#Nosferatu ending

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

"Nosferatu" (2024): Narrative, Cinematic, Historical and Folklore Complete Analysis

I'm an Art History and Heritage researcher, specialized in 19th and 20th century. Here is a list of my essays on Robert Eggers “Nosferatu” (2024), supported by interviews of the cast and crew and the cinematic and literary inspirations. These are long reads, because they are full analysis of the entire film.

“I’ll be good, I’ll be good…”: Victorian Society and Medicine in “Nosferatu” (2024)

"I relinquished him my soul…": Covenant and the Occult in "Nosferatu" (2024)

“You are our salvation”: Professor Von Franz's Redemption and Ellen's Vengeance in "Nosferatu" (2024)

“A spike of cold iron” and Fate: Thomas Hutter and Handsome Roma man in “Nosferatu” (2024)

Visual Storytelling in “Nosferatu” (2024): Lilacs and Windows

Visual Storytelling in “Nosferatu” (2024): Count Orlok Iconography and the Demonized Pagan

[d00medbythenarrative]

There is something beautiful about monsters in the light

[the-crooked-library]

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Ellen’s sex scene with Thomas is weird, unsexy, frantic, fully clothed and disturbing, while Ellen’s sex scene with Orlok, literal corpse, is slow, detailed, sensual, and they are both naked. The juxtaposition.

exaaactlyyyy!! it's about the INTIMACY

regardless of how desperate both Ellen and Thomas may be to conform to their socially acceptable marriage (they're both distinctly queercoded, Ellen wants passion, Thomas cannot give it, both of them see each other as a duty), they still do not and cannot understand each other. Ellen, who comes from a wealthy but abusive home, cannot imagine prioritizing material success over love and connection; Thomas, who self-deprecatingly refers to himself as a "pauper," cannot imagine ostracizing himself so completely from the society that very easily jeopardizes the livelihood of anyone non-conforming. There is a distinct lack of intimacy between them, only partially breached by anger and confrontation; which is, indeed, illustrated by their fully clothed, aggressive scene. It is more of an argument than sex.

Ellen's death-wedding with Orlok is entirely different - as you said, slow, sensual, reverent; it centers their closeness above all. They cling to one another, both overcome with emotion (self-professed inability to love be damned), perfect living skin against rotting flesh; the visual implication here is that there is, quite literally, nothing between them. They know each other entirely, the flaws, the beauty, and that understanding is more important than their own life or death.

One is a sex scene that is actually a fight, the other is a lovemaking disguised as murder, and I am obsessed

[dmsr-art]

nosferatu thots:

i really liked it!! this one is definitely for the freaks. ok first off the count's voice was INSANE. that whole sequence of thomas at the castle was incredible... i felt enthralled. i loved his visible discomfort [horny] ALSO THE BLOOD SUCKING SOUNDS??? 😳 the count biting ppl on the chest closer to their heart instead of their necks... OKAY!!

my favorite sicko moment was when ellen was convulsing drooling and sticking her tongue out then crawled on all fours to thomas, said "I'll be a good girl now" nuzzled his crotch then taunted him and got railed within an inch of her life ALL WHILE THE DROOL WAS STILL ON HER CHIN FROM EARLIER 😵‍💫🙏🏼 also when she said "you let him take you like a woman" to thomas OUGHHH [pussy throbbing]

another detail i really liked was how the colors would desaturate during scenes involving fear and paranoia of the count and completely go grayscale when he was on screen

the final shot of the film? 10/10, bury me next to you in that unmarked grave

[see-arcane]

Are you really a bootleg Jonathan Harker if you don't deal with your host getting obscenely anger-aroused at the sight of your blood?

If you’d like to support me or get some art, check out my Ko-Fi.

[borgialucrezia]

— nosferatu (2024) written and directed by robert eggers

[distort-opia]

Have we talked about how bonkers it is to get married to someone else while wearing the symbol of your fucked up bond with the undead dark wizard corpse you rose from the dead? It's probably been discussed already, but I need to exorcise all my thoughts on Nosferatu (2024)... so yeah, I just find it such a deliciously insidious choice. When Ellen wears her wedding dress at the end of the movie, welcoming Orlok, she has dried lilacs in her hair from her prior wedding to Thomas, as the shooting script itself confirms. And Ellen had to know that marrying Thomas would break her Covenant with Orlok, right? She swore to be with Orlok ever-eternally, and then swore the same thing to Thomas at a chapel. Later, she tells Thomas, "He took me as his lover then, and now he has come back. He has discovered our marriage and has come back!" She must've had some inkling of what would happen, if she broke her Vow. So then what must've gone through her mind, to put those specific flowers in her hair as she was giving herself to another?

I got so long with this one, hence the cut. In fair warning, this interpretation is very Ellen x Orlok oriented, so if that's not your preferred view on the movie, you might not enjoy reading the rest.

It's almost mocking, her flaunting of lilacs as she marries Thomas. It's almost a "come back and get me". It's almost as if she knew she was preparing this dress for a different kind of wedding ("I have brought this evil upon us"). It's keeping in tone with that dark, eerie scene of Ellen clipping her hair and putting it in the locket, to give to Thomas... but as we know, the locket ends up with Orlok instead. And he uses that lilac-perfumed lock of hair to re-establish his hold on Ellen! It's as if she sent him a means of communication with her, because prior to Orlok obtaining the locket, we don't see him speaking to Ellen. The Covenant between them was broken by her, and Orlok needed to use earthly means of influence via Herr Knock in order to get to her and her husband. Of course, she has premonitions (her nightmare of marrying Death, steeped in the scent of lilacs once more) but it's not a dream induced by Orlok; it's part of her own psychic powers. And so, by putting a lock of hair inside the locket, knowing where Thomas was going... she gives Orlok a way to talk to her. Because we constantly see him use the locket as an anchor of some kind, as he spreads his influence towards Ellen. And then, all the while afterwards in her trances, Ellen moans "He is coming to me, he is coming..." Gleeful, orgasmic.

Am I saying Ellen intentionally and in full awareness did these things, so that Orlok would come to her? No, not entirely. I don't think it's something so planned and so conscious. She is as terrified and hateful towards Orlok as she is attracted to him, and that's the thing. It's a compulsion, a yearning. All along, through the entire movie, Ellen yearns. It's all over the shooting script; she pines and wants and hungers, in relation to Thomas, and to Anna, and to Orlok himself. And it isn't something spiritual. It's a yearning for touch.

"I frightened him [my father]. My touch..." Ellen says to Von Franz, when he consults for her. She feels the need to highlight that, as if her father recoiling from her touch was the hardest part she had to bear, the thing that made her the most lonely-- desperate enough to call out for any kind of companionship and tenderness. At the beginning of the film, before Thomas leaves, we see how much skinship Ellen seeks with her husband; she asks him to stay and make love to her when he was late for his meeting with Knock, they kiss each other ravenously after the Hardings depart to put the children to sleep. And both times, the script describes Ellen as "hungry". Even when Thomas leaves and gives her a small goodbye kiss, the text says "It's not enough for Ellen." Later in the movie, after Thomas is returned and dreams horribly due to Orlok's influence, Ellen is cuddling with him, but he pushes her away, asking her to "get off". She feels rejected enough that she seeks out someone else's physical touch-- Anna's, with whom we see her in bed next, and once again, the script uses "yearning" more than once to describe Ellen's behavior.

The theme of repressed sexuality and how in Victorian times, a female want for sex was demonized, has been discussed again and again in relation to Nosferatu (2024). Orlok is, indeed, a dark mirror to Ellen's desires: he is monstrous because she sees her own wants as monstrous. He destroys and brings disease, because Ellen sees that part of herself as destructive and unclean. But I do think there's a fascinating element to Ellen's nature that is not part of Orlok's symbolism, but rather extends to him as a character... her ravenous appetite for love. Her father deprived her of it, but the Shadow that came to her when she called was just that-- a shadow. A presence. It was not a person that could hold her, a person she might touch. Orlok, a spirit only, was not enough. He himself says it, while he's on the ship set for Wisburg. "Soon I will be no more a shadow to you." And this line was cut from the movie, but in the 2023 script, he also says, "Your spirit was never enough."

It was the script that made me think of this whole thing, really. Mostly because of how it describes their first meeting:

"...for the first time, she faces him in THE FLESH." It's emphasized. It's important, that Orlok is not a shadow here. That he is there, that Ellen can feel him and smell the blood on his breath. But the most damning thing she accuses him of? "You cannot love." As if that's the most important part for her, as if saying "That's what I need from you, and you can't give it to me". And Orlok admits that he cannot love her the way Thomas does, but that he hungers for her nonetheless.

I don't know, I just find this a much more compelling interpretation than a simple "Ellen is Orlok's victim and he is her abuser". Yes, Orlok is an appetite, but so is Ellen. Ellen is an active participant. She is the one to summon Orlok, the one to dictate his actions via his sheer want of her, the one to lure him to her so she could indulge her desire. Except, as it is a staple of dark and gothic romances, Ellen cannot directly act upon what she wants. Not like Orlok can. That's the point-- her desires are repressed, she believes them to be shameful, and so she needs an excuse to let them out. That's what characters like Orlok, who threaten and coerce, provide. A way to give in that preserves the heroine's "purity"; she sacrificed herself to save Thomas and Wisburg! She said she abhored him, she wanted Orlok dead! But then, why wear lilacs at her wedding? Why give Thomas the locket with the lilac-scented strand of hair? Why call Orlok her lover? Why wear a wedding dress and then cradle him in her arms as they died together, once again needing to touch him?

And I will say, it's great how this conflict, this self-hatred regarding her own feelings, is contrasted also in Orlok. "Till you did wake me, enchantress..." "You are my affliction." It's almost scornful, accusatory. You get the feeling he resents how much influence Ellen has on him, but he cannot help himself in the slightest. He denies that it's love, he says he cannot love-- but we have to keep in mind what he says prior. "Love is inferior to you." He considers love a weakness, something that he (as something inhuman, and something he believes Ellen is as well) is above of. But love is Ellen's craving, while life is Orlok's. Orlok is equated to Death. An all-consuming appetite, and they end up infecting each other with it, and then hating themselves for it. Ellen is oppressed by the society around her; her father had nearly institutionalized her, she had to marry Thomas to escape him. She is seen as strange and ill, as having "childish fancies", even by her own husband. She is tied to a bed and quieted down with drugs in the house of a man who's pretty much a representative of benevolent patriarchy. And so, does she not hate them all for doing this to her? Orlok bringing death and destruction on the society and people who stifled her is no coincidence, obviously.

But then again, Orlok ends up with a yearning for a person. Desire for someone's soul and body, not just their life-blood, which is ultimately something human... and he can't deny her, not even when he knows he would die. In that first scene in which Ellen calls upon him, he says "You are not for the living. You are not of human kind." It's the unspoken "You are for me. You are like me," that dooms him to an inescapable obsession, his own version of Ellen's yearning.

Ultimately, the human is a little bit monstrous, and dies for it. And the monster is a little bit human, and dies for it too. I, for one, am fucking obsessed with it.

[kithj]

some stories are written precisely to elicit strong emotions from the reader INCLUDING negative ones. some stories and characters are meant to be upsetting, they are meant to challenge you and make you uncomfortable!! when a story makes you feel Big Feelings sometimes you are meant to sit in those feelings and ask yourself why! fiction is a great space to explore these emotions in a safe environment. you, as the reader, are meant to think critically about the art you are enjoying and that includes asking yourself questions like why has the author presented their art in this way and what are they trying to tell me. and then you get to have fun picking it apart and figuring it out and deciding what, exactly, the art means to you.

[faeriefire-7]

Since I got into both The Magnus Archives and Vampire: the Masquerade, I found an interesting connection

Vampires in vtm are meant to be terrifying monsters that are the opposite of humanity, and there are 14 Clans, so it makes sense that the each could reflect a different primal fear that humans have, sorted into the 14 Entities (plus Thin-Bloods and the Extinction for fun)

Banu Haqim: The Hunt - The Banu Haqim are known as “the Clan of the Hunt” and are known for being assassins, which mirrors the idea of chasing and hunting that this fear focuses on. The Blood Addition Bane also fits well with the addiction to the Hunt that its avatars often experience. The Hunt is also attached to law enforcement and often uses justice to motivate its avatars, which is a core focus of the Banu Haqim

Gangrel: The Slaughter - The Gangrel originate as a warrior clan from Ennoia, which relates to the Slaughter’s attachment with the fear of war. The Gangrel’s Feral Impulses also matches well with the blood lust and raw aggression that the Slaughter induces and feeds upon.

Hecata: The End - The Hecata’s obsession with Death makes them a clear connection with the fear of the finality of death and all things morbid and dead. The Hecata’s necromancy can be related to the items of cheating death such as the Catalogue of Trapped Dead and the animated cadaver

Malkavians: The Spiral - The Malkavians loose attachment to sanity and their visions that cause them to lose grip on what is real ties in very well with the Spiral’s themes of insanity and lose of reasoning. Their compulsion of Delusion aligns almost exactly with the Spiral’s twisting of perception and warping of what is real. Malkavians also have a symbolic attachment to mirrors and distorted reflections, which is also common with the Spiral

Nosferatu: The Eye - The Nosferatu’s habit for being silent observers and spies aligns itself to the passive, watching nature of the Eye and the fear of anyone being able to see you at any time. Their compulsion towards collecting secrets also fits with the Eye since it revolves around secrets known and uncovered, something the Nos specialize in. They themselves also experience a fear of being seen because their horrid appearances can often break the masquerade or lead to ridicule

Ravnos: The Vast - The Ravnos are travelers and wanderers that countless move across the world, which fits with the Vast and the idea of infinite possibles and expanse. Ravnos being dare devils also fits with the fear of heights the Vast induces since they will preform dangerous stunts and acrobatic tricks.

Toreador: The Stranger - The Toreador are often the most human looking out of all vampires save for their extreme beauty which is almost outside of what is humanly possibles, which is very similar to the Uncanny Valley and the “almost-human” quality of the Stranger. Toreador are also tied closely with music, dance and theater, which are all symbols used by the Stranger.

Tzimisce: The Flesh - The Tzimisce are the legendary Fleshcrafters, inspiring fear of horrible monstrosities of sinew and betrayal of the body, which is basically the definition of the Flesh. Taking a piece of someone’s body can also be used as an anchor or a grounding object (Jon’s rib), which aligns with the Tzimisce and their Possessiveness.

Venture: The Web - The Venture’s need for control and their constant politicking makes them a perfect fit for the Hidden Machinations, which deals with the fear of being controlled or manipulated. Them being (supposedly) at the top of vampire society also fits with the fact the Web always had the upper hand and was behind most of the events in TMA.

Brujah: The Desolation: The Bruja’s strong passion and Violent Temper align well with the fiery devotion of the Desolation and its avatar’s general disposition. Their compulsion of Rebellion and desire to “burn down” systems of control also fits with the destructive nature of this fear.

Tremere: The Buried -

(This one is the one I like the least and was a hard fit, so I may move stuff around in the future). The Treme’s pyramid smothers the people inside of it with hierarchy and leaves them trapped in the system, aligning with the metaphorical suffocation and entrapment of the Buried. Their Bane of Perfectionism also presents as a “crushing” expectation, which would fit with the Buried on a more conceptual level.

Lasombra: The Dark - This one feels pretty self explanatory but the Lasombra’s cold nature fits the descriptions of the Dark and its icy waters. The Dark also has a cult and ties to religious beliefs as it uses ignorance to control people, which is something the Lasombra have strong ties to. Their Bane of Ruthlessness mirrors how coldly cruel many Dark avatars can be such as Rayner trying to kill and posses a child.

Ministry: The Corruption - The Ministry and the Corruption both deal heavily with temptation, as the Hive sings its song of love, safety, and pleasure to its victims in the same way the Serpents do. One of the nicknames for the Ministry are the Corruptors

Duskborn/Thin-bloods: The Extinction - The Duskborn are the newest of the Kindred clans and the Extinction was said to be a new development as a fear. They both are signs of the end of the world, with the Extinction’s full manifestation being said to destroy humanity and the Thin-bloods connection to Gehenna.

Salubri: The Lonely - The Salubri being isolated due to propaganda and hunted to near extinction makes them a very Lonely clan. They also have ties to being slightly more peaceful, as the Salubri tend towards nonviolent hunting methods and the Lonely very truly killing its victims.

Anyways, once again feel free to critic this or pose any additional supports for any of these categories.

[ceaselesslyinlove]

thinking about this deleted nosferatu scene 👀

[finalwonderland14]

Haven’t seen this pointed out yet: This look and the atmosphere around Ellen reminded me of Emily from the Corpse Bride

[minaharkers]

MOVIES I SAW IN THEATERS IN 2024

happy new year!

[ravenkings]

nosferatu (2024) dir. robert eggers

[anneeeboleyn]

watching nosferatu 2024 is not enough i need it injected in my veins

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

The fact so many are really out there cherry-picking Robert Eggers interviews to justify their incorrect interpretations of “Nosferatu” (2024) ending is wild. Some are really obsessing over the “vengeance” detail and taking it out of context while ignoring everything else. This is peak denial, and you are grasping at straws, at this point.

Linda Muir, the costume designer, reveals Ellen’s costumes showcase her progressive liberation from Victorian society until she’s fully liberated at the end, and her nature takes over;

Robert Eggers calls the union between Ellen and Orlok “a sacred marriage”, a “completion of some kind of destiny”, “sex and death”, and how Orlok is the only person who can understand and fulfill Ellen;

Bill Skarsgård described the ending as “sex and ecstasy”, and “maybe that is what Orlok wanted all along”, and that this story is “a very heightened fairy tale/dark story, but also it's two people potentially falling in love. It isn't love, it's something else, but love is maybe the closest thing to it that you can kind of relate to”;

Lily-Rose Depp said: “she's [Ellen] doing a good deed and she's breaking the curse, but she's also indulging in a dark desire that she has” and how “ it’s a love story with Count Orlok” and “there’s a mutual yearning there”;

David White, the Prosthetics and Make-up Designer said they made “a different paint job” on Orlok to give a “sense that there’s some kind of twisted romance going on here” because the idea wasn’t “grossing everyone out. It’s quite delicate. The beats that Robert’s looking for, he’s very good at pacing those things.”

Linda Muir also confirmed the lilacs connect Ellen and Orlok, even though this is obvious in the film itself, it’s the visual storytelling of their yearning: “this lavender hue subliminally underscores the connection between Ellen and Orlok, who remembers lilacs from when he was alive.”

Robert Eggers also confirmed Ellen and Orlok are inspired by Catherine and Heathcliff from “Wuthering Heigths” by Emily Brontë. Catherine and Heathcliff are reunited in the spiritual realm after their physical deaths, and Mr. Lockwood sees their spirits approaching the window. The last shot of Von Franz is him at the window, smiling.

Robert Eggers also revealed he was inspired by “Svengali” (1931); where Svengali could only have the female lead love in death (“Oh, God, grant me in death what you denied me in life; the woman I love”) and also “La Belle et la Bête” (Beauty and the Beast) (1946), where the maiden’s love breaks the curse of the beast.

The only mentions of Thomas in interviews is how he’s greedy, loves his wife but doesn’t understand her (no shade, but it is what it is). But you really think her sacrifice is about him!? Linda Muir literally tells us Ellen is progressively breaking free from Victorian society until she’s fully liberated at the end, so the point of her sacrifice isn’t to save Victorian society, either. These are collaterals of the true reason; breaking the curse, like Lily-Rose Depp says. The ending is about Ellen and Orlok, and their union.

Ellen doesn’t “defeat” Orlok, they both get exactly what they want. Only idiots with confirmation bias from previous adaptations and no understanding of this story interpret the ending this way, even though all the interviews from the cast and crew, the inspirations and the film itself (if you take the time to actually break it down in a serious manner, with the historical and folklore context), contradict this interpretation.

Many also don’t know how spiritual contracts work; Orlok wanted Ellen’s soul and he got it. It’s a spiritual contract. They were both meant to die. He literally tells her “you not for living” in the prologue, and “you are not of human kind” twice. Their covenant is: “You are not for the living. You are not for human kind. And you shall be one with me ever-eternally […] As our spirits are one, so too shall be our flesh. You are mine.” They have sex not only to consummate their marriage, but because the breaking of the curse is a Sex Magick ritual (“maiden fair did offer up her love unto the beast, and with him lay in close embrace until first cock crow”). Robert Eggers show us Herr Knock performing a Şolomonari Sex Magick ritual (masturbation) for a reason.

Ellen gave him her soul; he is already dead, his spirit is trapped in that rotten corpse and has to be set free (break the curse, “her willing sacrifice freed them from the plague of Nosferatu”) and she has to die for this covenant to be fulfilled: “willing sacrifice”; Orlok asks her “you accept this, of your own will?”

The Şolomonari codex of secrets with the instructions Von Franz found not only belonged to Orlok, he wrote it himself; in Romanian folklore the final assignment at the Scholomance (the school located in the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, where Orlok studied to become a Şolomonar) was to copy one's entire knowledge of humanity into a "Şolomonar's book". This is based on the “Dracula” novel; Dracula also studied at the Scholomance. Von Franz says “their Nosferatu” is Şolomonari after he finds the book; he’s confirming to the audience the book is Orlok’s (the confirmed Şolomonar by the narrative; Knock is not a Şolomonar, he didn’t attend the Scholomance). This isn’t a “fan theory” and Robert Eggers doesn’t need to confirm in interviews what his film already confirms to the audience.

Orlok wanted Ellen to break his curse, and set his spirit free. When the “vampire hunters” arrive at Grünewald Manor, Von Franz tells Thomas to “set the daemon’s spirit free” (foreshadowing for Orlok’s death). Orlok also wants Ellen’s spirit by his side, forever, in the spiritual world. That is his whole motivation in this story. A curse she put on him when she brought him back from the dead, and cursed him to be a strigoi. How the hell are you taking revenge on someone while you are breaking the curse you, yourself, put upon them, in the first place? Simple, the “vengeance” Eggers talks about has nothing to do with Ellen and Orlok, and the 2023 script is filled with incorrect dialogue and descriptions, especially of the ending scene: this script says Orlok just falls over Ellen, and that doesn’t happen. She embraces him and comforts him while the sun is killing his physical form.

Ellen accepts Orlok because only him can understand and fulfill her (“I cannot be sated without you”), and she finally realizes her nature won’t ever be accepted by Victorian society (like Orlok intended when he gave her the “countdown”), because she’s not for the living, she’s not for human kind. Her and Orlok are dual-natured spirits who belong to Pagan times.

This is what Robert Eggers intended, this is what the cast and crew interview tell us, and the film itself, not your half-baked wishful thinking interpretations based on one word and on a script that’s incorrect. Eggers won’t even share with us his Orlok backstory and you really think he’s allowing the actual script to be online.

[spongebob-connoisseur]

Slappy would soooo be a Miku stan <3 He'd shank someone with a leek