Nosferatu: Exploring Societal Manifestations of Darkness

Sabin Muzaffar reviews Nosferatu - Robert Eggers’ visual ode to gothic literature, a study and exploration of societal darkness.
Nosferatu: Exploring Societal Manifestations of Darkness

Art imitates life. It not only mirrors society, but also supplies a mirror through which social norms, taboos, stereotypes and deeply entrenched belief systems can be discovered by a discerning eye. Indeed, as with all other societal manifestations, darkness can be easily transported, translated and expressed in art form. Depiction of a blood sucking vampire hailing from the East, violating wide-eyed Caucasian women is that and even more.

But, before laying it bare for the readers, it is important to note that digression is imminent for the tales of the two counts – Vlad and Orlok – is not only about a heavily mustached, deeply accented East European monster.

While a hardcore cinephile possessing a feverish fascination with fantasy, the procrastination and contemplation of watching Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu alone was indeed providence. It was perhaps how the day of the viewing began which actually changed how I watched and perceived the movie.

There was much talk about one story all over X/Twitter: Neil Gaiman that particular day. The storyteller was the story – a story… grotesque, horrific and yet unsurprising. A tale about a world renowned, domineering figure, inspiring awe and sinister trepidation that overwhelms the vulnerable…. the susceptible. With thoughts, daydreams and chaotic reflections about the famous fantasist and a feminist, I re-entered the dark, ominous world of Lord Orlok – Nosferatu.

A visual ode to gothic literature, Eggers’ take on the story is as breathtaking as it is thought-provoking. The writer-director weaves a story about a dreadful monster woken up from his eternal slumber by lilting supplications of an enchanting young, unwittingly ingenuous woman. Consumed by his obsession, the life-long haunting and hunting begins.  The young woman is possessed, a captive, and yet she is also enthralled. How does one – so defenseless and assailable, so impressionable stand against a figure that is larger than life? The ominous stalker always on the prowl, omnipresent and unrelenting, conditioning, grooming women to acquiescence: indeed intrinsic signs of the Stockholm syndrome!

Juxtaposed, Francis Ford Coppola’s take on the original story with the same title, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is a tragic tale about love and loss. The descent of a warrior-hero, Vlad the Impaler, into a macabre monstrosity as his love and loss engulfs and overtakes him; metamorphosing him into pure evil. Love obsessed, the ‘Sweet Prince’ as Mina Harker lovingly calls him, has “crossed oceans of time to find” her – his presumably re-incarnated Elisabeta; unlike Orlok who presumably crosses the Black Sea to reach Germany after only a few years of his fixated awakenings.

Unlike Dracula’s Mina Harker with all her self-imposed, Victorian propriety as well as desires; concealed and otherwise; Nosferatu’s Ellen Hutter is a tragic figure – shunned even by her own father because of a wrong another inflicted on her. Her crime is indeed her gender, her misdemeanor: her unwitting enthrallment, and eventually her fault is that she does not become a victim that society is quick to create. She is, however, the pre-destined saviour!

The tragic figure transforms, or rather, the society coerces her to convert into its salvation and savior. Nosferatu’s tragedy is not that a monster wreaks a havoc, death and destruction – that is all but horror. The tragedy lies in the burden of societal salvation women are compelled into carrying; deliberatively placed on a high pedestal for display and performance. The evil villainy lies in the masculine hegemony that crafts the very fabric of society with cowardice, exploitation and monstrous manipulation.

 

Images courtesy:

Neil Gaiman image: Respect Films

Bram Stoker Dracula Image featuring Mina Harker and Count Dracula: Threads

Nosferatu image featuring Ellen Hutter and Nosferatu: Pinterest

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