Stories Tell Truths Society Won't
The one where we talk about Nosferatu, hard truths, and how to balance real life with entrepreneurship
Happy Monday, friends!
Have you ever noticed that stories can address taboos and hard truths that everyone else isn’t willing to talk about? We need art that tells these bold truths and opens up these conversations so that we can make our society a better place. Thank you to
for sharing their thoughts about the conversations that show up in the newly released film Nosferatu! They write about a ton of interesting topics in pop culture over on their page so you should totally check them out. :)As this review points out, bold storytelling is crucial to the saving of our society. At One Brilliant Arc (OBA) Media, we love to teach you how to tell these world-changing stories. The world needs your voice!
Cheers,
(OBA Media Newsletter Editor-in-Chief)
P.S. Scroll all the way down for a fun update on our podcast, “Let’s Talk Stories!”
The team at OBA Media is here to help you craft stories that are honest and bold. We want to hear about the story you are writing and help you tell it well.
Nosferatu: Caress of Oblivion
Reimagining a Horror Icon
Robert Eggers' 2024 adaptation of Nosferatu offers a visually stunning and atmospheric retelling of a beloved & classic vampire tale, blending meticulous period detail with a haunting narrative. In the eyes of many this is more than just a horror film — Nosferatu serves as a deep meditation on power, desire, and the ways society confines and controls women.
Count Orlok: A Domineering Presence
Bill Skarsgård delivers a grotesque and menacing portrayal of Count Orlok, capturing the primal fear associated with the character. He isn't just a monster in the supernatural sense—he also embodies the predatory figures that lurk in the shadows of history, taking what they desire without any empathy or consequence.
As we know, our society has many layers and a sinister underbelly that we seldom like to confront. Orlok in this film can be compared to an incel not simply because of how he looks or where he dwells, but because he's developed a sick obsession with a young woman who is, for lack of a better phrase, mentally ill and emotionally unstable.
Ellen, in a moment of intense vulnerability, called out to the void and moon for anything that could rescue her from her grim circumstances and put an end to her loneliness. While this isn't an ideal remedy to her situation it is very understandable and relatable to us who are experiencing hostile realities in a feral modern age.
As we go through our lives, there are times when we accelerate and rush our own suffering and pain instead of remaining patient and finding creative solutions to resolving our issues at a comfortable pace.
For all that bargaining and pleading, though, Ellen only inflamed her trauma and basically bought herself first-class tickets to a world of shit by the end. Be that as it may, Count Orlok throughout the film — while in dogged pursuit of a chick that truly DOES NOT want his ass nor asked HIM specifically to rescue her from her melancholy (Victorian era depression) — is locked in fierce competition with Ellen’s husband, Thomas.
Thomas does love his wife immensely, but unfortunately his gentle demeanor isn't built to withstand or last in an increasingly hyper-capitalistic society. He ignores what Ellen truly needs, which is mental / emotional support; she needs for him to simply be by her side and listen to what she has to say; she needs him to lead with love and not his wallet.
Fast forward a bit and Thomas ends up signing over the rights to his wife unknowingly in exchange for gold. I feel like Thomas — even if the contract he signed wasn't written in some antediluvian vampiric language — would've likely still signed if the price was pretty enough and the ROI was enchanting enough. Thomas is living off of the philosophy of C.R.E.A.M (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) & despite his claims of doing all of these reckless activities for the sake of Ellen, his chief motivator was and will likely remain the cash flow.
Even so, Thomas is not nearly as wealthy as his co-workers nor is he a success by societal standards of the time. As a result, he's willing to risk it all to secure the bag at the expense of the health of his marriage. Ellen repeatedly tells him that they don't need all the materialistic baubles & trinkets. She tells him that they don't need some gargantuan manor or servants, but they do need each other.
Regardless of how Ellen feels on the subject, money talks and Thomas gives her what I like to call passive “Whatever Stfu kisses” and with eyes as big as silver dollars and a mind consumed with thoughts of money, he rushes out to meet Orlok in a nightmare land where the people are extremely superstitious and creepy and where the sun seems to never shine.
During Thomas’ stay in nightmare land, he witnesses a local practice where the locals put a booty naked virgin on a stallion and sends the stallion to walk until it finds a vampire's grave. The villagers are alerted immediately when the stallion refuses to walk any further & Tom is left watching in absolute horror as the villager's stake the ghoulish vampire through the heart.
Thomas then suddenly wakes the next morning with muddy boots, a protective talisman around his neck, & a village that's completely cleared out with not a soul in sight. Thomas, for the thirst of money, then makes an arduous trek to the pre-arranged pick-up spot. A black carriage arrives, and he's whisked away Studio Ghibli style to a whole other realm that's somehow much worse than the nightmare land he'd been traversing.
Count Orlok's castle in this realm is colossal, likely bigger than any property Thomas has ever seen in his life and everything about it screams grandiose & ancient money, which far supersedes money that's just plain old. Thomas steps inside and instead of a warm greeting, Orlok makes demands in a voice that's overly authoritative and abrasive for no reason.
Orlok shortly after demands to be addressed as “LORD” and when I watched this movie, I instantly recognized this as a power play. The title “Lord” can be compared to someone demanding that they be addressed as Dr., Senator, Governor, CEO, King, Queen, thought leader, Mogul, Tycoon, Founder, Co-CEO, Champion, President, or Prime Minister.
These titles are all heavy and carry a copious amount of authority & prestige. To have any one of these titles attached to your name means that you are verified and have made yourself golden in the game of capitalism.
It seems that Orlok is winning the game of power against Thomas. It’s a cakewalk to the Blood Lord, for all that he lacks in terms of attractiveness and literal life Orlok is the fastest gun in town & the most dominant dog in the junkyard.
By the standards of society Orlok has beaten the game many moons ago and is superior to Tom on every level that counts. From the lens of romance he could be seen as the Alpha, who is THE MOST desired to beautiful women of every flavor and stripe worldwide. However, as we see, Orlok is insane, unhinged, grotesque, and rotten inside and out.
No, this man is not a good person in any way. His presence is overbearing / suffocating, and his only allure is being paid up & being an almighty supernatural being. But Thomas isn’t much better due to his intense carnal hunger for status and wealth, which is coupled with a complete disregard for his wife and his focus on providing only the financials and nothing else beyond that.
Lily-Rose Depp: A Standout Performance
Lily-Rose Depp's portrayal of Ellen is both heartbreaking and compelling. She is not merely a damsel in distress, but a woman navigating a world that sees her as property rather than a person. Her quiet resilience in the face of inevitable doom makes her one of the most tragic characters in modern cinema.
Lily-Rose had a lot of fascinating moments as Ellen, Lord Orlok's object of obsession, but what I found most interesting was how everyone around Ellen found constricting her body with a tight corset (which are historically known to leave bruises and even break ribs), keeping her bed bound, blood-letting her like cattle at the slaughterhouse, and drugging her constantly until she was smacked out of her mind & soaring from the chemicals to be more preferable than actually giving a damn and helping her when she needed it most.
To the quack doctors surrounding her and the people who are supposed to genuinely care about her THIS WAS proper medical procedure for an unhinged and unruly woman. In the scenes where Ellen is being treated there is seldom any regard or gentleness shown, which foreshadows the issues that women face today when seeking out effective medical care or an accurate diagnosis for an illness or just about any other medical emergency.
Ellen in this film is let down over & over again, and perhaps the saddest part about this is that they dismiss everything by basically saying: “Oh, women are crazy and overly emotional, just give the bitch her knockout elixirs and lock her tf up in the house before she embarrasses us all with her mad delusions & her fairy ways.”
Women as Possessions: Prizes to Be Won
Throughout the film Ellen is treated more as an object rather than an individual. She exists merely as a prize in the power struggle between men, from her husband’s attempts to “protect” her to Orlok’s obsession with possessing her. The film highlights how women are often stripped of autonomy, reduced to trophies in male-dominated conflicts.
The Illusion of Choice: Ellen’s Tragic Fate
At the end of this film, for the first time in her life, Ellen makes a choice—to sacrifice herself for the greater good, which means saving her entire city from Orlok's plague. However, the film presents this as a false choice. Her agency comes at the cost of her life, reinforcing the idea that women are only permitted control when it serves the needs of others.
The tragedy is not just her death, but the realization that she was never truly free to begin with and that her legacy is ultimately sacrifice & not fulfilling her potential or achieving her own definition of prosperity within her lifetime. These are the greater horrors, in my eyes.
Women Dismissed and Failed by Society
Ellen, like many women throughout history & in the present, is ignored and discounted when she tries to voice any concerns or opinions. The men around her refuse to acknowledge her warnings given about Nosferatu and flat-out silence her when she tries to speak out against the mistreatment and neglect she's experiencing.
This movie unfortunately echoes the eternal struggle for women to reclaim their agency in a world that repeatedly cripples their progress, burns the cards in their decks, and pulls the rug of opportunity out from under them. Power can never be pure or noble if it’s obtained at someone else’s expense or if it’s something you must force onto someone at a clear disadvantage.
This is what the film does such an excellent job of showcasing with Thomas, Orlok, and the other male characters. In Nosferatu, the only true power rests with the rising sun because it was able to not only wipe the slate clean for everyone involved but finally put a stop to Ellen’s suffering & eliminate Orlok permanently.
Power Games Among Men at the Expense of Women
Nosferatu at its heart is a horror story. It is also a tale of power and dominance. The men in the film engage in a battle for control—over each other and over Ellen. She is caught in a web of male ambition, a pawn in a game she never agreed to play.
Silencing Victims: Society’s Neglect and Cruelty
What I love most about this movie is its willingness to take risks with its story & not shy away from showing how society mistreats and neglects victims. Ellen is a woman who had so many repressed desires and lacked the mental healthcare & environment that would've drastically altered her quality of life for the better.
This woman was smothered and isolated all her life and sadly had her wings clipped before she even had the chance to fly. Her fate was to be denied a chance at living a full life & then be sacrificed so that others could go on to live their best lives in her place. This is a chilling reminder of how victims are often expected to endure long suffering in silence.
The true horror of Nosferatu is not just in its supernatural elements but in its painfully realistic portrayal of how society discards those it deems inconvenient. Honestly, this varies wildly from women to our youth; the abused; the poor & financially struggling; single mothers & fathers; the working-class Jane & Joe; immigrants; people of color; children; and those of us representing the LGBTQ+ community.
Embracing the Taboo: Confronting Our Darkest Desires
Beneath the beauty of its cinematography & the rich aspects of gothic horror, Nosferatu is a story about confronting the forbidden. The film forces viewers to examine their own primal fears and suppressed desires, questioning what we hide and why. It suggests that true peace comes not from denial but from understanding, accepting, controlling, and then refocusing the darker & more primal aspects of our nature.
This film is therapeutic & a deep meditation on power, sacrifice, and the forces that shape our lives. Its deliberate pacing and atmospheric tension may not be everyone's cup of tea & could be considered an acquired taste, but its exploration of gender dynamics and unnerving societal truths makes it an incredibly thought-provoking experience.
If you appreciate slow-burn horror with a gothic aesthetic and multi-layered themes, this film is essential viewing & one that becomes more enjoyable after each watch.
For its immaculate depth, cinematic beauty, symbolism, and incredible performances, I rate Nosferatu 2024 8/10 diamond’s 💎💎💎💎💎💎💎💎 [For a full weekend movie extravaganza, watch after From Dusk Till Dawn, Underworld 1&2, Blade II & Blade: Trinity, Hugh Jackman’s Van Helsing, The Strain TV series, Stephen King’s Rose Red, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, & 30 Days of Night.]
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In honor of
’s birthday (go wish our intrepid founder a happy birthday!) we told him he was not allowed to work and thus we don’t have an “After Hours” episode for you this week. So you have a week to catch up on our past episodes!However, we do have fun news: we’re renaming our “After Hours” segment with Jared Moses to “Director’s Cut,” because later in the month we want to have an After Hours with all of us. We’ll hop on a SUBSTACK LIVE after we finish recording a podcast episode and have a mini chat/nerd party with all of you! Keep an eye out for more details on this coming soon and give this post a ❤️ if you’re excited for this to happen.
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CAPTAIN’S LOG
2/9/2025
Ambitious plans, big dreams, and hard work are all important in order to get a business off the ground, but so is consistency. In working as a team here at OBA, we know we need to find the sweet spot between pushing ourselves and finding sustainability so that we can keep consistency. The thing is, that sweet spot keeps changing based on factors of life. This past week, it had to lean more towards the bare minimum of sustainability because life threw things at us that made us each crash a little bit mentally and physically. And that’s okay. ❤️🩹 As hard as it is to take the good advice yourself than it is to give it, we truly believe that we need to prioritize our own wellness before we can effectively pour into a mission for the benefit of others.
At our team meeting this past week, we set our goals for the month and #1 is consistency. We are so grateful for all of you who are here for the beginning of this wild journey—we owe our motivation and purpose to YOU, and we give you permission to keep us accountable to our goals. We wouldn’t be here without you!