hideous, bloodcurdling screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions. The sharp white champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam. But Arthur never faltered.”
This screech most likely comes from one speculative etymology origin of the word "strigoi", from the Romanian verb "a striga"; "to scream" (similar to Banshees from Celtic Irish folklore). Nevertheless, the main significance of the word is connected to “witch” (“striga” from the Latin “strix”) or “sorcerer”, in the male version (-oi). In Romanian folklore, it's believed the soul comes out of the mouth (usually in the shape of a fly). Montague Summers, on his "The Vampire in Europe: True Tales of the Undead", writes people, in Romania, were advised against sleeping with their mouths open, because the soul could escape and not be able to find its way back, causing death and vampirism.
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In Transylvania, children were instructed to never sleep with their mouths open, because the soul might slip out in the shape of an animal, usually a rat; this folk belief can be found in another European countries, including Serbia (butterlfy), Scotland (bee) and Germany (mouse). Many preventive measures were taken against a dead person rising from their grave a strigoi, in Romania, including shutting down or stuffing the mouth with garlic (which was often used in strigoi destruction/exorcism rituals, as well).
Joanna Kretsu-Kantsyr in her essay “Birth and Death in the Romanian Folk Belief”, writes “the windows and doors are opened for the spirit and death to go out”. It was also custom for animals to be kept out of the room with a deceased person: “the hens and other animals should be driven away, not to cross the way of the deceased, or he will either become a ghost or his soul may enter in one of the animals.”
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According to David White, Robert Eggers wanted Count Orlok’s corpse completely devoided of blood at the end: “He really wanted the feeling of Orlok having had all life sucked from him, every last drop of blood”. Which connects to the folk vampire, as discussed in previous posts: “These early vampires are visually closer to a cinematic zombie, often engorged with blood, their faces sometimes pooling with blood under their rotting skin, maggot-infested, in a state of terrifying putrefaction and decay." This, again, represents how Count Orlok’s curse has been broken and he’s no longer a vampire. As Professor Von Franz will arrive to confirm to the audience the curse was broken, his counterpart Van Helsing also says of Lucy: “No longer she is the devil's Un-Dead. She is God's true dead, whose soul is with Him!"
On a more poetic perspective, and in the Gothic romance angle, it can also find reference in another passage from the “Dracula” novel, when Arthur Holmwood says about Lucy: “What can I do?" asked Arthur hoarsely. "Tell me, and I shall do it. My life is hers' and I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her.”
On his ending, Robert Eggers did a subversion of Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1922), where it's Thomas Hutter who embraces his beloved wife in death, and she dies on his arms. Here, Ellen and Count Orlok die on each others' arms, while their souls are forever joined.
Thomas arrives too late to stop the breaking of the curse, Ellen has already given her love to Count Orlok, she remembers how once they were, and this “last look of love” with Thomas parallels the “demonic sex scene”, after which Ellen lets out a mephistophelian laugh. This is also a reference to the “Dracula” novel, and the “fair girl” of the “weird sisters”, just as Van Helsing is about to destroy her: “Then the beautiful eyes of the fair woman open and look love”.
This “him” is not Thomas, it’s the Devil he has been serving ever since he arrived at Wisburg. And this scene finds reference in F.W. Murnau “Faust” (1926), when the Angel informs Mephisto Faust escaped their bargain and he won’t get his soul.
“One word destroys thy pact. The word that rings joyfully throughout creation. The word that aliviates every pain and sorrow. The word that absolves all guilt from humanity, the eternal word. Dost thou not know it?”
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Similar to Murnau's original, Thomas Hutter ends the film in a catatonic state, kneeling before his wife's dead body, crying, mourning. He's heartbroken, a representation of the grieving widower. As Robert Eggers' has explained: "For this film that is both a scary horror movie but also a tale of obsession, a love triangle, a Gothic romance, there’s something poetic about drinking heart blood."
For Thomas' character, the ending, as Lily-Rose Depp described it is "heartbreaking", and tragic; Thomas and Ellen's pure Victorian love could not nulify Ellen and Orlok's all-consuming centuries-old passion and prevent the curse from being broken. As Robert Eggers explained: "She has this loving relationship with her husband, but it doesn't have the passion that she has with [Orlok]." Praising Nicholas Hoult performance, the director said: "Nick saw the challenge in the role. It doesn’t have the showiness of Lily and Bill, but it is very, very challenging, and kind of unforgiving. In the final act, he’s playing the hero as strong as he possibly can, but the character is failing, failing, failing, you know? That’s not easy to to do."
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- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 1]: Prologue
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 2]: Ellen’s Dreams and Thomas’ Aspirations
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 3]: Thomas Lost in Nosferatu Shadow (1/3)
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 3]: Thomas Lost in Nosferatu Shadow (2/3)
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 4]: Dreams Grow Darker
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 5]: A Connection Between These Cases
- Dissecting "Nosferatu" (2024) [Part 6]: Thomas Lost in Nosferatu Shadow (3/3)
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