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NOSFERATU + Transylvania

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琉璃✨ | Sifeng being jealous of Teng She

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Ok so. You aren't gonna get Activism Bonus Points as a knight in shining armor for condemning the intersection of horror/and romance. People did it with Hannibal, Interview, Killing Eve, you can go as far back as Wuthering Heights and see the same shallow and lukewarm takes. Which is what Gothic Romance is—its horror and romance. It's not like. An aesthetic. It's not Romance but with black lace. Decrying it with every new story doesn't make you look righteous. it makes you look illiterate.

We have BEEN discussing. The psychology behind this sort of romance since FOREVER. Women and queer men (really the whole queer umbrella) are known to gravitate towards these kinds of love stories because culturally and historically that desire is "something to be ashamed of." So how do you justify wanting, when your kind of wanting is condemning? Worth shunning? A secret?

Take YOUR want out of the equation. Make the story about someone wanting YOU so badly that they don't take no for an answer, a "no/never/I won't give in to you" that can be given for propriety's sake as a verbal alibi. But it takes agency to toss ASIDE ones agency in the first place.

It's the same people clutching their pearls about pulp monster stories. With "bodice ripper" stories. (Same basic principle behind CNC in kink spaces honestly) And REALLY it's fitting that the centennial reproduction of Nosferatu is what started it back up because above ALL OF THESE—is the mack daddy of them all, vampire literature.

There is a line in Nosferatu 2024: "I am an appetite. Nothing more." And it took my breath away because THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT BABY. Vampire stories are never JUST a creature feature. They are never face value. They represent something, and it's mercurial—I believe Rolin Jones referred to vampires as "a dark mirror" to human wants and appetites, and how if you repress something hard enough it'll always rot and turn ugly and cruel.

"I am an appetite." You can read between the lines better when you're not shaking your head no for the imaginary social media jury.

And if this is something you routinely cannot catch on to, can't relate to, makes you uncomfortable beyond what you can tolerate, then there's no shame in just avoiding the genre altogether. (Fantasy/Adventure with romance as a side plot will probably be closer to something for you. Even Dark Fantasy will probably scratch the itch if you keep finding yourself starting and quitting gothic romances)

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If you were to interpret the first encounter Ellen has with the count as her starting to have sexual fantasies as a young woman experiencing her sexual awakening, something that was demonised by her father, which solidified her feeling unclean and abnormal, then her telling Thomas that the monster satisfied her like Thomas never could would mean her sharing her "shameful" sexual fantasy with him. He loved her and he accepted her the way she was and it made him want to make it true for her, hence the agressive sex scene. However, at that point in time, she was unable to accept herself.

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I just remembered the scenes with the corset and I realized they used it as a symbol of suppression and of the patriarchal tendency to control of women's sexuality.

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All official posters and stills of upcoming chinese wuxia BL The General's Son that were shared so far

+ Dong Zifan and Li Kaiwen in costume

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NOSFERATU (2024) dir. Robert Eggers

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Spoilers: Eggers' Nosferatu

There's a lot of debate right now on if Count Orlok represents Ellen's shame/trauma/abuse, or if he represents her repressed erotic desires, and in turn there's debate on whether or not viewers who find the Ellen/Orlok dynamic alluring are "missing the point." Eggers and Lily-Rose Depp have both said in interviews that there's a mutual pull between Ellen and Orlok, and even that there's a love triangle element, but obviously the experience is terrifying for Ellen. How can we reconcile the sexual tension and the horror?

I think the broader theme is that Orlok represents everything in a woman's inner world that men refuse to acknowledge and accept - fear and shame and trauma, yes, but also our appetites . After the prologue, the story starts with Ellen begging Thomas to stay in bed with her; she says "the honeymoon was yet too short" and tries to pull him in and kiss him (obviously trying to start some nuptial bliss). But Thomas is anxious to meet with his boss and get his promotion, because he has a narrative he's going to fulfill: he's going to pay Friedrich back, buy a house, and then start having kids (he and Friedrich touch on this a bit later. Notably, Friedrich discloses Anna's pregnancy to Thomas before Anna has made it public.)

It's the start of Ellen and Thomas' married life and she just wants him to prioritize her sexual desire, but he chooses to focus on his ideal of success, which sets him on this path to confronting Orlok. We know Ellen doesn't care about having a house or fine things and she begs him not to go, but Thomas listens to Herr Knock and Friedrich, who tell him that as a husband he has to provide materially. He ignores Ellen's stated desires, and so fails to provide sexually and emotionally. When Thomas gaslights her about her nightmares and calls them childish fancies, he shuts down her vulnerability, which kills the intimacy she was enjoying in the literal honeymoon phase.

On a related note, there's a defence in here for Aaron Taylor Johnson's performance, which I've seen a few male critics call "over acting." In this story Friedrich represents the masculine ideal of the time, he's a rich business owner with a beautiful wife and kids. Thomas clearly looks up to him and wants to emulate him - he wants to give Ellen the life "she deserves." But Friedrich's elevated masculine status is why he refuses to listen to Ellen's "hysterical, sentimental" worries, he's too rational for all that of course. And his stubborn "rationality" leads to the death of his entire family. Friedrich IS the patriarchal ideal that crumbles when confronted with nuance and uncertainty. Some people see Friedrich and assume that a character like him is meant to come across as dignified, and that Aaron Taylor Johnson is messing up by making him look annoying, but really he is giving a great portrayal of a really common, annoying kind of guy. The kind of guy who melts down and has childish tantrums whenever they lose control of a situation, or their manly skills and values are shown to be irrelevant.

The men in the movie (excluding Professor von Franz) frame Ellen as childish for speaking about her dreams candidly, but their own childishness is revealed when her dreams manifest in the form of Orlok and become unavoidable. Ellen (partially? possessed in the moment by Orlok) tells Thomas how "foolish and like a child" he was in Orlok's castle. In the literal context that's cruel, and obviously that shit was scary as hell, but it hits on Thomas' failure in the metaphorical reading. He was a child playing house: 'I'll be the husband and make money, you be the wife and make babies.' When it came time to confront his wife's inner world and all the scary, traumatized, lustful complexity of it, he was completely inept. The message isn't that Orlok is what Ellen really needs, or that Thomas is a wimp, but he's not a perfect husband either. I think "the point" is that a real healthy marriage with sexual, emotional, and spiritual mutuality is impossible in that society with Thomas/Friedrich's ideals. In that kind of society, a spiritually and sexually potent woman like Ellen ("in heathen times you might have been a Priestess of Isis") will always be caught in a "love triangle" with her husband and her own inner world.

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Bravo also to Robert Eggers for probably the least bad depiction of Transylvania in Western vampire cinematic history:

1. Having actual Romanian actors doing the dialogue in Romanian. You'd think this is a low bar to clear but nope.

2. High quality costume design that looks pretty accurate to 19th century Romanian and Roma peasantry, even down to specific braided hairstyles from the Transylvanian region.

3. Depiction of Roma people but refrains from having them as some typical Hollywood exoticizing role like a magical fortune teller etc. They're in like half a scene, just chilling and playing music in front of an inn.

4. Use of the word "strigoi" which are actual spirits in Romanian folklore, unlike the term "vampire" which didn't exist in Romania.

5. Sorry to the Nosferatu moustache haters, but a Romanian nobleman would have had that exact facial hair.

6. Depiction of religion (nuns, churches) that actually looks like Eastern Orthodoxy and not some vaguely spooky goth Christianity.

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Happy New Year...

As we close out 2024, we want to take a moment to wish all our listeners a safe and happy New Year. Here’s to hoping that 2025 will be kind to everyone and filled with opportunities to grow, laugh, and connect.

We also want to extend our deepest thanks to all of you for sticking with our Critical Obsessions through thick and thin. We know our posts and episodes have been a bit sporadic these past few months, and we truly appreciate your patience and support.

We’re excited to share that we’ll be back in the new year with fresh content, new ideas, and plenty of the podcasts you’ve come to enjoy.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us. See you in 2025!

Stay safe and take care,

M and Z

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Lan Zhan's thoughts:

Lan Zhan: HE WANTED TO WRAP MY HEADBAND AROUND HIS EYES AND SEXILY HIT THE BULLSEYE... NOPE— NOPE, THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT DOING ANYTHING TO ME RIGHT NOW. NOT AT ALL.

*5 seconds later*

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MimiFM MDZS JP Audio Drama Season 3 (2024) Wangxian Posters by GEAROUS

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Meet You At The Blossom

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Huaien loves Xiaobao's food, the food that no one else can even stomach including Xiaobao, this is the most powerful love can be

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Extra episode 2 of uncensored wuxia BL Meet You At The Blossom

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Meet You At The Blossom extra episode 2 (ENG SUB)

ENG SUB: ep 1 ep 2 RAW: ep 1 ep 2