In deliberately weaponizing her own body, Nosferatu’s Ellen becomes her own hero.
Photo: Focus Features
Spoilers follow for the 2024 and 1922 versions of Nosferatu, including the endings of each film.
Calling a vampire movie Ellen doesn’t have the same pizzazz as Nosferatu. But Robert Eggers’s new version of the vampire classic sets itself apart exactly for its treatment of that character, whom F.W. Murnau’s silent 1922 original defines only as a willing victim in service of her husband. Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen, meanwhile, pursues redemption for her own sake.
Across his four-feature filmography, Eggers’s female characters can be selfish and inscrutable, but that is almost always in reaction to unsympathetic,…
