Terrifying in atmosphere and on-screen action, Robert Eggers' reimagining of Nosferatu is a gothic horror home run.
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Almost everything involving Robert Eggers' Nosferatu required a massive amount of guts. It's confidence to the point of hubris to craft your own vision of the original vampire movie and silent classic, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror that was made over 100 years ago. That's Werner Herzog level madness. Equally mad is casting an actor who played Mac Schreck, the original actor who played Nosferatu, in Shadow of the Vampire about 20 some years. And after spending a solid mid-level movie budget to bring your vision to life, you and the studio decide that...Christmas Day is going to be your release date. For your very R-rated gothic horror movie. And what's even better? It's all payed off. Eggers has the biggest box office hit of his career, the reviews have been very kind, and there's been awards buzz around Lily-Rose Depp for her performance. I was already eager to see it, since I generally vibe with Eggers as a filmmaker, and got a chance to check this one out in theaters. And it is...something.
The Setup
The film centers around two newlyweds, Ellen and Thomas Hutter who have just returned from their honeymoon. But as Thomas is about to head off for a commission that would secure their financial future, Ellen is plagued by nightmares that portend terrible things to come. And Ellen is exactly right, because the beast that's enlisted Thomas' services is calling to Ellen and eager to make her his...
I wasn't sure what to expect with this movie. Because while Robert Eggers has a number of interesting foibles as a filmmaker, it was hard to piece together how those would look/feel on a gothic horror movie. So let's dig into what this movie does really well and try to identify the vibe/feeling it creates. Starting with the performances.
Great Performances Across The Board
If there's one thing that Robert Eggers is incredibly good at, it's at identifying and casting actors that are perfectly suited to their roles and Nosferatu is no exception. You've got Nicholas Hoult as the loving but overwhelmed Thomas, Aaron Taylor-Johnson gives great upper-crust noble vibes as the couple's friend Friedrich Harding, and Bill Skarsgård's gutteral voice and rolled Rs make this one of the most straight-up terrifying visions of a vampire put on-screen, thanks in no small part to the prosthetic makeup. I also appreciate any director that realizes that if you want someone to play an eccentric weirdo in your movie who spouts off almost all of the movie's funniest/movie-like lines, it's a great idea to give them to Willem Dafoe.
But the turn everyone is going to talk about, and rightly so, is Lily-Rose Depp who is equal parts terrifying and magnetic as Ellen. The two things that stand out about Depp's performance is how much physicality the role requires of her, since she spends about half the movie being possessed and the rapid transitions between sweet to sensuous and back again. There's a scene towards the film's end where she's on an unpredictable roller coaster of emotions going back and forth between possessed to not possessed and back and it is a "can't stop staring at the screen" whirlwind.
But the turn everyone is going to talk about, and rightly so, is Lily-Rose Depp who is equal parts terrifying and magnetic as Ellen. The two things that stand out about Depp's performance is how much physicality the role requires of her, since she spends about half the movie being possessed and the rapid transitions between sweet to sensuous and back again. There's a scene towards the film's end where she's on an unpredictable roller coaster of emotions going back and forth between possessed to not possessed and back and it is a "can't stop staring at the screen" whirlwind.
Off-The-Charts Attention to Detail
One of the reasons I trust Robert Eggers so much is that he has clearly crafted ideas for what he wants every scene to look and feel like, all of which contributes to the feeling he's trying to evoke in the audience or bits of character information. I'll use a couple of examples to explain what I mean.
When Thomas arrives at the town near Orlock's Castle, he arrives at night, where the only light is firelight, where folks are speaking a language he cannot understand. But there is clearly Christian iconography everywhere and despite the place he's in being potentially cozy, all of the folks are looking at him which is unsettling. Or even bits that might seem superfluous, like Thomas running with flowers in the rain, are there both to give us a detail (in this case Thomas covers the flowers with his hat because he's a sweetie) and to provide contrast when things start going wrong in the town.
When Thomas arrives at the town near Orlock's Castle, he arrives at night, where the only light is firelight, where folks are speaking a language he cannot understand. But there is clearly Christian iconography everywhere and despite the place he's in being potentially cozy, all of the folks are looking at him which is unsettling. Or even bits that might seem superfluous, like Thomas running with flowers in the rain, are there both to give us a detail (in this case Thomas covers the flowers with his hat because he's a sweetie) and to provide contrast when things start going wrong in the town.
Likewise, Eggers nighttime scenes make great use of simulated natural light (i.e. moonlight) to both add to the gothic atmosphere and also to create visual contrast or edges to craft some gorgeously terrifying shots. The entire sequence with Thomas getting into a driverless carriage is stunner.
Sympathetic Characters
One of the most endearing horror movie tropes is the skeptic. The person who doesn't believe what's going on, despite a lot of terrifying evidence, what's happening. Unfortunately, a lot of these characters come across less as people and more like cannon fodder for the monster/entity or are so jerkish in another way that we're kind of excited about their end.
Nosferatu bucks that trend by making everyone in the main cast very easy to relate to. Ellen may not want Thomas to leave because she believes something terrible is about to happen, but Thomas does have to make money for them to start a life together and Ellen has kept a bit of information from him. Also there's nothing that would make him believe her dreams are premonitions.
Same goes for Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Freidrich who is doing his level best to help Ellen and his friend Thomas, but also concerned for his family and worried that he's dumping money into cranks. It means that anything bad that does happen to our cast carries weight vs. feeling inevitable or deserved.
Same goes for Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Freidrich who is doing his level best to help Ellen and his friend Thomas, but also concerned for his family and worried that he's dumping money into cranks. It means that anything bad that does happen to our cast carries weight vs. feeling inevitable or deserved.
What Does It All Mean? How We React to Overwhelming Evil
One of the things that stands out about Egger's vision or Orlock/Nosferatu or the vampire is by making him as monstrous as possible. Almost all of the visions of Dracula picture him as undeniably dangerous and cruel, but also seductive, charming and sometimes whimsical. An aristocrat who can charm his guests and victims with his words and some supernatural influence.
But this Orlock is not that. He is overwhelming terror. Hunger incarnate that overwhelms everyone who comes under his spell. The movie imagines him like a physical and mental plague that not only overtakes our leads (both in their literal and subconscious lives) but also the city that he enters. A predator. An id that takes advantage of people to satiate his desires and hungers and his body, voice and mannerisms all reinforce this.
His presence is an overwhelming evil and that's the undertone/vibe of the entire movie. Because...what do you do in the face of that?
The movie is at its best/most insightful as we watch a bunch of logical and proud characters buck against this unknowable force, thinking that there has to be some straightforward easy way to combat it or best it. But there aren't clean and easy ways to combat this kind of evil.
What I find fascinating, is that the movie can and probably will be misread as a take on the "limitations of science to explain our world," thanks to Willem Dafoe spouting off monologues on the occult and where science misses the mark or fails to explain.
The movie is at its best/most insightful as we watch a bunch of logical and proud characters buck against this unknowable force, thinking that there has to be some straightforward easy way to combat it or best it. But there aren't clean and easy ways to combat this kind of evil.
What I find fascinating, is that the movie can and probably will be misread as a take on the "limitations of science to explain our world," thanks to Willem Dafoe spouting off monologues on the occult and where science misses the mark or fails to explain.
But what the movie is arguing for, at least in my interpretation, is that assuming you know everything leaves you vulnerable to the unknown. Because some things are beyond our comprehension.
The Verdict: Engrossing
Terrifying in atmosphere and on-screen action, Robert Eggers' reimagining of Nosferatu is a gothic horror home run. 8/10
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