Nosferatu and all the images you see in this review are owned by Focus Features
Directed by Robert Eggers
Robert Eggers has been one of my favorite filmmakers to keep an eye on in recent years with The Witch and The Lighthouse being two of the best films in the last decade, and while The Northman wasn’t everything I had hoped it would be, a remake of Nosferatu seemed like the perfect pairing with such a brilliant filmmaker. The original Nosferatu is one of the first great horror movies in cinema and began a long tradition of filmmakers making knockoffs of popular works to avoid copyright laws, and it was even followed by a remake in 1979 that is somehow even better than the original which leaves Eggers with some sizable shoes to fill even for someone as talented as him. Will this latest attempt to reimaging the terror of Count Orlok prove to be the best one yet, or does the shadow loom too large for any modern filmmaker to get out from under? Let’s find out!!
Thomas and Ellen Hutter (Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp) have only just been married, and yet news has come down from Thomas’s employer that he must go to Transylvania to meet with a very important client in the Carpathian Mountains. This Count Orlok or some such (Bill Skarsgård) is an odd fellow, but Thomas’s boss (Simon McBurney) assures him that a deal like this will make his career, and so he goes off to meet the man in the hopes of giving himself an Ellen a fine start on their life as husband and wife. With Ellen staying at their friends, The Hardings (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Courrin), Thomas makes the treacherous journey that leads him to a world far more sinister and terrifying than he could ever imagine. Of course, there is one person who did imagine it as Ellen has been struck with terrifying nightmares of a mysterious creature that will kill everyone around her, and when she starts to have fits in the middle of the night, The Hardings call in Doctor Sievers (Ralph Ineson) to diagnose the mysterious behavior, and when he is left baffled, he enlists the help of Professor Franz (Willem Dafoe) who seems to think that Ellen is right to be afraid of what is coming. What manner of creature does Thomas find at Orlok’s castle, and can he escape the horrors with his body and soul intact? Why does Ellen have this connected to the dark forces surrounding her home, and can this be used to find salvation from the encroaching darkness? Is it just me, or does this sound just as much like a soap opera as it does a horror film?
With The Northman and now this, I’m starting to worry that we’ve already seen the height of his potential. It’s a great movie to be sure as Eggers has yet to make anything that isn’t brilliant and iconic in its own way, but because he’s choosing to swing for the fences with every film, he puts himself in a position where merely being good is far from good enough. It’s not only a lesser version than the original 1922 film, it falls short of its contemporaries like Werner Herzog’s adaptation in 1979 which I would consider to be the definitive interpretation of this character and possibly the greatest vampire movie of all time. Perhaps my expectations were utterly unreasonable going into this, but they certainly were not met, and it’s all on Egger’s shoulders given the magnitude of the project he undertook. This, however, is not an expectation that everyone will have as I’m sure most moviegoers haven’t seen either version of this story, and even those who have may not put as much weight behind those adaptations as I do. I came into this expecting a Nosferatu movie, an expectation that feels justified given the title, and while its script more closely mimics the 1922 screenplay than Stoker’s novel, the feel is much more that of a Dracula movie; a subtle difference but an absolutely crucial one.
It’s not just the striking makeup and costuming that differentiate Count Orlok from Dracula, and they provide interesting contrasts on the same themes. Both represent aristocracy and how it feeds on the lower classes, but where Dracula is ostentatious and proactive in his treachery, there’s a sense of sadness and apathy to Orlok that I find far more haunting. It seems that this movie is trying to marry the two concepts, but it never quite fit together for me, and the more abrasive Dracula moments did not set a proper mood for me. The Orlok of this movie is a capital M Monster in a capital H Horror movie, which I’m sure will please audiences in this era of Elevated Horror, but the subtleties of the story gets lost among the noise. Even the elements they add to the story don’t feel like they beef up the narrative, but rather shrink the size of the story. I’ll give the movie credit for bringing the morbid sexuality to the forefront in a way that no other adaptation has been able to do, but the script has that problem you see in a lot of superhero movies where everything has to tie together in a way that feels overly calculated and creates a world where coincidences or even sheer happenstance cannot exist. Ellen is ultimately the focus of the movie, which is a solid foundation for a new adaptation given how pivotal her role is in the other Nosferatu films, but it feels like an overcorrection as the movie finds reason after reason to tie her into everything that happens. Perhaps a stronger physical presence from Orlok could have made this a tightly focused drama between two people that drags others in as collateral damage, but he remains in the shadows for so much of this that Lilly-Rose Depp has to stay front and center at all times just to keep the plot moving. Because of this, I’d even go so far as to say it falls short of the Francis Ford Coppola Dracula movie which was much cheesier and ostentatious, but had an unambiguous vision that bled through every frame of it.
Still, I’m not about to sit here and let my love of the previous versions of this story keep me from singing this movie’s praises where it’s warranted. Eggers knows how to put a film together and this movie is absolutely gorgeous with beautiful and bleak cinematography. It’s cold and oppressive, with a sense of dread peeking out from every corner, as the emptiness of Orlok’s soul can be felt in every scene. The performances are strong across the board, with a lot of energy from everyone involved. This is not a subdued and meditative version of the story and so everyone’s emotions are constantly peaking, which must have made this a difficult shoot. Everyone is shouting to the rafters, crying their eyes out, or contorting their faces into grimaces of abject terror, which is a lot to ask from any actor, let alone the entire cast, but it creates a chaotic energy that raises the tension and ices the blood. The standout is Lilly-Rose Depp who is saddled with a series of very difficult scenes that admittedly get right up the line of being campy, but it’s an impressive performance from an actor who’s been around for a while but has never had an opportunity like this. For me though, the best performance in the movie, and the one that lands entirely on the side of camp, is Willem Dafoe as our Van Helsing analog and plays the role with an exuberance that is captivating and hilarious, but never goes so far as to undercut the tension in the rest of the movie. Without him, the movie would have felt somewhat soulless as the primary emotions from everyone else is terror and despair, and his contrast to that makes the world feel much more alive and worth living in once this whole vampire business is dealt with. I have yet to talk much about Bill Skarsgård as Orlok, and the fact is that I don’t have much to say about it. It’s not a bad performance and the new look for him is fine, but he never feels like a genuine character the way that he did in the previous version. He’s brooding and scary to be sure, with an off-putting wheeze that gives him just the tiniest hint of vulnerability, but I don’t get a sense of what he is behind his magic and bluster. It’s rather funny to me that Willem Dafoe is in this as he played Count Orlok in Shadow of the Vampire; a movie with a much smaller budget and few bells and whistles to layer onto the performance, and yet he created a much more interesting version of this character through his acting alone. Perhaps that’s the problem, as there’s too much going on with this Orlok to feel like more than just the film’s antagonist. His eyes are often obscured underneath the makeup and hidden behind the deep shadows that he lurks between which feels like they’ve missed the entire point of the character and yet feels like the kind of decision that would be made for a modern day interpretation of this story which needs to be bigger, bolder, and scarier in a bid to hold audiences’ attention.
This is not a bad movie, a mediocre movie, or merely a good movie. It is a great movie that will be a beloved staple for many horror fans that may end up overshadowing the original film in the public consciousness. For me, I have too much attachment to that first film and its 1979 remake to embrace this one as much as everyone else will, as I see the place that it falls short of that level of greatness. The modern touches in its cinematography and lurid plot points certainly give this a unique identity from which to stand on its own outside the other Nosferatu movies, but the other concessions to modernity such as the more visceral and direct plot as well as Count Orlok’s more elaborate design feel far more empty and pale in comparison to the much simpler yet more affecting earlier works. This is getting a strong recommendation from me despite my misgivings, and I’d advise everyone to go out and see it if you’re in the mood for a spooky vampire movie. It will sit comfortably alongside the other great vampire movies, but for me, well I know which ones I’ll be picking up first before rewatching this one again.
The Reviewers Unite 