MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT / MOVIES

‘Nosferatu’ fans are still disturbed by that one scene involving Nicholas Hoult: "It looked like..."

While ‘Nosferatu’ garnered much love from fans, one particular scene didn't sit well with many.

The horror flick 'Nosferatu' which launched in the United States on December 25, deftly transformed the holiday season into a chilling one. Directed by 'The Lighthouse' star Robert Eggers, Nosferatu was set against the backdrop of 1838. The movie follows Ellen Hutter (played by Lily-Rose Depp), who is being haunted by the Transylvanian vampire Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård). This set the stage for a high-stakes drama which garnered much love from fans. However, one particular scene didn't sit well with many.

'Nosferatu' is a harrowing tale that ends in tragedy, as Orlok continues to bring death and plague to the city. Amidst this chaos, Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe) devises a daring plan to end the vampire’s reign by destroying his coffin, rendering him vulnerable to sunlight. Thomas, fueled by rage and grief, takes up the task of piercing Orlok’s heart with an iron stake. However, their mission is fraught with unexpected turns of events upon discovering a chilling twist: the coffin they target does not hold Orlok but his minion, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), serving as a decoy. This shocking development leads to Ellen sacrificing herself as she lures Orlok to her bedroom and offers herself willingly, allowing him to drink her blood, leading to the demise of both her and the mythical creature.

While the movie was cinematic brilliance, netizens expressed their disdain over Orlok biting Ellen's chest instead of her neck, making the scene unnecessarily inappropriate. As per FandomWire, on a Reddit thread, a critic penned, "YES, it was chilling. Like watching a sexual assault scene. The sound design of the bloodsucking, the gasping, the rats… a very visceral experience." Another chimed, "Fangs biting her chest instead of her neck made me wince in discomfort so hard. I still wince thinking about it." A comment also read, "The shot of Orlok drinking the blood of Thomas was so unsettling. It looked like a sexual assault with the way it was staged and shot. Like, why was the Orlok gyrating his hips as he was sucking blood?"

Director Eggers also addressed Orlok’s unsettling choice to drink blood from victims’ chests in 'Nosferatu'. He argued that it was a nod to folkloric vampire traditions. In a conversation with Games Radar, Eggers shared, "But in folklore, when people are experiencing vampiric attacks, it's similar to old hag syndrome [a colloquial term for sleep paralysis] where you have pressure on your chest, so people interpreted it as vampires drinking blood from their chest. But there are also folk vampires who didn't drink blood but just fornicated with their widows until their widows died from it. So I think it's all part of the source material…"

Eggers also acknowledged the impracticality of piercing a breastbone. He noted that this creative decision added a distinctive layer to the film that is different from the conventional neck bite associated with vampire lore. While the scenes may appear uncomfortable, considering the way they were filmed, it's safe to say that 'Nosferatu' not only delivers the finest horror film of 2024 but also brings an intriguing twist on the old mythology of vampires.