Nosferatu (2024)
Happy New Year! It’s ironic that Nosferatu was my last movie of 2024, seeing as it’s been a good year for vampire movies. Abigail. Last Voyage of the Demeter. Miller’s Girl.
OK, just kidding on that last one, but Miller’s Girl was pretty soul-sucking, so it might as well be a vampire movie. Anywhoo…
Nosferatu seems to be a return to form and although it’s supposed to be a remake of the 1922 F.W. Murnau classic, it’s more like a mashup of Murnau and 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
For those who might not be familiar with the original film (and I’m gonna give a few spoilers throughout this review, so be warned), it’s an unauthorized film adaptation of Dracula, only the story was changed slightly in hopes of escaping copyright claims. Dracula became Count Orlok, Jonathan Harker became Thomas Hutter, Renfield became Thomas’s boss, Knock, Mina became Ellen, and so on. Instead of Van Helsing taking Dracula out as he lays in his coffin, the Van Helsing character is eliminated. Orlok, who goes after Ellen, stupidly stays out in the open when the sun comes up and disappears.
The changes didn’t work; Bram Stoker’s widow, Florence not only sued and won, but the judge who presided over the case ordered all copies of the film destroyed. Funnily enough, that didn’t work either, as a print of the film survived, so in a way, both parties won.
Given that sordid saga, I have to wonder what Florence Stoker would have thought of Robert Egger’s remake of Nosferatu. There’s so much about this movie that’s superbly handled. The film is a visual stunner. There are a lot of icy gray and blue tones in the daylight scenes and inky black in the darker ones, and everything seems to be in decay, giving the film a cold feel.
Well, for the most part. The fire in Thomas’s room at Orlok’s castle is so expansive that it looks like the pit of hell.
As a horror film, it’s superb as well. There are no cheap jumpscares. Many scenes feature few to no cuts, which essentially force us to look at what’s taking place. We’ve got the coffins full of rats, which means the plague in the original film is still a thing. There’s plenty of blood and gore, of course. The evil is palpable.
Most of all, the film preserves the anticipation that made the 1922 film so effective. It wasn’t so much the ta-da moments, although the film definitely has a few, it’s all about what can’t be seen, or seen very well. In the original, we get plenty of good looks at Orlok, but in the Eggers film he’s mostly in shadow except for his hands, which means our minds fill in the blanks.
And as if that isn’t enough, Orlok breathes like an animal and sometimes seems to break the fourth wall. It’s incredibly effective; I found myself wanting to reach for a crucifix and flash it at the screen.
Lily-Rose Depp gives an incredible performance. She’s very likeable as Ellen but she also has to contort her body in a pretty grotesque fashion and act possessed but still inspire sympathy. It must have been a very tough role to play because there are so many layers going on, and oh yeah, there’s a little bit of nudity. We’re not in Yoga Hosers anymore, Toto.
Where the film makes a major misstep is in Willem Dafoe’s character, Professor von Franz, who’s basically the Van Helsing character of the story. Well, he’s portrayed as an expert on occultism and vampires and all that, so he’s there to explain everything about Orlok and all the various lore.
There’s nothing wrong with Dafoe’s performance; he seems to be having a blast playing a very eccentric and brilliant fellow. The problem is that he’s a bit incompetent when it comes to putting all that academic knowledge to practical use, and there’s really no reason for his character to exist.
The other problem is that the film borrows too many elements from the conventional Dracula story and thereby contradicts itself. There’s no point to the guys rushing off to drive a stake through Dracula’s heart or destroy his coffin when we know the monster’s going to get done in by the sunlight anyway. The only purpose the derring-do serves is getting the men out of the house long enough for Ellen and Orlok to meet up.
There’s nothing like superfluity, is there?
In the end, of course, these are only slight beefs. Nosferatu is an engrossing film. It’s definitely not for everyone, but that’s only a testament to how well the film is executed, and we don’t see films done this well often enough.
Nosferatu is currently in theaters. Rated R.
My grade: A-
Principal Cast: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgard, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney, Adela Hesova, Helena Konstaninova, Stacy Thunes, Gregory Gudgeon, Robert Russell, Curtis Matthew, Claudiu Trandafir, Georgina Bereghianu, Jordan Haj, Katerina Bila
Directed by Robert Eggers.
Written by Robert Eggers, Henrik Green, and Bram Stoker (novel).