Category Archives: Film & TV

‘The Damned’ Movie Ending Explained & Summary: Was The Draugur Real?

Directed by Thordur Palsson, The Damned is an Irish horror drama that unfolds in the 19th century at an isolated fishing post. The cinematography, the characterization, as well as the suspenseful build-up, deserve appreciation, and the ambiguous ending leaves room for speculation. Eva, a young widow, owned a fish station, and after her husband’s death, she was responsible for running the place. In the cold, harsh winter, when the fishermen gathered at her post, she took it upon herself to ensure the men did not suffer. Her opinion contradicted Ragnar’s, the helmsman, who believed the men should only focus on the catch; after all, they had agreed to live in the brutal cold for the sake of earning some extra money. The catch was not impressive that year, but for Eva, as long as the fishermen were alive and well, she was content. Things soon took a dramatic turn when a ship of foreign fishermen ended up at the rocky inlet of the bay known as ‘the Teeth.’ Eva and the fishermen had to decide whether they must help the strangers or not.

Spoiler Alert

What was the aftermath of the shipwreck?

After the death of her husband, Magnus, many assumed Eva would sell the fish station, but she later explained that she had nothing left apart from the establishment, and even though the cold was brutal, she chose to continue the work her husband did. Magnus had died at ‘the Teeth’; the rocky waters were almost a death trap, and when the fishermen saw an approaching ship getting stuck there, they immediately knew that there would be no survivors. The question was—should Eva and the fishermen help the strangers, or should they prioritize their well-being? While many were ready to risk their lives thinking that they too could’ve been in the same position and would’ve appreciated if help came their way, both Eva and Ragnar opposed their idea. It was a noble decision, but it involved great risk. Eva aimed to ensure the fishermen survived, and sailing to ‘the Teeth’ was almost like sending an invitation to the Grim Reaper. They watched the shipwreck right before their eyes, and unexpectedly Eva stumbled upon a barrel full of meat the next morning. It was assumed that the barrel belonged to the foreigners who had drowned in the sea the previous day. The sudden discovery of food had them yearning for more, and to grab resources, Eva and Ragnar decided to head to ‘the Teeth’ with the other fishermen. 

Soon after reaching the spot, the fishermen realized there were a few survivors; spotting a boat approaching, the foreigners attempted to board it.. The boat would have toppled if the men were allowed to take a seat, and Ragnar and his group of fishermen had no choice but to forcefully push away the helpless and desperate survivors. Eva was horrified when one of the survivors was stabbed in his eye to keep him from climbing into the boat. They managed to return to the fish station, but in the process, they lost their helmsman, Ragnar. They’d gathered a few bottles of lamp oil and some brandy, and it was certainly not worth the risk they took. Eva felt guilty for risking the lives of the fishermen, and she readily chose Daniel as the new helmsman. She had developed a liking for him and thought he was eligible to take on the challenging role. 

What was Helga’s theory?

The bodies of the foreigners who attempted to climb into their boat were discovered on the shore the next morning. They died in the cold water in complete despair. One of the men, Aron, attempted to steal a watch from a corpse, but Eva stopped and asked him to put it back. The bodies were loaded in caskets, and Eva’s maid, Helga, advised the men to bind the bodies of the corpses with ropes because she was afraid that the strangers would return in the form of draugur, undead creatures found in the folklore of Nordic countries. Unlike spirits, they were thought of as revenants and assumed to possess a corpse-like body. Helga had asked the men to follow old rituals to ensure that they never encountered draugurs, but they dismissed it, thinking it was just old wives’ tales. Immediately after learning about draugurs, Eva started to feel as if she was being followed by a strange supernatural creature. Daniel believed it was simply the harsh weather that had affected Eva’s mind, and he advised her to keep Magnus’ rifle close to her in case she faced actual danger. Daniel taught Eva to use the rifle, and that brought them closer together. 

Were the men truly tormented by a draugur?

Eva often caught herself thinking about the man who was stabbed in the eye, and there was a deep sense of regret along with the fear of encountering the man in the form of a draugur, even though she did not want to believe in the supernatural. With a lack of catch and the death of their helmsman, even after the tragedy that had unfolded, the fishermen had no choice but to continue hunting for food. Eva was startled when she came across a piece of wood with a compass carved into it placed above a door. Helga explained that it was for the hateful draugur to find and it apparently protected the house from evil. Helga believed that it was important they stop the creature before it started manipulating them, and the only way to completely destroy a draugur was to burn it down. 

The fishermen celebrated after a successful day at sea, but to Eva’s dismay, even at the cheerful party, she felt the draugur was staring at her from the corner of the room. The next morning, she woke up to the noise of the fishermen arguing. She discovered that the catch, along with the bait from the previous day, was all gone. It was an unnatural turn of events, to say the least. Eva started to lean towards a supernatural explanation about the whole ordeal. The fishermen were convinced that it was Helga who had stolen their catch, since she was missing. They came across a portion of their catch scattered in the open, half-consumed. Eva and the fishermen even came across Helga’s charm on the way to the caskets they had arranged by the shore. Eva insisted they check the inside of the caskets, and to their surprise, one of the caskets was open, and a body was missing. They followed the rituals that Helga had previously mentioned in the hopes of not coming across another supernatural occurrence. Soon, one of the fishermen, Hakon, was down with a fever, and he started to see things, possibly the draugur. Daniel tried to calm him down, but Hakon warned him that he too would not be spared. Hakon suddenly attacked Daniel and attempted to choke him, and Aron had no option but to strike Hakon with a hammer. Hakon died instantly, and Eva was traumatized seeing the turn of events, and started wondering if Helga had been right all along. 

Soon after the incident, Daniel too started to show symptoms. He complained about a voice at the back of his head, and he too could not stop thinking about the helpless man he’d had to kill at ‘the Teeth.’ He was afraid that the undead were after them, and he feared it more than the spirits of the dead. The fishermen suffered immense guilt for turning a blind eye to the suffering of the strangers who died in the shipwreck and for denying help to those who survived. In an attempt to cope with the guilt, a fisherman proposed they build a holy cross on the headland. It was an ambitious project, given that the fishermen had been starving for days. Jonas decided to build the cross alone when no one agreed to join him. It was his way of seeking redemption. 

Meanwhile, Daniel fell on the ice and injured his face. Eva stitched the wound, but his temperature was still high. Skuli explained how Daniel had gone to hunt seals, but when he returned, it was almost as if he had seen death in the eye, and that was when he slipped and fell on the ice. Skuli remembered seeing only a silhouette of a man in the thick mist. The following morning, when Eva entered Daniel’s room, he attempted to stab her, and all she could do was beg him to stop. He ended up slitting his own throat, and he collapsed to the ground. Daniel’s death convinced the remaining fishermen and Eva that the draugur was after them, and they wondered if there truly was any way for them to escape it. The only option they had was to destroy it, and Eva suggested that they try to find the creature near the grave, but in the process, Skuli fell off the cliff and died. Eva eventually came across Helga’s frozen corpse, and it was evident that the draugur had gotten to her head just like Helga had predicted. 

Was The Draugur Real?

During The Damned’s ending, Eva heard the draugur enter her room. She hastily hid herself under her bed, but the undead found her. She attempted to escape and managed to grab hold of a knife to keep the creature at bay. She pointed her rifle in his direction and pulled the trigger, stating that she would not let him get in her head. Eva proceeded to burn the cabin to destroy the draugur, as Helga had advised her. Eva felt a sense of relief as she walked out of the cabin, screaming out loud that it was finally over. 

Up until now, it seemed that the draugur was the reason behind the torment and suffering of the fishermen, the only other logical explanation was that the cold, hunger, isolation, and their close encounter with death were why they had started to hallucinate. They felt extremely guilty and bought into the story of the draugur coming to punish them. Deep within, they believed they deserved to be tortured for not helping the men stranded at ‘the Teeth’. 

The Damned’s ending scene adds more to the conflicting thoughts that you might have had regarding the draugur. While Eva watched the cabin burn, she had a flashback in which instead of the draugur, there was a man in her room. He was a foreigner who claimed to be a fisherman, and he explained that he had lost everything in the shipwreck. He apologized for stealing their food (this explained the disappearance of their catch from the storage room). He believed it was his anger and drive for vengeance that made him react a certain way. He had lost his brother in the shipwreck, the one who had the fancy watch that Aron had noticed, and all he wanted was their boat to head back home. There is a high possibility that an actual human being had been lingering among them all along, and they’d assumed it was the spirit of the undead, which resulted in their mind playing tricks on them, and ultimately their deaths. Maybe the man had realized that the fishermen were hallucinating and simply tricked them to his advantage. Going by this theory, he possibly had removed his brother’s corpse from the casket, drowned him at sea, and kept his watch. Maybe he wanted his brother’s spirit to be free instead of being trapped in an isolated fish station, or perhaps he intended to take his body home, and that was why he kept the body away. The man did not seem to be entirely honest, because he had every intention of attacking Eva had she not pulled the trigger. He had been eyeing the knife and would have attacked her and run away with the boat. The other possible theory is that he was indeed the draugur. Instead of the monstrous creature, Eva saw the dead man for who he was in the end. Maybe as the undead, he was still unaware that he had no way to return and was trapped in a strange reality. The uncertain ending leaves enough room for guessing, and that somewhat makes it all the more interesting. 

Related

‘The Damned’ Movie Ending Explained & Summary: Was The Draugur Real?

Directed by Thordur Palsson, The Damned is an Irish horror drama that unfolds in the 19th century at an isolated fishing post. The cinematography, the characterization, as well as the suspenseful build-up, deserve appreciation, and the ambiguous ending leaves room for speculation. Eva, a young widow, owned a fish station, and after her husband’s death, she was responsible for running the place. In the cold, harsh winter, when the fishermen gathered at her post, she took it upon herself to ensure the men did not suffer. Her opinion contradicted Ragnar’s, the helmsman, who believed the men should only focus on the catch; after all, they had agreed to live in the brutal cold for the sake of earning some extra money. The catch was not impressive that year, but for Eva, as long as the fishermen were alive and well, she was content. Things soon took a dramatic turn when a ship of foreign fishermen ended up at the rocky inlet of the bay known as ‘the Teeth.’ Eva and the fishermen had to decide whether they must help the strangers or not.

Spoiler Alert

What was the aftermath of the shipwreck?

After the death of her husband, Magnus, many assumed Eva would sell the fish station, but she later explained that she had nothing left apart from the establishment, and even though the cold was brutal, she chose to continue the work her husband did. Magnus had died at ‘the Teeth’; the rocky waters were almost a death trap, and when the fishermen saw an approaching ship getting stuck there, they immediately knew that there would be no survivors. The question was—should Eva and the fishermen help the strangers, or should they prioritize their well-being? While many were ready to risk their lives thinking that they too could’ve been in the same position and would’ve appreciated if help came their way, both Eva and Ragnar opposed their idea. It was a noble decision, but it involved great risk. Eva aimed to ensure the fishermen survived, and sailing to ‘the Teeth’ was almost like sending an invitation to the Grim Reaper. They watched the shipwreck right before their eyes, and unexpectedly Eva stumbled upon a barrel full of meat the next morning. It was assumed that the barrel belonged to the foreigners who had drowned in the sea the previous day. The sudden discovery of food had them yearning for more, and to grab resources, Eva and Ragnar decided to head to ‘the Teeth’ with the other fishermen. 

Soon after reaching the spot, the fishermen realized there were a few survivors; spotting a boat approaching, the foreigners attempted to board it.. The boat would have toppled if the men were allowed to take a seat, and Ragnar and his group of fishermen had no choice but to forcefully push away the helpless and desperate survivors. Eva was horrified when one of the survivors was stabbed in his eye to keep him from climbing into the boat. They managed to return to the fish station, but in the process, they lost their helmsman, Ragnar. They’d gathered a few bottles of lamp oil and some brandy, and it was certainly not worth the risk they took. Eva felt guilty for risking the lives of the fishermen, and she readily chose Daniel as the new helmsman. She had developed a liking for him and thought he was eligible to take on the challenging role. 

What was Helga’s theory?

The bodies of the foreigners who attempted to climb into their boat were discovered on the shore the next morning. They died in the cold water in complete despair. One of the men, Aron, attempted to steal a watch from a corpse, but Eva stopped and asked him to put it back. The bodies were loaded in caskets, and Eva’s maid, Helga, advised the men to bind the bodies of the corpses with ropes because she was afraid that the strangers would return in the form of draugur, undead creatures found in the folklore of Nordic countries. Unlike spirits, they were thought of as revenants and assumed to possess a corpse-like body. Helga had asked the men to follow old rituals to ensure that they never encountered draugurs, but they dismissed it, thinking it was just old wives’ tales. Immediately after learning about draugurs, Eva started to feel as if she was being followed by a strange supernatural creature. Daniel believed it was simply the harsh weather that had affected Eva’s mind, and he advised her to keep Magnus’ rifle close to her in case she faced actual danger. Daniel taught Eva to use the rifle, and that brought them closer together. 

Were the men truly tormented by a draugur?

Eva often caught herself thinking about the man who was stabbed in the eye, and there was a deep sense of regret along with the fear of encountering the man in the form of a draugur, even though she did not want to believe in the supernatural. With a lack of catch and the death of their helmsman, even after the tragedy that had unfolded, the fishermen had no choice but to continue hunting for food. Eva was startled when she came across a piece of wood with a compass carved into it placed above a door. Helga explained that it was for the hateful draugur to find and it apparently protected the house from evil. Helga believed that it was important they stop the creature before it started manipulating them, and the only way to completely destroy a draugur was to burn it down. 

The fishermen celebrated after a successful day at sea, but to Eva’s dismay, even at the cheerful party, she felt the draugur was staring at her from the corner of the room. The next morning, she woke up to the noise of the fishermen arguing. She discovered that the catch, along with the bait from the previous day, was all gone. It was an unnatural turn of events, to say the least. Eva started to lean towards a supernatural explanation about the whole ordeal. The fishermen were convinced that it was Helga who had stolen their catch, since she was missing. They came across a portion of their catch scattered in the open, half-consumed. Eva and the fishermen even came across Helga’s charm on the way to the caskets they had arranged by the shore. Eva insisted they check the inside of the caskets, and to their surprise, one of the caskets was open, and a body was missing. They followed the rituals that Helga had previously mentioned in the hopes of not coming across another supernatural occurrence. Soon, one of the fishermen, Hakon, was down with a fever, and he started to see things, possibly the draugur. Daniel tried to calm him down, but Hakon warned him that he too would not be spared. Hakon suddenly attacked Daniel and attempted to choke him, and Aron had no option but to strike Hakon with a hammer. Hakon died instantly, and Eva was traumatized seeing the turn of events, and started wondering if Helga had been right all along. 

Soon after the incident, Daniel too started to show symptoms. He complained about a voice at the back of his head, and he too could not stop thinking about the helpless man he’d had to kill at ‘the Teeth.’ He was afraid that the undead were after them, and he feared it more than the spirits of the dead. The fishermen suffered immense guilt for turning a blind eye to the suffering of the strangers who died in the shipwreck and for denying help to those who survived. In an attempt to cope with the guilt, a fisherman proposed they build a holy cross on the headland. It was an ambitious project, given that the fishermen had been starving for days. Jonas decided to build the cross alone when no one agreed to join him. It was his way of seeking redemption. 

Meanwhile, Daniel fell on the ice and injured his face. Eva stitched the wound, but his temperature was still high. Skuli explained how Daniel had gone to hunt seals, but when he returned, it was almost as if he had seen death in the eye, and that was when he slipped and fell on the ice. Skuli remembered seeing only a silhouette of a man in the thick mist. The following morning, when Eva entered Daniel’s room, he attempted to stab her, and all she could do was beg him to stop. He ended up slitting his own throat, and he collapsed to the ground. Daniel’s death convinced the remaining fishermen and Eva that the draugur was after them, and they wondered if there truly was any way for them to escape it. The only option they had was to destroy it, and Eva suggested that they try to find the creature near the grave, but in the process, Skuli fell off the cliff and died. Eva eventually came across Helga’s frozen corpse, and it was evident that the draugur had gotten to her head just like Helga had predicted. 

Was The Draugur Real?

During The Damned’s ending, Eva heard the draugur enter her room. She hastily hid herself under her bed, but the undead found her. She attempted to escape and managed to grab hold of a knife to keep the creature at bay. She pointed her rifle in his direction and pulled the trigger, stating that she would not let him get in her head. Eva proceeded to burn the cabin to destroy the draugur, as Helga had advised her. Eva felt a sense of relief as she walked out of the cabin, screaming out loud that it was finally over. 

Up until now, it seemed that the draugur was the reason behind the torment and suffering of the fishermen, the only other logical explanation was that the cold, hunger, isolation, and their close encounter with death were why they had started to hallucinate. They felt extremely guilty and bought into the story of the draugur coming to punish them. Deep within, they believed they deserved to be tortured for not helping the men stranded at ‘the Teeth’. 

The Damned’s ending scene adds more to the conflicting thoughts that you might have had regarding the draugur. While Eva watched the cabin burn, she had a flashback in which instead of the draugur, there was a man in her room. He was a foreigner who claimed to be a fisherman, and he explained that he had lost everything in the shipwreck. He apologized for stealing their food (this explained the disappearance of their catch from the storage room). He believed it was his anger and drive for vengeance that made him react a certain way. He had lost his brother in the shipwreck, the one who had the fancy watch that Aron had noticed, and all he wanted was their boat to head back home. There is a high possibility that an actual human being had been lingering among them all along, and they’d assumed it was the spirit of the undead, which resulted in their mind playing tricks on them, and ultimately their deaths. Maybe the man had realized that the fishermen were hallucinating and simply tricked them to his advantage. Going by this theory, he possibly had removed his brother’s corpse from the casket, drowned him at sea, and kept his watch. Maybe he wanted his brother’s spirit to be free instead of being trapped in an isolated fish station, or perhaps he intended to take his body home, and that was why he kept the body away. The man did not seem to be entirely honest, because he had every intention of attacking Eva had she not pulled the trigger. He had been eyeing the knife and would have attacked her and run away with the boat. The other possible theory is that he was indeed the draugur. Instead of the monstrous creature, Eva saw the dead man for who he was in the end. Maybe as the undead, he was still unaware that he had no way to return and was trapped in a strange reality. The uncertain ending leaves enough room for guessing, and that somewhat makes it all the more interesting. 

Related

‘Nosferatu’ Movie Ending Explained & Summary: Is Ellen Dead?

Robert Eggers’ intriguing new gothic horror film, Nosferatu, has arrived on video-on-demand, although its visual brilliance and intense atmospheric presentation warrant a watch on the big screen. A remake of Murnau’s 1922 cult classic, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, the film follows Ellen and Thomas Hutter, a loving newlywed couple whose lives are suddenly thrown upside down because of an old curse and the presence of a terrible supernatural presence. Overall, Nosferatu is definitely a great film driven by the rich visuals and acting performances and is a must-watch for every horror fan.

Spoiler Alert

What Is The Film About?

Nosferatu begins with a young woman praying to some guardian angel she reveres very passionately, as tears roll down her cheeks and make the intense nature of her plea very evident. She prays for the angel, or the spirit, to come to her and bring her comfort, and her calls are soon answered in a highly supernatural manner. Visible only in shadows, a tall, looming figure appears to enter the room and lift her up, following which the woman is seen sleepwalking in the garden in front of her house. The scene then shifts to many years later, in 1838, at the town of Wisburg, Germany, where a young couple struggles to find enough time for each other. Very recently married, Thomas and Ellen are deeply in love with each other and wish to spend all day together, but the very natural need for money to keep the family afloat gets in the way of their romance. 

As an employee of a company called the Knock & Associates Estate Agents, Thomas is used to commissioning the sale of properties to interested customers, and so he feels grateful when his boss, Herr Knock, calls upon his service for a new sale. Herr Knock reveals that he has been in advanced talks with a foreign count who has been interested in buying a home in Wisburg, and that an old and abandoned property in the town, called the Grunewald Manor, has been selected for the sale. Thomas is a bit confused as to why someone would want to buy such an extremely old and rundown house as Grunewald Manor, but Herr Knock assures him that the count has been specifically looking for such a property. Therefore, to ensure that the sale is carried through without any problems, Thomas has to travel to the count’s castle, somewhere in the high reaches of the Carpathian Mountains, east of Bohemia, and carry out the final talks and also possibly the signing of the contract. 

Despite the somewhat unnatural and suspicious air about the whole deal, and also the need to travel to a distant corner of the continent, Thomas Hutter agrees to take the job in order to earn the commission from the sale and secure the financing of his new home with Ellen. However, the newlywed Ellen does not agree with the need to spend so much time away from her so soon after marriage. Moreover, Ellen seemingly senses that something odd might happen to her husband, and her ability to feel certain things from before is evident from her earlier proclamation about Thomas being sent away from the country even before he had reached his workplace. Nonetheless, Thomas ultimately leaves home after helping Ellen move in with his friend Friedrich Harding, not aware that a dark and dangerous horror is about to turn his life upside down.

Who is Count Orlok?

Thomas Hutter’s journey to the foreign country, which is clearly Transylvania (as mentioned in the original source of both Eggers and Murnau’s films, Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel, Dracula), begins in a usual manner but starts to take an odd turn when he reaches the Carpathian Mountains. One night during his journey through the snowy mountains, Thomas stops for rest at a local village, where he is initially the center of all attention, quite understandably, being a foreigner. But when he reveals that his aim is to reach the castle of Count Orlok, the distinguished gentleman who is about to buy Grunewald Manor, the village elder refuses to let him stay. It is only when Thomas offers a significantly higher amount of money for shelter that he is allowed to spend the night at the village. However, his sleep is disturbed by the loud chants of the villagers in the middle of the night, as a procession is held to the nearby graveyard. Out of curiosity, Thomas follows the procession to see the villagers dig up an old grave and strike the dead body with a stake, with blood gushing out of it in an unnatural manner.

The next morning, Thomas wakes up to find the whole area abandoned, with the villagers having taken away his horse as well. He has to walk through the heavily snowed fields and forests until a horse-drawn carriage seemingly being driven by nobody appears in front of him and throws open its doors for him, as if it has been magically sent only for him. The carriage finally takes him up the mountain to the grand but old castle of Count Orlok, which is steeped in darkness and mystery. Thomas’ first introduction to Count Orlok is already quite creepy and uneasy, as the man seems as ancient as his castle itself, with frail, ghostly fingers and long nails protruding out of them. But what is even more sinister is the count’s attitude towards Thomas and his hurry to get the contract signed right away, without even letting him rest for the night. Finally, the contract is drawn up by Count Orlok himself, in a foreign language that he claims to be the noble tongue used by his family, and although Thomas cannot understand even a word of the document, he is pressed into signing it. 

It is after the contract has been signed that the truly unholy nature of Count Orlok starts to reveal itself gradually, beginning with Thomas having the most horrific nightmares during his stay at the castle. His situation becomes such that he fails to differentiate between reality and his nightmares, and starts to lose control over his mind very soon. As he goes around exploring the lifeless castle one day, Thomas stumbles upon an old stone sarcophagus and removes its lid to get the worst shock of his life. He finds Count Orlok’s naked and rotting corpse inside the coffin and tries to strike it with a stake just like the villagers had done earlier. However, much to his horror, the count wakes up and gives chase, even employing a pack of wild wolves to attack Thomas. The young man somehow escapes by jumping out of a window into the river flowing beside the castle and is then rescued by a group of women far downriver.

It is this group of religious women who warn Thomas that the dark and dangerous shadow of Count Orlok is still hunting for him, while explaining that the count is an embodiment of pure evil. They reveal that the count was originally an enchanter, or sorcerer, during his lifetime, who regularly indulged in black magic and seemingly made pacts with the Devil. As a result, the Devil himself ensured that Count Orlok’s evil soul could once again possess his corpse and go about committing blasphemy after his death, and this brought him back to life, in a way. Around the same time as Thomas goes through all this ordeal, Ellen suffers some strange episodes of somnambulism and seemingly possession of her soul back in Wisburg, and a learned scientist and occult researcher, Albin Eberhart Von Franz, is consulted by Friedrich and his doctor, Willhelm Sievers. It is Albin who clarifies, a bit later in the film, that Count Orlok is actually a feared demonic being better known as Nosferatu. 

Thus, Count Orlok, or Nosferatu, is actually a vampire who feeds off the blood of humans and other animals in order to stay alive even after his death. With every possible supernatural ability at his disposal, he confuses Thomas with the nightmares and visions, only so that he can bite into the young man’s body and drink blood from it in order to survive. The count’s actual identity is the reason why the villagers refused to let Thomas rest at their village after they learned that he was going to the castle in order to conduct some business with Count Orlok himself. Vampires, or similar supernatural beings, are seemingly common in this part of the world, because of which the villagers often dig up bodies of suspected vampires and strike them with stakes. It is most likely that they abandon the village after realizing that Thomas is already somewhat in control of Orlok, and in a last attempt to stop him from going up to the castle, they steal his horse as well. However, Thomas realizes the dangerous nature of Count Orlok a bit too late, and as he recovers and then rides back to Wisburg, Nosferatu is already on his way there aboard a ship.

Why does Nosferatu desire to unite with Ellen?

After Nosferatu arrives at Wisburg, he is wholly determined to unite with Ellen at all costs, and he does not even bother to keep his human appearance anymore. It is gradually revealed in Nosferatu that there is an old connection between the demonic being and the woman, which stemmed from Ellen’s sensitive nature as a child. Both because of her emotionally sensitive nature and also because of her strange physical ailments of somnambulism and apparent seizures, Ellen was a very lonely child, neglected by not just others her age but also by her own parents. As she grew into a teenager and then a young adult, the girl desperately yearned for some company and attention, and so she prayed with all her might for some angel or spirit to connect with her. At the beginning of the film, we are shown one such instance of her trying to invite some spirit to give her company. Unfortunately, it was the evil spirit Nosferatu that reached out to her, and they both gradually developed a psychic bond, the exact nature of which is not revealed in the film.

However, when she grew up some more and eventually found Thomas in her life, Ellen disregarded all psychic and spiritual bonds to marry the young man and start a loving family of her own. This upset Nosferatu tremendously, for he always wanted her only for himself, and the marriage was technically a betrayal of the spiritual bond that Ellen had unknowingly made with him. Therefore, he started to hatch a plan to get close to her, beginning with appearing in her visions and warning her that he was soon coming to unite with her. This was where Herr Knock, a devil worshipper himself, came into the picture, as he agreed to work for Nosferatu and intentionally send Ellen’s husband, Thomas, to Transylvania. The contract for the sale of Grunewald Manor was just a ruse, for Nosferatu wanted to trick Thomas into annulling his marriage with Ellen. This is exactly what he does, by making him sign a document written in a foreign language, which actually states that Thomas willingly ends his marriage with Ellen for a bagful of gold coins, which he was indeed paid by the vampire.

Both because of the spiritual bond they had established and also the overwhelming feelings from his side, Nosferatu yearns for Ellen with all his being. He craves to have her attention and also to make love to her physically, because of which he hatches the elaborate plan and he even takes away the locket she had given to Thomas, with a lock of her hair inside it. Therefore, Nosferatu can be seen, in a twisted sense, as a tale of a demanding lover refusing to accept his beloved’s choice of moving on in life, and the vampire can be easily compared to a toxic ex-lover who desires to control every facet of one’s life even years after separation. 

Did Thomas save his beloved wife?

When Nosferatu arrives at Wisburg, he brings a devastating plague with him, which starts to kill hundreds of people with every passing day. As Ellen refuses to give herself to Nosferatu, as she still loves Thomas and wishes to be with him, the vampire threatens to hurt everyone close to the couple. He kills the young children of Friedrich Harding, and also his wife, Anna, who were the closest friends of Thomas and Ellen. With all this death being caused by the vampire, both Thomas and Ellen decide to take matters into their own hands, although Thomas feels that he is about to save his wife from the monster. Thomas, Albin Eberhart, and Dr. Sievers set out to journey to Grunewald Manor and kill Nosferatu with a stake. They spot his coffin too, but then realize that Herr Knock, who had vowed to serve as the vampire’s slave, has taken his master’s place in the coffin, after having sensed that the men will come to kill Nosferatu.

On the other side of town, Ellen realizes that she has to be the one to bring an end to the monster, and so she technically uses herself as bait. She invites Nosferatu during the night and then finally agrees to be his lover, knowing well that this would distract him till the morning. As Nosferatu happily consummates their union and then drinks her blood, the sun does rise and kill him, finally bringing an end to his cursed existence and all the death and suffering that he had brought along with him. Therefore, Thomas is not able to save his beloved wife from the vampire but finds Ellen dead with Nosferatu on her bed.

Why does Ellen sacrifice herself?

In Nosferatu’s ending, Ellen makes an ultimate sacrifice in order to stop the plague and the series of deaths by giving up her own life in the process. There was an inherent feeling of shame and guilt in Ellen which she carried in herself ever since she bonded with the vampire. This bond, in itself, stemmed from a deep and overbearing sense of loneliness, and although she knew that welcoming Nosferatu was purely evil, she had gone through with it. She had always known that the vampire would come to claim her, and that its dark presence left a shadow in her life, which was apparent by how Ellen dreamt of her marriage with Death, which killed everyone gathered at the ceremony.

Therefore, in a sense, Ellen always knew what she had to do in order to get rid of Nosferatu, and having once cherished the company of evil in her lonely life, the only solution for her now was to embrace evil once again. Her acceptance of Nosferatu in the end is synonymous with her marriage with evil, as even the words she utters are ones used during a marriage. But unlike her dream, this acceptance does not kill others, but prevents death and suffering, and Ellen becomes a savior of the tormented. Despite having to give in to Nosferatu’s demands in a physical sense, Ellen does protect the life of Thomas, who would have soon been killed by the vampire, thus making it apparent that she loved Thomas more than anyone else in the physical or spiritual realm. 

What Do the Flowers Symbolize?

The fact that the same flowers that Thomas used to bring her often are seen strewn over a side of her dead body seems to suggest that she still had her beloved husband on her mind, even in the very final moments. In the beginning of the film, Ellen said, “why have you killed these beautiful flowers,” suggesting that men always want to possess things, to make them their own, unaware of the fact that plucking something as delicate as the flowers from their root not only robs them off their beauty and independence but also kills them slowly. Her next line in the scene, “they will only die in a few days” also points out how Ellen had already prophesied what was about to come. Throughout the film, she kept telling people that she could see the future and maybe she had seen her death too or these flowers lying dead beside her corpse. 

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‘Nosferatu’ Movie Ending Explained & Summary: Is Ellen Dead?

Robert Eggers’ intriguing new gothic horror film, Nosferatu, has arrived on video-on-demand, although its visual brilliance and intense atmospheric presentation warrant a watch on the big screen. A remake of Murnau’s 1922 cult classic, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, the film follows Ellen and Thomas Hutter, a loving newlywed couple whose lives are suddenly thrown upside down because of an old curse and the presence of a terrible supernatural presence. Overall, Nosferatu is definitely a great film driven by the rich visuals and acting performances and is a must-watch for every horror fan.

Spoiler Alert

What Is The Film About?

Nosferatu begins with a young woman praying to some guardian angel she reveres very passionately, as tears roll down her cheeks and make the intense nature of her plea very evident. She prays for the angel, or the spirit, to come to her and bring her comfort, and her calls are soon answered in a highly supernatural manner. Visible only in shadows, a tall, looming figure appears to enter the room and lift her up, following which the woman is seen sleepwalking in the garden in front of her house. The scene then shifts to many years later, in 1838, at the town of Wisburg, Germany, where a young couple struggles to find enough time for each other. Very recently married, Thomas and Ellen are deeply in love with each other and wish to spend all day together, but the very natural need for money to keep the family afloat gets in the way of their romance. 

As an employee of a company called the Knock & Associates Estate Agents, Thomas is used to commissioning the sale of properties to interested customers, and so he feels grateful when his boss, Herr Knock, calls upon his service for a new sale. Herr Knock reveals that he has been in advanced talks with a foreign count who has been interested in buying a home in Wisburg, and that an old and abandoned property in the town, called the Grunewald Manor, has been selected for the sale. Thomas is a bit confused as to why someone would want to buy such an extremely old and rundown house as Grunewald Manor, but Herr Knock assures him that the count has been specifically looking for such a property. Therefore, to ensure that the sale is carried through without any problems, Thomas has to travel to the count’s castle, somewhere in the high reaches of the Carpathian Mountains, east of Bohemia, and carry out the final talks and also possibly the signing of the contract. 

Despite the somewhat unnatural and suspicious air about the whole deal, and also the need to travel to a distant corner of the continent, Thomas Hutter agrees to take the job in order to earn the commission from the sale and secure the financing of his new home with Ellen. However, the newlywed Ellen does not agree with the need to spend so much time away from her so soon after marriage. Moreover, Ellen seemingly senses that something odd might happen to her husband, and her ability to feel certain things from before is evident from her earlier proclamation about Thomas being sent away from the country even before he had reached his workplace. Nonetheless, Thomas ultimately leaves home after helping Ellen move in with his friend Friedrich Harding, not aware that a dark and dangerous horror is about to turn his life upside down.

Who is Count Orlok?

Thomas Hutter’s journey to the foreign country, which is clearly Transylvania (as mentioned in the original source of both Eggers and Murnau’s films, Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel, Dracula), begins in a usual manner but starts to take an odd turn when he reaches the Carpathian Mountains. One night during his journey through the snowy mountains, Thomas stops for rest at a local village, where he is initially the center of all attention, quite understandably, being a foreigner. But when he reveals that his aim is to reach the castle of Count Orlok, the distinguished gentleman who is about to buy Grunewald Manor, the village elder refuses to let him stay. It is only when Thomas offers a significantly higher amount of money for shelter that he is allowed to spend the night at the village. However, his sleep is disturbed by the loud chants of the villagers in the middle of the night, as a procession is held to the nearby graveyard. Out of curiosity, Thomas follows the procession to see the villagers dig up an old grave and strike the dead body with a stake, with blood gushing out of it in an unnatural manner.

The next morning, Thomas wakes up to find the whole area abandoned, with the villagers having taken away his horse as well. He has to walk through the heavily snowed fields and forests until a horse-drawn carriage seemingly being driven by nobody appears in front of him and throws open its doors for him, as if it has been magically sent only for him. The carriage finally takes him up the mountain to the grand but old castle of Count Orlok, which is steeped in darkness and mystery. Thomas’ first introduction to Count Orlok is already quite creepy and uneasy, as the man seems as ancient as his castle itself, with frail, ghostly fingers and long nails protruding out of them. But what is even more sinister is the count’s attitude towards Thomas and his hurry to get the contract signed right away, without even letting him rest for the night. Finally, the contract is drawn up by Count Orlok himself, in a foreign language that he claims to be the noble tongue used by his family, and although Thomas cannot understand even a word of the document, he is pressed into signing it. 

It is after the contract has been signed that the truly unholy nature of Count Orlok starts to reveal itself gradually, beginning with Thomas having the most horrific nightmares during his stay at the castle. His situation becomes such that he fails to differentiate between reality and his nightmares, and starts to lose control over his mind very soon. As he goes around exploring the lifeless castle one day, Thomas stumbles upon an old stone sarcophagus and removes its lid to get the worst shock of his life. He finds Count Orlok’s naked and rotting corpse inside the coffin and tries to strike it with a stake just like the villagers had done earlier. However, much to his horror, the count wakes up and gives chase, even employing a pack of wild wolves to attack Thomas. The young man somehow escapes by jumping out of a window into the river flowing beside the castle and is then rescued by a group of women far downriver.

It is this group of religious women who warn Thomas that the dark and dangerous shadow of Count Orlok is still hunting for him, while explaining that the count is an embodiment of pure evil. They reveal that the count was originally an enchanter, or sorcerer, during his lifetime, who regularly indulged in black magic and seemingly made pacts with the Devil. As a result, the Devil himself ensured that Count Orlok’s evil soul could once again possess his corpse and go about committing blasphemy after his death, and this brought him back to life, in a way. Around the same time as Thomas goes through all this ordeal, Ellen suffers some strange episodes of somnambulism and seemingly possession of her soul back in Wisburg, and a learned scientist and occult researcher, Albin Eberhart Von Franz, is consulted by Friedrich and his doctor, Willhelm Sievers. It is Albin who clarifies, a bit later in the film, that Count Orlok is actually a feared demonic being better known as Nosferatu. 

Thus, Count Orlok, or Nosferatu, is actually a vampire who feeds off the blood of humans and other animals in order to stay alive even after his death. With every possible supernatural ability at his disposal, he confuses Thomas with the nightmares and visions, only so that he can bite into the young man’s body and drink blood from it in order to survive. The count’s actual identity is the reason why the villagers refused to let Thomas rest at their village after they learned that he was going to the castle in order to conduct some business with Count Orlok himself. Vampires, or similar supernatural beings, are seemingly common in this part of the world, because of which the villagers often dig up bodies of suspected vampires and strike them with stakes. It is most likely that they abandon the village after realizing that Thomas is already somewhat in control of Orlok, and in a last attempt to stop him from going up to the castle, they steal his horse as well. However, Thomas realizes the dangerous nature of Count Orlok a bit too late, and as he recovers and then rides back to Wisburg, Nosferatu is already on his way there aboard a ship.

Why does Nosferatu desire to unite with Ellen?

After Nosferatu arrives at Wisburg, he is wholly determined to unite with Ellen at all costs, and he does not even bother to keep his human appearance anymore. It is gradually revealed in Nosferatu that there is an old connection between the demonic being and the woman, which stemmed from Ellen’s sensitive nature as a child. Both because of her emotionally sensitive nature and also because of her strange physical ailments of somnambulism and apparent seizures, Ellen was a very lonely child, neglected by not just others her age but also by her own parents. As she grew into a teenager and then a young adult, the girl desperately yearned for some company and attention, and so she prayed with all her might for some angel or spirit to connect with her. At the beginning of the film, we are shown one such instance of her trying to invite some spirit to give her company. Unfortunately, it was the evil spirit Nosferatu that reached out to her, and they both gradually developed a psychic bond, the exact nature of which is not revealed in the film.

However, when she grew up some more and eventually found Thomas in her life, Ellen disregarded all psychic and spiritual bonds to marry the young man and start a loving family of her own. This upset Nosferatu tremendously, for he always wanted her only for himself, and the marriage was technically a betrayal of the spiritual bond that Ellen had unknowingly made with him. Therefore, he started to hatch a plan to get close to her, beginning with appearing in her visions and warning her that he was soon coming to unite with her. This was where Herr Knock, a devil worshipper himself, came into the picture, as he agreed to work for Nosferatu and intentionally send Ellen’s husband, Thomas, to Transylvania. The contract for the sale of Grunewald Manor was just a ruse, for Nosferatu wanted to trick Thomas into annulling his marriage with Ellen. This is exactly what he does, by making him sign a document written in a foreign language, which actually states that Thomas willingly ends his marriage with Ellen for a bagful of gold coins, which he was indeed paid by the vampire.

Both because of the spiritual bond they had established and also the overwhelming feelings from his side, Nosferatu yearns for Ellen with all his being. He craves to have her attention and also to make love to her physically, because of which he hatches the elaborate plan and he even takes away the locket she had given to Thomas, with a lock of her hair inside it. Therefore, Nosferatu can be seen, in a twisted sense, as a tale of a demanding lover refusing to accept his beloved’s choice of moving on in life, and the vampire can be easily compared to a toxic ex-lover who desires to control every facet of one’s life even years after separation. 

Did Thomas save his beloved wife?

When Nosferatu arrives at Wisburg, he brings a devastating plague with him, which starts to kill hundreds of people with every passing day. As Ellen refuses to give herself to Nosferatu, as she still loves Thomas and wishes to be with him, the vampire threatens to hurt everyone close to the couple. He kills the young children of Friedrich Harding, and also his wife, Anna, who were the closest friends of Thomas and Ellen. With all this death being caused by the vampire, both Thomas and Ellen decide to take matters into their own hands, although Thomas feels that he is about to save his wife from the monster. Thomas, Albin Eberhart, and Dr. Sievers set out to journey to Grunewald Manor and kill Nosferatu with a stake. They spot his coffin too, but then realize that Herr Knock, who had vowed to serve as the vampire’s slave, has taken his master’s place in the coffin, after having sensed that the men will come to kill Nosferatu.

On the other side of town, Ellen realizes that she has to be the one to bring an end to the monster, and so she technically uses herself as bait. She invites Nosferatu during the night and then finally agrees to be his lover, knowing well that this would distract him till the morning. As Nosferatu happily consummates their union and then drinks her blood, the sun does rise and kill him, finally bringing an end to his cursed existence and all the death and suffering that he had brought along with him. Therefore, Thomas is not able to save his beloved wife from the vampire but finds Ellen dead with Nosferatu on her bed.

Why does Ellen sacrifice herself?

In Nosferatu’s ending, Ellen makes an ultimate sacrifice in order to stop the plague and the series of deaths by giving up her own life in the process. There was an inherent feeling of shame and guilt in Ellen which she carried in herself ever since she bonded with the vampire. This bond, in itself, stemmed from a deep and overbearing sense of loneliness, and although she knew that welcoming Nosferatu was purely evil, she had gone through with it. She had always known that the vampire would come to claim her, and that its dark presence left a shadow in her life, which was apparent by how Ellen dreamt of her marriage with Death, which killed everyone gathered at the ceremony.

Therefore, in a sense, Ellen always knew what she had to do in order to get rid of Nosferatu, and having once cherished the company of evil in her lonely life, the only solution for her now was to embrace evil once again. Her acceptance of Nosferatu in the end is synonymous with her marriage with evil, as even the words she utters are ones used during a marriage. But unlike her dream, this acceptance does not kill others, but prevents death and suffering, and Ellen becomes a savior of the tormented. Despite having to give in to Nosferatu’s demands in a physical sense, Ellen does protect the life of Thomas, who would have soon been killed by the vampire, thus making it apparent that she loved Thomas more than anyone else in the physical or spiritual realm. 

What Do the Flowers Symbolize?

The fact that the same flowers that Thomas used to bring her often are seen strewn over a side of her dead body seems to suggest that she still had her beloved husband on her mind, even in the very final moments. In the beginning of the film, Ellen said, “why have you killed these beautiful flowers,” suggesting that men always want to possess things, to make them their own, unaware of the fact that plucking something as delicate as the flowers from their root not only robs them off their beauty and independence but also kills them slowly. Her next line in the scene, “they will only die in a few days” also points out how Ellen had already prophesied what was about to come. Throughout the film, she kept telling people that she could see the future and maybe she had seen her death too or these flowers lying dead beside her corpse. 

Related

‘The Brutalist,’ the Golden Globe-Winning New Movie, Is the Story of a Holocaust Survivor…

Alessandro Nivola and Adrien Brody in “The Brutalist” (Courtesy of A24) Stephen Silver One of the most acclaimed and praised movies of 2024 is about a Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor who comes to the United States, settles in Philadelphia and ends up supervising a massive construction project in Doylestown, Bucks County. The film is…

‘The Brutalist,’ the Golden Globe-Winning New Movie, Is the Story of a Holocaust Survivor…

Alessandro Nivola and Adrien Brody in “The Brutalist” (Courtesy of A24) Stephen Silver One of the most acclaimed and praised movies of 2024 is about a Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor who comes to the United States, settles in Philadelphia and ends up supervising a massive construction project in Doylestown, Bucks County. The film is…

This dark comedy thriller is the No. 1 movie on Max — and it’s 92% on Rotten Tomatoes

“A Different Man” hit Max on Friday and it’s already the top movie on the streaming service. Of course, maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise. The dark comedic thriller has been praised by almost everyone who has watched it, earning a 92% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Our entertainment editor even called it “one of the best thriller movies of 2024.”It’s not just critics here and elsewhere who are raving about the movie, either. The movie’s star Sebastian Stan has earned several awards nominations and even a Golden Globes win for his performance in this movie and it’s likely that either it or his performance in “The Apprentice” as Donald Trump will earn him his first Oscar nomination.But maybe you missed “A Different Man” in theaters or when it became available to rent or buy on premium video-on-demand (PVOD) services and now that it’s on Max you’re curious as to what it’s about. Well, we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything you need to know about “A Different Man.”What is “A Different Man” about?

A Different Man | Official Trailer HD | A24 – YouTube

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“A Different Man” stars Sebastian Stan as Edward, a struggling actor who suffers from neurofibromatosis. This condition causes benign tumors that disfigure his face, causing him to be socially awkward. To finally live the way he thinks he deserves, he undergoes a secret procedure to cure his condition. Once he’s sure it works, he fakes his own death and assumes the false identity of “Guy Moratz.”Things initially go well. “Guy” gets a role in an off-Broadway play about Edward where he plays his old identity and starts a relationship with its producer Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), who he had secretly been attracted to when he was Edward. But then Oswald (Adam Pearson), a man with neurofibromatosis just like Edward had, appears and starts succeeding where Edward had failed. He even starts taking away the spotlight from “Guy,” which launches Edward/Guy into a downward spiral.Here’s what critics are saying about “A Different Man”As mentioned, this dark comedy thriller has been getting rave reviews from critics across the board. Most seem to praise it for its “surreal” examination of very serious themes. Writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, critic Sandra Hall praised the movie for exactly this, calling it “An audacious and mordantly funny attempt to analyse a subject that’s so often regarded as taboo.”Of course, the film also garners praise for its twin performances at the movie’s core. John Anderson of the Wall Street Journal says “Yes, there’s a sermon of sorts at the center of A Different Man. But the message arrives post-movie, thanks to a narrative that is consistently compelling in its novelty, and twin performances that really do get under the skin.”Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.And while Stan’s performance as Edward/Guy is currently the one garnering the awards season buzz, Pearson’s performance also garners plenty of praise. It should — Pearson suffers from neurofibromatosis in real life, and without his authentic experience with this subject matter, it’s very likely that the movie wouldn’t resonate the way it has.Finally, the movie excels thanks to its ability to move through and defy genres. In his review for Tom’s Guide, our own Rory Mellon dubbed it “genre-hopping genius” and praised the thriller for its ability to flow from comedy to drama to thriller in an “appealing package.”So if you’re now sold on this dark comedy thriller — and you should be — then you’ll need to head over to Max to watch it.

From Alliances With Emily Henry and A24 to Splashy ‘BookTok’ Acquisitions, How Lyrical Media Is Writing a New Story in TV, Film and Even Gaming and Comics

Lyrical Media chief Alex Black got swarmed with “a million emails and messages” on the day it was announced his young production company was teaming with Ryder Picture Company on a film adaptation of Emily Henry‘s best-selling 2024 rom-com “Funny Story,” screen-written by the author herself.
A big get for any studio, the deal was particularly noteworthy for a three-year-old company still establishing itself in Hollywood and going up against the old guard for top titles and talent.

“In the meeting, I think we were able to really pitch to Emily that we would be great partners on this project because of our understanding of the material and our ability to make independent movies — not necessarily indie movies — that allows us to just work more nimbly and do what’s best for the project,” Lyrical Media’s vice president of film and TV Natalie Sellers said. “Emily got really excited about and she actually was the one who really wanted to adapt it herself, and we could not have been more excited about that idea.”

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Sellers says the “Funny Story” script “is coming along truly so well,” but it’s actually just one of many high-profile projects set up at Lyrical, which has its eyes on expanding across film, TV, gaming and comics.

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Founded by Black in 2021, Lyrical has released Neon’s “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” (its debut film) and “Bruiser,” its first collaboration with Ryder Picture Company, which landed at Hulu. Lyrical has since signed a first-look deal with Ryder and is currently producing the A24 films “The Death of Robin Hood,” starring Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer, and “Onslaught,” Adam Wingard’s action thriller starring Adria Arjona.

Left to right: Lyrical’s Natalie Sellers, Alex Black, Jon Rosenberg

Additional on-screen projects include Henry’s “Funny Story” movie, a TV adaptation of Lauren Roberts’ best-selling YA novel “Powerless” with “Anyone But You” filmmaker Will Gluck, a film based on romance author Brynne Weaver’s “Butcher & Blackbird,” and the Anthony Mackie and Morena Baccarin-led post-apocalyptic action film “Elevation.”

The company has also set a partnership with graphic novelist James Tynion IV’s multimedia production company, Tiny Onion, which Lyrical backed with a seed investment, and co-published the post-punk puzzle VR game “Lovesick” with Rose City Games for Meta Quest.

“The thesis of Lyrical is this idea that we want to be doing what is unique and fresh, and that we can breathe young and new life into all these different mediums,” Sellers said. “I think it just so happens right now the popularity of stories for women and around women, something like ‘Barbie,’ is something that we are collectively excited about in general. And a lot of more female-driven love stories. But it’s also happening in horror. You look at movies like ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Talk to Me,’ and there’s a new wave of popcorn-but-still-genre-blending horror. And so we’re jumping into that, too.”

As Black puts it, Sellers is a “reading machine” who has spotted several of their acquisitions via her keen eye for what’s popular among those in the TikTok reading community known as “BookTok.” But she’s not the only one at Lyrical who is pitching, with each of the seven employees at the small company encouraged to be “their own kind of creative producer,” per Black.

“A member of the development team was just watching shorts on Vimeo and found an incredible short and said, ‘Let’s go find this person. I think this should be a movie,’” Sellers said. “And we found this filmmaker who had no representation, did not live in the U.S., on Instagram from just genuinely reaching out to her. So that sort of idea, springs from everyone at the company being pretty young. And we’re looking for exciting filmmakers in our own free time, because it’s what we dig. “

Sellers added: “A lot of it is just born out of, this is the stuff that, if we didn’t all work in film, I think we’d be reading, watching, listening to in our own free time, anyways, which I think makes it easier to just always, know what’s new, what’s fresh, what’s exciting.”

As Lyrical expands, it’s preparing its first TV project, an adaptation of YA fantasy book “Powerless,” and Sellers is preparing to learn all about a part of the industry that’s new to her.

“For something like ‘Powerless,’ I went after that book and was really excited about it,” Sellers said. “I felt that it should be television, just because there’s so much story there. We’re very new to television, but our sort of superpower in the TV space, at least, is that we have development financing. We can go after big, exciting pieces of IP, like ‘Powerless,’ that a lot of production companies who don’t have financing can’t. And then we can utilize productions that do television and hopefully learn the space and make great stuff that we’re excited about.”

Lyrical president Jon Rosenberg says the company is always “looking for people that make us smarter” and “who can point us in the right direction” in each medium they enter.

“We have the great fortune of working with Aaron Ryder and his company, Ryder Picture Company,” Rosenberg said. “Aaron is, dollars for donuts, one of the best independent producers out there. His credits speak for themselves. On the graphic novel side of things, James Tynion is in rarefied air as one of the few three-time winners of the Eisner Award, which puts him alongside. Alan Moore. And James was the youngest person to ever be handed the keys to the Batman franchise at DC.”

As for gaming, Rosenberg says it’s “a funny one because gaming has such specific architecture.”

“I’m pretty sure any game developer who heard the way we were talking would tear their hair out, because you really need to build a game mechanic,” Rosenberg said. “I mean, there have been some great licensed games, like the ‘Arkham’ series is one of the greatest licensed series of all times. But it’s very, very hard. If someone were just like, ‘Oh, we own the rights to The Muppets — we’re gonna do a Muppets video game.’ It’s like, well, what is the game? But I do think there are these very specific IPs where it kind of could be anything, and those are world building opportunities that haven’t yet really come across our desk. But that would be amazing, to make a film or a graphic novel where it just screamed real-multimedia, world-building potential in a way that didn’t feel ham-fisted.”

When it comes to the idea of expansion beyond just increasing output of projects — i.e., mergers and acquisitions — Black has interest, but is cautious.

“If there were really great opportunities, particularly in the gaming space, that could be really interesting,” Black said. “Jon and I’ve talked about Lyrical Phase 2, which we feel like we’re just starting now, and if we could scale and even improve upon what we’ve started to do in the past year, even that, to me, would be a great goal five years from now.”

What Black really wants is for Lyrical to reach the point where it is “thought of as one of the premier storytelling companies, and if that was true regardless of medium.”

“I think there’s a lot of room for growth in every vertical we’re doing, certainly on the film side,” he said. “We love working with A24. They deserve all the recognition they get. They’re wonderful to work with, and we love the caliber filmmaker that we’re working with. We’d love to scale that. We’d love to scale the partnerships we’ve already built, as well as create new ones, potentially in new verticals.”

Warriors coach Steve Kerr dodges inauguration coverage for game film before 40-point loss

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, a noted critic of President Trump, said he avoided watching Monday’s inauguration coverage to prepare for the evening’s game against the Boston Celtics. 

“I chose to watch the Celtics tape,” he said with a laugh. 

The Warriors lost in a 125-85 blowout, the worst home defeat since Kerr took the coaching job in 2014.

Kerr traded barbs with Mr. Trump throughout the Republican’s first term. The Warriors did not visit the White House after their NBA championships in 2017 and 2018. 

Kerr spoke at last year’s Democratic National Convention, predicting a landslide victory for Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential nominee, as he imitated star guard Steph Curry’s “night, night” celebration. After November’s election, the nine-time NBA champion struck a conciliatory tone. 

“I believe in democracy,” Kerr said after Mr. Trump’s triumph. “I think the American people have spoken and voted for Trump. I want him to do well the next four years. I want our country to do well.”

New UK far-right group exposed as members secretly filmed saying migrants ‘should be shot’

Shocking new footage filmed secretly has revealed the racist comments made by a far right group.Now Dame Sara Khan, a former Counter-Extremism Commissioner, is calling on the government to change the law to make extremist groups illegal even if they do not incite violence.She made the claims after watching the undercover footage obtained by the BBC which shows activists from the far-right group Patriotic Alternative making racist comments.The footage shows members of the group who campaign on behalf of “indigenous British people” calling for illegal immigrants to be shot and skinned alive.Dame Sarah argued that groups such as Patriotic Alternative should be made illegal to prevent them from normalising their extremism in society.She told the BBC: “They should absolutely not be allowed to operate with impunity, we’ve seen their recent activity and their contribution towards public disorder in the summer riots.“It’s incredibly urgent… unless something changes, I’m afraid we’re going to continue to see groups like PA radicalise our children and make us a weaker and less democratic society.”Criminal barrister Ramya Nagesh used the example of those given custodial sentences for inciteful language online during riots last year to make the case for a change in the law.She said: “After the Southport riots, we saw prosecutions of individuals who’d posted even just one or two messages on their social media platforms and those messages (recorded by the BBC) were arguably not as inflammatory.”The BBC recently went undercover with the group in Merthyr Tydfil where they protested against the housing of migrants in hotels.Whilst there, one demonstrator Roger Phillips told an undercover reporter that “35 to 40 of us were prepping, arming ourselves”He added: “I’m buying a pump action shotgun now.”Who do you think is going to fight these migrants? Us lot.”Mr Phillips later claimed that the information was false and that he was aware that he was speaking to an undercover reporter. Another member of the group was recorded telling the reporter that migrants should be shot.Aaron Watkins, who recently lost his job at HMRC after he was caught making racist comments, said: “The communities that are the most diverse are the people we want to get rid of, violently preferably.”Round them up into camps and if they refuse to leave, we shoot them. The people who come here are parasites.”In another shocking incident, an activist was filmed comparing African people to dogs and suggesting that slaves had been happy to work for white people.Blair Cottrell told group members: “An old lady was stabbed to death by a gang of African kids. When you look at the way things happen in Africa, the only language they understand is violence.”The only way to effectively respond to a crime that they’ve committed as heinous as what I described is to literally skin them.“You hang a few of their bodies up across some traffic lights or something. Just theoretically of course, I can’t condone it.”A Home Office spokesperson said: “We work closely with law enforcement, local communities and our international partners to tackle groups and individuals who sow division and hatred.”