There’s lots to love about the 2024 remake of Nosferatuâwhich was released on digital platforms earlier this weekâbut personally, my favorite part was the unhinged, disgusting, and very bloody sex/death scene between Lily-Rose Depp and a highly prosthetic-ified Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd. The movie makes you wait through two hours of slow-moving gothic horror to get there, but boy, does that ending make it worth the wait. Sparkly Edward Cullen had his turn. Now, finally, vampires are gross and horny again.
Warning: Major spoilers for the new Nosferatu film ahead.
Written and directed by Robert Eggers (known for his twisted horror films like The Witch and The Lighthouse), this film is a remake of the famed 1922 silent German film Nosferatu, which itself was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stokerâs 1897 novel Dracula. This version of Nosferatu stars Nicholas Hoult as Thomas Hunter and Depp as Ellen Hunter, a newly-wed couple in 1838 Germany. Thanks to a wish she made as a girl, Ellen finds herself stalked by a dark creature of the night, Count Orlok (played by Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd).
Count Orlok eventually kidnaps Thomas, and we learn he is, of course, a blood-sucking vampire. Thomas is able to escape, though he is weak, and returns to Ellen. But the nightmare isn’t over. Orlok sets sail for their German town, and brings with him a plague. As those she loves start dying, Ellen realizes the only way to stop the monster is by using his obsession with her to lure him to his death.
So Ellen sets up a distraction for her doting husband, and then she finally does what Orlok has been imploring her to do: She calls to him. When he appears in her bedroom, she promises herself to him. Mind, body, and soul. But mostly, in this case, body.
Ellen lies back on her bed. Orlok climbs atop her body, in order to drink her blood. It’s not entirely clear whether he’s also, you know, literally having sex with her while he drinks her blood, but it hardly matters. Eggers films it like a sex scene, with nudity, caressing, and shot-reverse-shots of the lovers. Depp and Skarsgard perform it like a sex scene, with labored breaths, sensual moans, andâin Skarsgard’s caseâpelvic thrusts. Penetration or not, it’s a sex scene.
But it’s also a gory, visceral death scene. Orlok is literally devouring Ellen as a meal. He chomps a huge hole in her chest, the blood starts flowing, and Orlok starts slurping. It’s primal. It’s carnal. It’s savage. It’s absolutely disgusting, and yet, uncomfortably titillating. And that’s everything vampires should be.
Edward Cullen and the Twilight gang did a lot of damage to the vampire rep in the 2010s. Sure, those vampires were sexyâbut they were too sexy. They were aloof, untouchable, and most importantly, not at all gross. They were so clean and well-groomed that they literally sparkled. That’s the opposite of primal and disgusting! Vampires are supposed to represent the basest of our carnal desires.
Thankfully, this version of Nosferatu is correcting Twilight‘s wrongs. Skarsgard’s Orlok isn’t the object of desireâhe is desire. Desire isn’t pretty. It’s animalistic, raw, and messy. It’s sweat, skin, and fluids. It’s consumption at its very worst. When Orlok diesâburned up by the morning sunâit’s because he wasn’t strong enough to resist the siren call of his most primal urges. And I think that’s beautiful.
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