Sunday Snips #3

Addressing Consent and Mental Coercion in Nosferatu

I’m sure that we’ve all seen Egger’s remake of Nosferatu, especially in horror communities. So, let us dispense with the movie recap and interrogate the concepts brought forth by the movie: sexual consent, sexual coercion and the predatory nature of Count Orlok.

In my budding research into Horror Studies, I’ve come across a lack of academic discourse around sexual coercion as well as consent within the genre, which is a bit surprising. Having identified only one collection of essays, entitled Hospitality, Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture: Letting the Wrong One In, and noticing that the base price of this collection essays is $85 (ok, $115 or so if you’re looking for hardcover), there’s an apparent lack of scholarly interest in Ellen’s character, as well as Mina, since they are about the same.

Count Orlok holds heavy sway over a number of characters, in this analysis, Ellen Hutter. Obviously, Ellenis the young and attractive wife of Thomas Hutter. For those Stoker scholars, you know the connection. As the story follows closely the original text for a duration, then veers into the 1922 version of Nosferatu, there’s not much rehashing that is necessary. What is quite astounding in this rendition of the legendary tale is Orlok’s ability to implant himself into Ellen’s dreams, or semi-conscious state. Numerous times, the audience sees Ellen either in a sexually hypnotic or possessed state, where the members of patriarchy attempt archaic methods of medicinal practice, but that subject will be for next week’s Snips.

Prior to their “copulation” at the end of the movie, Orlok’s sexual advances, sinister as they are, begin when Ellen was a younger girl, prior to her marriage to Thomas. The opening of the movie itself portrays a younger Ellen pleading with any deity to remove the loneliness she seems to be suffering from. I conjecture that the term “grooming” is aptly applied in this analysis, as Roxana Hadadi of Vulture describes Ellen’s relationship with Nosferatu as “Within this new Nosferatu, the titular vampire is a stalker, an obsessive, a bad boyfriend who harangues and harasses and won’t leave his ex alone, especially when he learns that she’s happily moved on. Nosferatu haunting Ellen’s dreams is basically him sliding into her DMs, and the sexualized nightmares he forces her into is a kind of revenge porn.”

While the title of Hadadi’s article is “Nosferatu’s Final Moment Is an Act of Consent,” I argue that there is serious grooming and manipulation occurring, limiting the options Ellen has to avoid Nosferatu’s sexual advances. I agree that Ellen does consent to share a bed with Nosferatu, reliving a sexual ecstasy, however what Hadadi does not address are the patriarchal forces at work in Ellen’s life, such as Thomas’ marriage to her, Thomas’ friend Harding, and Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Ellen’s doctor’s mentor). Again, to be revisited next week.

Consider Orlok’s approach to courting Ellen: Orok, being an outsider, seeks to manipulate Ellen in order to fulfill patriarchal desire, with the exception that his violations are violations of her mind. This is most clearly presented in the second half of the film, wherein Orlok returns to Ellen within her dreamstate. Having revealed his full form to Ellen, her reaction is one of disgust, with dialogue such as: “You…I felt you crawling like a serpent in my body,” whereas Orlok observes, “I am an appetite. Nothing more.” Here it’s revealed to the audience the classic scene towards the beginning of Thomas signing a contract, of which he could not read, with Orlok confessing to Ellen, “For a sack of gold did he absolve his nuptial bonds.” As Orlok reminds Ellen of her young passons, her response is quite apt: “I abhor you.”

Of course, Orlok manipulates her further by threatening, and carrying out said threats, to destroy those that she loves most. Were this not a Stoker fiend, but a mortal man, our society would call this extortion, blackmail, etc. To further this allegory, consider the fact that this is all occurring within Ellen’s dreamstate, a clear violation of conscious consent. Orlok, through his powers of coercion, literally penetrates Ellen’s mind while she is most vulnerable, extraordinarily similar to the concept behind various forms of rape. I hesitate to equate this to date rape, however the incapacitation of the survivor is uncanny, in that Ellen’s incapacitation is within her own mind as she slumbers.

Does Ellen consent to be with Orlok at the end? Yes, however, as she was groomed by Orlok over the course of the film, including his carrying out violence against those close to her in order to fulfill said desire, the question arises, did she truly consent? Given the horrific choice to see her loved ones squelched out by his predatory behavior or to succumb to his advances, Ellen chooses the lesser of two evils. In this, yes, she consents, however under extraordinary duress. If Orlok had not fulfilled his threat to destroy those she loved over the course of three nights, Ellen’s absolute refusal of consent would have held.

While Ellen consented, unwillingly, she did so due to the grooming and mental rape that she has endured over the course of the film. Orlok’s sinister courtship with her in her dreams, nightmarish as they are, calls for a deeper conversation about consent and boundaries, within popular vampire literature, and beyond. However, I would love to hear your thoughts on this discourse that is seemingly scarce in feminist approaches to Horror Studies.