Jalal doors

In Herzog’s Nosferatu and in Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Harker’s hypnosis at the entrance to the castle is implied by the door that opens on its own (motionlessness of objects is a phenomenon encountered in hypnosis, e.g., the hand of the entranced subject that levitates outside his control following the lead of the hypnotist). The vampire seldom entrances his guest by staring him in the eye; he does so rather by not appearing in the mirror or by the auto-mobility of objects (door, ship, etc.) that his freezing allows. That the door opens on its own for Harker in Coppola’s film indicates either that he is at that point already hypnotized; or that the door is hypnotizing him: the passivity of the guest of the vampire as the door, which has become automobile through the freezing of the vampire, opens or closes on its own before or behind him does not remain at the level of action but becomes extended to the complementary level of intention and will: he or she becomes entranced.

Jalal Toufic, Vampires, an uneasy essay of the undead in film