Nosferatu

Eggers has an incredible passion for western folk. He's not interested in being scary, he's not interested in sending a message, he's interested in bringing back a story to its root historical context, and put you in that period shoes. Vlad the Impaler is not sexy; 19th century man feared women sexuality like dark magic. Ellen's sin is her sexual desire (her "lower animal functions") that awakens a demon in a rational world were such creatures are forgotten. Rational men can't understand her, female hysteria must be cured. Their understanding of the world it's pure hubris. But she will be the one that cures the world.

Until the 19th century it was believed that orgasms were a cure to female "hysteria", a vague term to could also define whatever was wrong with femininity. Doctors practiced a "pelvic massage" to patients. And indeed Ellen's hysteria was solved by marriage, and returned when her husband prefers to go to work instead to stay home and prolong the honey moon. When he's back she is mad that he left her alone just for the money, and she is desperate for a good fuck, but also ashamed by it, and he fears the demon that it's inside her. Nosferatu is the one that made her discover her sexuality, and Ellen and Nosferatu often overlaps: earlier she kiss her husband putting an hand on his neck, like Nosferatu does; while Nosferatu move on Thomas body like a woman when he sucks his blood, and Thomas see his wife face. In a way, sometimes it feels like they are both victims of their nature, and of each others. I think that in the end, while holding Nosferatu head between her hands, she dies accepting her demon side, without any more shame.