In spite of the year round industry circus choking on its own obsession with relevance, accolades and shallow attempts at sincerity, I’ve been going in to the cinema with a clear head of late, grateful to get anything whilst remaining optimistic about human storytelling in the coming years. Still, I try to keep the bar modestly high. Don’t lower your standards for anyone, am I right?
When I heard Robert Eggers was having a whack at Nosferatu I wasn’t worried. He’s one of the most dedicated filmmakers currently working. He loves film and finds cool and interesting ways to tell folkloric horror for modern audiences. The Witch is still one of the most haunting and delightful cinematic experiences of my twenties and The Lighthouse was the fever dream; I’m still not sure that I saw what I saw. With regard to this new project, all I had to say was I don’t particularly need another Nosferatu. I have no problem with remakes when its about interpreting source material and any other sort of remakes of beloved originals can go suck it (Hah).
An avid of fan of various Dracula reincarnations I am and Nosferatu’s? The two before are ground-breaking within cinema history; German classics that capture the themes and politics of their times, each controversial in their own way. F. W. Murnau’s is a German expressionist that never legally should have existed with a legendary endurance and influence. Meanwhile, Werner Herzog’s is an homage to its predecessor but also a film for the post-war ‘fatherless generation’ during the New German Cinema movement; a forlorn, pitiful Count Orlok isolated and frail in his eternity who paved the way for more pining interpretations of the vampire. So the bar was always going to be high.
Sounds like I didn’t like Nosferatu, doesn’t it? I did. Eggers sprawling horror reignites Gothicism on screen in its grimmest way; it’s preoccupation with death, decay and dreams was atmospheric. The Victorian’s would have loved it. In fact, the first hour I was convinced I was witnessing some of the greatest horror cinema of the 2020’s. The village sequence was bordering on uncanny; where did Eggers find that ensemble, timeless, straight out of some gruesome silent picture. As for the dreaded abode, I hadn’t thought I still had a craving for crumbling castles and smoky chambers lit only by a roaring fire; bodies slice through he light, the sheen of sweat on skin glistening brighter than the tableware. Very 80's dark fantasy-core; I was half expecting a horny Tim Curry to emerge in devilish fashion.
Bill Skarsgård thrives in his niche. Dress him up as gruesomely as possible and let him go to town on that; he’s Lon Chaney-esque. Within those stifling layers of prosthetics, like Jim Carrey before him, he inhabits the role and brings the figure to life organically. Orlok has a new look and I’m down for it until we see him too often and (weirdly) lit too well in the final third. The voice with its slow laboured breathing had a lot of command over the theatre I was in and found a way to get under the skin; his sentences were drawn out, hung between each breath and punishing to listen to.
Huge shout out to the costumes; I love when they’re as ridiculous and of their time, foreheads and ear-muff buns abound. It made the casts performances all the more convincing. They were marvellous; modern enough for a younger audience and yet slipped into the 19th century German attire with great ease. Hoult squirms and sweats like a true consumptive. It was nice to see Aaron Taylor-Johnson back in a period piece; he has a command of the screen when in a three piece with mutton chops. I grinned like an idiot every time Willem Dafoe chewed his scenery as the eccentric professor of the occult. My prior knowledge of his fondness for the rats made it all the more enjoyable.
Does evil come from within us, or from beyond?" – Ellen Hutter
Lily-Rose Depp had a lot of work to do and I think she does it well; hysteria and fragility really work for her. It’s a full-bodied performance and I always appreciate a girly who takes her inspiration from an Adjani convulsion. I enjoyed her choices and think Eggers really pushed her within the role. Ellen is odd and unhinged for all the right reasons and she id brought more to the foreground in this version.
Story-wise, Eggers is both faithful and creative with his execution. It doesn’t feel like a rehash of all we’ve seen before. Embellishing on the somnambulism was my favourite addition. However, it was in desperate need of more. It would have formed a stronger foundation for the finale and a more fluid through line within the narrative, given Count Orlok even more presence across time and dreams. And here’s where I could have done with another half an hour. It would have done justice to the core of the story; Ellen and Orlok. The opening sequence only can go so far, and I would have liked more of the weirder dream-like elements, just to add depth to the ‘relationship’ and certainly an urgency that the external plague only takes so far. Once Eggers sets in motion the final act, I’m not convinced.
Dealing in the realm of dreams is perfect for cinema; David Lynch could tell you that. So why does Eggers shy away from it after a time? Unusually Eggers relies on one too many traditional jump scares in the latter third as a way to up the stakes; I get it, it’s hard to make a vampire plague maintain its shock factor when in fact the horror comes from the unstoppable decay of the human body. It’s the impotent fear in our nightmares, the vulnerability of the mind and its deeps wants at the mercy of an entity. It’s the lack of control. In typical gothic tradition, my girl has a monster kink and with it comes elements of desire and pining and base animal need of which I didn’t feel was cemented early enough. Orlok’s presence in the castle is palpable, but I don’t feel it marries with his far-reaching power nor his connection to Ellen. It’s underwhelming when the two finally meet. We see too much of Orlok to be frightened, his presence somehow too detached; I believe Eggers had the final shot in mind but entered a territory he was unfamiliar.
"I am an appetite. Nothing more. O'er centuries, a loathsome beast, I lay within the darkest pit. 'Til you did wake me, enchantress, and stir me from my grave." – Count Orlok
Ultimately, the film loses momentum. Before watching this, I was aware of a possible directors-cut on home release and when I left the theatre it was the first thing I thought of. Because the film needs a little more flesh even at two hours. Perhaps I just need to re-watch it and decide if I missed anything. I know I had a high bar. Like I couldn’t jump it so who am I to talk? However, Nosferatu has a legacy and Eggers has his own. It’s a project made for him, yet I wonder why it didn’t quite do it for me. I wanted to stay a while longer. How much ended up on the cutting room floor, what I’m missing that could leave me stuffed and satisfied? Or is that the point? Maybe I’m supposed to hunger for more, ever unsatisfied. Or maybe I just need three hours.
***1/2
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