Vampirism, Homosexuality, and Anti-Semitism in Nosferatu

Similar to Clover's "Men, Women, and Chainsaws", the book which Benshoff eventually based on this essay, "Monsters in the Closet" has been very influential in my thinking. I think Nosferatu is something of a complicated example for Benshoff's theory however. there are many aspects of Nosferatu that are clearly queer, such as Count Orlok's homosexual tendencies (mostly notably in his desire for the bodily fluid of Jonathan), and the "decadent" German expressionist aesthetic of the film, and of course the fact that it was directed by a gay man, F.W. Murnau (thus Nosferatu would qualify as a homo-horror film in two of Benshoff's ways, via subtext and via authorship). However, I find that Count Orlok not as queer as other early film monsters. Unlike Frankenstein's monster, or the Creature from the Black Lagoon, or a Cat Person, I personally do not empathize with Count Orlok--there is something "other" and even kind of gross about him that goes beyond his moments of queer-coding. I think that even Lugosi's Dracula can be better empathized with than Shreck's Orlok, and I think this may because of another, more troubling subtext at play within the film. This is of course, the subtext which presents Orlok as a anti-semitic Jewish stereotype.

This troubling depiction is obviously captured in the physical appearance of Orlok, but there is more to it than that. Orlok is also associated his money, rats, decadence, and disease, further anti-semitic associations. This other subtextual aspect of Nosferatu makes it slightly more difficult to read Orlok as a relatable queer character, as he also functions as a regressive and very dangerous anti-semitic stereotype.

I think these multiple aspects of Orlok's character are, however, very helpful in Freud's concept of overdetermination. In short, the image of Orlok cannot be boiled down into one essential aspect (e.g. homosexuality or Jewishness) but rather each of these are essential aspects of his rendering. The creation of a monster (such as Orlok) within a film is akin to the creation of our nightmares--unconscious and repressed traumas coalescing into one, overdetermined icon of our fear.