The holiday season is one commonly associated with red, and this year, director Robert Eggers wants to ensure that your holidays are blood red. Eggers new vision of the legendary Nosferatu is finally hitting theaters on Christmas Day.
This has been a passion project for the director of The Witch and The Northman for years, and it’s finally just seeing the light of day. Was it worth the wait?
Yeah, it was worth it! What can I say, I’m going to take the direct approach on this one. Nosferatu is a nightmarish fever dream through hell. Gothic, gorgeous, and grotesque at its core. I’m convinced Eggers was the only person for the job. Sometimes directors pursuing passion projects don’t necessarily deliver. Peter Jackson with King Kong. Gus Van Sant with Psycho. But Eggers is such a masterful visionary with a unique style that it absolutely works, and serves as the best contemporary adaptation of the classic F. W. Murnau.
The story of Dracula is a well worn tale. However what matters most isn’t necessarily how many times we see it, but rather how someone tells it. What Eggers brings to this interpretation is something truly special. His reverence and passion is palpable with every shot. His abstract choices add to the nightmarish feel of the film. He makes it stand out as one of the best horror films this year.
The story revolves around Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) and Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) Hutter. All her life, Ellen has been plagued by unexplained visions of of an evil entity who is obsessed with her and trying to take her. When Thomas, a realtor, is called out of town to help an eccentric Eastern European count named Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) sell his home, the visions become more prominent. Thomas realizes The Count is not what he seems, and is, in fact, a living embodiment of evil. Upon his escape from Orlok’s fortress, horrific occurrences begin to happen to Ellen and their friends Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Anna (Emma Corin) Harding. Thus, the couple must enlist the help of occult Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe) to stop the evil of Orlok and his stranglehold over the Hutters before it’s too late.
I’m going to begin with the technical aspects of Nosferatu because those are hands down, the most impressive elements of the film. From the production design, to the makeup, and the costumes, there’s not a single visual moment of this movie that doesn’t feel appropriately and nightmarishly authentic. Eggers’ team is able to transport us seamlessly to a grim and ghastly vision of 19th century Germany. Next to Wicked this is one of the films this year that absolutely ranks among the best crafted productions in cinema for 2024. Furthermore, every shot is brilliantly composed, lit, and framed by frequent Eggers collaborator, Jarin Blaschke.
From the dim candlelit dungeons of Orlock’s fortress, to the naturally lit settings of the Hutters’ coastal town of Wisborg, the imagery within the film is gloriously picturesque and hauntingly beautiful. Every frame looks like a horrifying still work of art. Thus, the combination of all of these phenomenal elements add up to create one of the most visually stunning horror films of the year, truly engrossing us simultaneously in a symphonic combination of beauty and terror.
From a performance perspective, Dafoe and Hoult do tremendous work, with Dafoe naturally stealing the film with his vigilant, eccentric, yet kind-hearted monster hunter Von Franz. Though he only enters the film towards the end of the second act, he quickly becomes the hopeful hero to root for in a film so overcome with dread. Hoult does a tremendous job as well, willfully becoming a strong underdog to root for, but also providing us with a vulnerable terrified performance given his nightmarish experience with Orlock.
All that said, this is truly Skarsgård’s picture. His guttural growl and Eastern European accent combined with the grotesque makeup prosthetics create a truly terrifying presence, whose presence haunts the screen for the entire runtime, beginning even before the title card shows. Given his experience with evil antagonists, it’d be very easy for Skarsgård’s performance to slip into Pennywise or even Marquee (from John Wick) territory. But he once again reinvents himself for this performance giving us another unique and menacing version of evil. Orlock is utterly horrific, bringing dread and rats with every foreboding scene of the film.
I will say, however, the one thing that completely shatters the illusion to a degree is the ridiculous Yosemite Sam mustache they slapped on him. The entire look is super creepy, until you get distracted by the really hilarious facial hair on his face. For majority of the film I kept wanting to snatch it off Skarsgård myself. I completely understand, given the “Vlad the Impaler” origins of the character why Eggers chose to incorporate this into the look of Orlock. However, I did honestly find it quite silly in a movie that’s really meant to be completely bleak.
My other complaint about the film, which I realize will be a very controversial opinion, is in Depp’s performance. She does amazing with many of the physical requirements of the role, convulsing and rolling her eyes back. Those moments where we see Ellen possessed are among the most terrifying, thanks to her commitment to the performance. Having said that, there were admittedly moments where her line delivery and accent work were, personally and only in my opinion, spotty to say the least. I think with time, as an actress, and with further experience, Depp can really become as gifted a performer as her co-star Corin, and you see shades of this brilliance in the more raw, tormented scenes featuring her character. It’s the straight-forward conversational moments that I had a hard time really buying.
That being said, Eggers vision and approach to the material is truly the star of this show. He’s committed to making this version of the classic tale as pitch black and fear-forward as possible. Given his gift for gothic visuals and surreal, nightmarish imagery, he’s able to share his passion for the material with us in such an interesting and tension-filled way, and in a way that feels uniquely him. He just has a style about him, that we’ve really seen in films like The Lighthouse and The Northman that just really fit with the tale of Nosferatu. It’s artistic and obscure at times, which can be off-putting for many. However, it lends itself so gorgeously to this story, and makes it feel a lot more fresh and terrifying than any other director could possibly do with the same material.
Nosferatu is up there with some of the finest horror films of the year, from Strange Darling to The Substance, and even Abigail. It sets itself apart from the traditional horror fare we’re used to seeing annually because of Eggers incredible style and instincts, which perfectly match the material. Thus, making it more than just a run-of-the-mill remake, but something much more interesting, showcasing an artistic, dreadful ride to Hell and back with a visible director’s stamp.
It’s mostly well performed, and marvelously constructed on a technical level, that everything comes together to service this well told story in a way that really does feel more memorable and haunting than recent adaptations of the Dracula mythology. Overall, Eggers and crew breath new life back into this terrifying tale of evil, giving us a passion project remake that actually doesn’t suck. The only thing that could make it even more perfect would be if they brought a Norelco to set for Skarsgård. Oh well. We’ll just have to wait another century for the next remake.
Overall Score: B+
Nosferatu is now officially in theaters everywhere. Merry Christmas folks!
