After years of being stalled from going into production, Robert Eggers’ latest film, Nosferatu, has reached theaters. So, does this adaptation of the seminal vampiric tale live up to its predecessor and long list of other notable works in the genre?
Written for the screen and directed by Eggers, it’s clear from the very beginning that this is a labor of passion for not just the original Nosferatu film released in 1922 but the mythos surrounding vampires as a whole and even the period from which the literary vampire first began to grow in popularity. Eggers’ short (but incredibly impressive) filmography shows an evident dedication to period-accurate costumes, production, set design, and even lighting, and that’s no different with Nosferatu.
If anything, Robert Eggers digs deeper than he ever has before into folklore and mythology of the past. In Nosferatu, superstitions become a deadly and alluring reality that seemingly can’t be escaped while also grounding itself in sickness and plagues that were all too real. Right from the start, Nsoferatu, much like the titular creature himself, immediately puts viewers in his grip from the perspective of Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), a lonely and melancholic woman who, early in her youth, called out for any sort of spiritual comforting and company, and is instead met with the opposite.
Several years later, Ellen finds the love and company she was looking for in Thomas Hutter (Nicolas Hoult), a real estate agent who, in trying to give his wife a more lavish lifestyle, agrees to go to meet a Transylvanian Count named Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) to complete the paperwork for him to acquire a decrepit old mansion in the German port city of Wismar where Thomas lives, all at the behest of his boss, the unsettling Herr Knock (Simon McBurney). So, the events of Nosferatu begin to unfold in a terrifying and disturbing fashion, as Rober Eggers successfully creates his most ambitious and terrifying film to date.
Much of the original film’s premise is kept intact, and whatever changes in Eggers’ reconstruction are done to suit the story’s themes better. Whatever can be kept intact is, especially in the film’s replication of the setting of the original movie: 1800’s Germany, which is recreated via filming in the Czech Republic, is slowly transformed through the absence, and soon presence, of Count Orlok. However, his journey to get there is long and winding and Eggers’ script makes the iconic movie monster feel less like a threat that can be stopped and more like an inevitable malevolent force.
Skarsgård as Count Orlok feels like an amalgamation of everything that works in the film. While not an exact recreation of Max Schreck’s version of the character, Skarsgård maintains the same tall and imposing presence the original had, only with a completely different look. With a mix of prosthetics and an exceptional and haunting vocal performance, the actor is unrecognizable as Orlok. The deep, bassy voice sounds unearthly, and the deep heaves of breath the character takes will have you on edge every second he’s on screen. It takes some time before he’s fully revealed to the audience, but by the time we fully see him, it’s completely absorbing.
In remaking F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror (1922), Eggers weaves the separate encounters that Ellen and Thomas have with Count Orlok seamlessly and even adds a meatier role for Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Anna (Emma Corrin) Harding, a more affluent couple who are close friends with the Hutter’s, and end up caring for Ellen while Thomas is away on his doomed travels.
Related: Y2K Is High on Nostalgia But Low on Substance [Review]
Each performance here looks effortless – Thomas’ naivety and innocence feel genuine and not contrived thanks to Hoult’s charm and genuine fear he puts on display in the presence of Orlok. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the skeptic that’s expected in every movie like this, only his transition to belief (at significant personal cost) hits harder than expected as Taylor-Johnson gives his all in his role. Emma Corrin isn’t given as much to do, but what material she does have is executed well. Frequent Eggers collaborator Ralph Ineson plays a minor role as Dr. Siever, a medical man over his head.
Lily-Rose Depp is at the center of this haunting battle against the evil that is Nosferatu, and the character’s hold on her feels so convincing. The physicality and change in Depp’s vocal performance resulted in the most powerful performance of the film. Willem Dafoe, as occult scientist Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz, arrives late in the movie but steals every scene he is in, as Eggers gives him some powerful monologues to deliver that play into the actor’s erratic screen presence that will have your eyes glued to the screen.
Most lighting in the film is done by candlelight, further immersing audiences in the 1800s period while also surrounding characters in a darkness that will leave you unsure of what’s lurking around the corner. Shadows are conveyed as more of a means of transportation for Orlok than anything else. The monster’s confrontations with Ellen are tense and are the dramatic high points of the film.
Whether it’s Ellen’s sleepwalking and sometimes terrifying convulsing episodes or Thomas’ dream-like trip in Romania, Eggers and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke somehow give the film a unique and desaturated look while also evoking the black and white silent film era in which the first Nosferatu was made. Much of the character developments are conveyed physically, especially in the uncanny abilities of Count Orlok, with clever editing transitions and camera work to make shifts in perspective feel seamless, and frightening images intercut in the most unexpected places that make them almost feel subliminal.
The only complaint that can be found with the film is its pacing and structure, as the build-up to Orlok’s arrival and the rest of the character’s crusade against the vampire leads to a rushed conclusion. As cathartic (and disturbing) as the final “confrontation” is, it feels a bit too sudden after the audience’s long journey to see it come to fruition.
Still, Nosferatu is an enrapturing, dark (literally and metaphorically), and disturbing remake. Robert Eggers has taken the creative sensibilities of silent films to craft a reimagining that beckons viewers to experience the classic tale through a modern lens, with a reconstruction of the original story that sticks to what worked 100 years ago while also diving deeper into story elements that it feels only Eggers could have achieved. It is one of the best horror films of the past few years that, despite its rushed story beats in the final stretch, has left its mark on Vampiric mythology in a remake that could go toe-to-toe with its predecessor.
Nosferatu is now playing in theaters.
Published: Dec 25, 2024 06:03 pm