Nosferatu
When Mr. Knock (Simon McBurney) asks Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) to travel to central Europe to secure the sale of an antique estate in Wisburg, the newly married man balks, not wishing to leave his wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). When it is made clear that this assignment will secure a better post and salary at Knock's firm, however, Thomas reluctantly agrees. Ellen begs him not to go, having had ominous visions in dreams. She agrees to stay behind in the care of their good friends Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Anna Harding (Emma Corrin), but those visions presaged the arrival of "Nosferatu."
Laura's Review: B
Writer/director Robert Eggers ("The Witch," "The Northman") is known for his meticulous research and in adapting Henrik Galeen's 1922 "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror" and Bram Stoker's "Dracula," he really dug deep into folk lore both ancient and recent. And so this, his personal passion project since he became obsessed with F.W. Murnau's 1922 'Nosferatu' as a kid, is the first vampire film to depict the monster looking like Vlad the Impaler with a thick moustache and the aristocratic dress of early nineteenth century Transylvania. But although Bill Skarsgård ("It," 2024's "The Crow") invests Count Orlok with an eerie, deep, commanding voice, the creature never becomes a character the way Max Schreck and Klaus Kinski did before him, the monster here depicted more as male succubus than traditional neck-biting vampire. The film excels in its production, but after its initial buildup, suffers narratively.
The story here begins with a prologue which depicts Ellen convulsing on the ground in a white nightgown, a scene which we will later learn was her first sexual experience with Orlok after she awoke him from a centuries old sleep with her desire for comfort after her mother's death, the guilty episode which now haunts her dreams. This disturbing behavior, which resembles "Exorcist"-style possession, returns shortly after Thomas leaves. Friedrich calls in Dr. Wilhelm Sievers ("The Witch's" Ralph Ineson) while his wife, Ellen's close friend Anna, defends her to her husband. Sievers is also dealing with Knock, revealed to us as this film's Renfield character, now gone completely mad, attacking and eating animals raw.
And so we join Thomas on his journey aware that he is a lamb being led to the slaughter. After a night spent at a rural inn where he witnesses the locals dig up a corpse and drive a stake through it, he awakens to find no one about and his horse gone. Walking along a path, he'll be alarmed by the approach of two black horses drawing a black carriage which eerily opens its door for him and will be followed to Count Orlok's castle by a pack of snarling wolves. And of course his introduction to the Count, who demands to be called 'My Lord,' is eerie indeed, the towering figure with claw-like hands mostly keeping to shadow or obscured by Egger's regular cinematographer Jarin Blaschke's shallow focus. He'll ask to see the locket which holds Ellen's picture and hair and neglect to return it and when Thomas explains he'd like to depart immediately as he has taken ill, the Count demands he stay in order to recuperate. Thomas will eventually escape, but not before having been assaulted multiple times, and will collapse upon his return, which coincides with the arrival of the deserted ship which transported Orlok to the city, rats pouring out of its hold and 'the plague' taking hold of the citizenry.
It is around this time that Sievers decides to consult his old professor, marginalized because of his obsession with the occult and Willem Dafoe's entry as Van Helsing-like Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz is where "Nosferatu" begins to lose its momentum, Dafoe becoming inadvertent comic relief. Back in their own home, Friedrich having demanded they leave, disgusted with Ellen's 'hysteria' and Anna's subsequent downturn, Ellen will disclose her dark past to Thomas, who becomes determined to slay Orlok. But von Franz, who believes that only a carnal woman can engage Nosferatu, knows what must be done and makes a secret pact with Ellen.
Eggers' craft here is stunning, from his recreation of a German coastal city on the Baltic in the 1830s to the close, firelit confines of a rural inn and the ruins Orlok embraces as home (production design by Craig Lathrop). He embraces the German expressionism of Murnau's film, introducing Orlok as a giant shadow cast against Ellen's fluttering curtains, a masterful touch, yet a subsequent scene of Orlok's claw gripping the city looks too artificially generated, breaking the spell. Robin Carolan's ("The Northman") score ranges from the fairy tale tinklings of a music box to eerie, swirling violins accented by moaning and howling. Linda Muir, who's done costume for Eggers since "The Witch," has done her research, from Ellen's earrings to Orlok and von Franz's embroidered caps. If his narrative eventually peters out, Eggers' screenplay does have fun with language. Of the cast, Lily Rose-Depp impresses with her very physical work here, shuddering and contorting under Orlok's spell. Also notable is Taylor-Johnson who cloaks himself in period behavior and unleashes fury and eventual grief.
However, outside of that initial meeting with Thomas, Orlok fails to terrify, especially as he negotiates terms with the object of his desire. 'I am an appetite,' he tells her, and herein lies "Nosferatu's" biggest drawback. Eggers and Skarsgård have given us a most unconventional monster, but he fails to make the deep impressions left by Schreck and Kinski.
Robin's Review: C+
Focus Features releases "Nosferatu" in theaters on 12/25/24.
