A gothic horror about death, covenant, and the insidious nature of evil,
Robert Eggars’ remake of the silent movie masterpiece Nosferatu is a sublime vampire movie of masterful craft and dread-filled atmosphere.
The origins of horror filmmaking can be found in the 1922 German silent movie Nosferatu. Directed by F.W Murnau, this unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula still reigns as the greatest vampire movie of all time, not at least thanks to the lead performance of Max Schreck who embodied the term “spine-tingling” in his portrayal of goblin-esque vampire Count Orlok.
Taking on the challenge of remaking Nosferatu for a modern audience is Robert Eggers, and it is a challenge that the director of The Witch and The Northman vanquishes with his Nosferatu an artistically uncompromising and doom-laden portrait of death personified in the form of an evil supernatural force, whose hunger for the possession of a lonely soul knows no bounds.
Set in the (fictional) German shipping town of Wisborg in 1838, Nosferatu stars Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, a newly-wed woman to estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), whose dark past delivers death to her doorstop in the form of the enigmatic vampire Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard). With the help of Swiss alchemist Prof. Albun Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe), Ellen and Thomas must stop Count Orlok before his foreboding shadow engulfs them all.
A genuinely scary opening scene sets the stage for an unnerving goth horror vampire movie in Nosferatu that (thankfully) takes itself very seriously as Eggars delivers nightmare inducing imagery that seeps dread on the screen. The exquisite dark photography from Jarin Blashke (The Northman) and excellent production design from Craig Lathrop (The Empty Man) transports viewers to a cold and dreary world in which the battle between ancient superstition and crude science reaches a new level as a dark cloud of evil casts a shadow over the “enlightened.”
Lily-Rose Depp delivers a stunning breakthrough lead performance as the unwitting conjurer of darkness and its subsequent obsession; an incredibly compelling turn that is erotic, disturbing and sympathetic in equal measure in her portrayal of a woman plagued by an ancient evil and deemed mad by modern society.
Bill Skarsgard, meanwhile, is absolutely terrifying as Count Orlok, the monstrous vampire whose larger than life (or should that be “death?”) presence and intense gaze is heightened by a shuddering Eastern-European accent that is at once bombastic and earthy, growl and whisper, a by-product of Skarsgard’s performance and excellent sound effects team. Complimenting Skarsgard’s new take on this old classic is terrific creature make-up effects that elevates the game when it comes to physical depictions of a vampire.
With his fourth feature, Eggars has delivered a bold and evocative take on the Dracula tale, delivering a shot of new blood in a sub-genre of horror movie that had lost some bite evert the undead went sparkly. Nosferatu circa 2024 is by no means an improvement on the 1922 original, yet it is an enthralling and terrifying update that will sinks its fangs into you and not let go.
