Eggers takes Nosferatu for a chilling, seductive spin
In his films, Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman) loves to explore ancient rituals and antiquated language. Remaking Nosferatu, director F.W. Murnau’s 1922 German silent film based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, seemed like a perfect fit due to the story’s gothic style, devilish rituals, and old-fashioned dialect. Eggers’ Nosferatu is a darkly seductive version of the classic horror story, with enough theatricality to make it the director’s most widely accessible film to date.
The director’s three previous films toe the line between arthouse drama and mainstream horror and lean more toward the former than the latter. In Nosferatu, Eggers is working with a well-known and constantly re-told story. There are already a few Nosferatu remakes, and more than a few Dracula iterations. The story takes place in Germany in the early 19th century, where a young real estate lawyer in Wisborg, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), travels across the vast region of Germania to Transylvania where a shadowy lord, Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), aims to finalize a deal to purchase and relocate to an estate in Wisborg. Orlok’s desire for the move is sparked by a spiritual, dream-like connection with a haunted young woman, and Thomas’s wife, Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp). Dreading Orlok’s evil intentions toward Ellen, Thomas tries hurrying back to Wisborg by land but is delayed. Meanwhile, Orlok acquires boat passage to Wisborg, where he wreaks violent vampiric (yes, he’s a vampire) havoc upon the unsuspecting town as he seeks out Ellen.
Nosferatu features a handful of strong performances, especially Depp’s impressive portrayal of the emotionally tormented Ellen. In multiple chilling scenes, Depp captures Orlok’s displaced mental possession of Ellen by aggressively contorting her body and voice. Supporting characters, including husband and wife Friedrich and Anna Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corin ), friends of the Hutters, and a secluded professor of the dark arts, Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz (Eggers regular Willem Dafoe), are acting overly theatrical with over-the-top charisma in their line delivery. Their performances seem appropriate, though, since the story’s gothic tone and old-fashioned campiness call for a dose of theatricality. Skarsgård’s performance as Orlok is also a haunting pleasure to experience. Orlok’s character design and Skarsgård’s hypnotic vocal performance are like nothing we’ve seen or heard in previous versions of this story, or other vampire stories, before.
Eggers has long displayed masterful control of mise-en-scène, and his ongoing collaboration with Director of Photography Jarin Blaschke continues to yield mesmerizing results. Every frame of Nosferatu seems rigorously considered and crafted. For a film about obsession, the filmmaking team’s obsession with the film’s accurate and effective production elements is very appropriate. A second viewing reveals even more intricate details built into the period piece sets, costumes, and the purposeful deployment of shadows and dark edges. These elements combine with the performances for an immersive horror film that is easy for us to follow. Unlike Eggers’s previous films, Nosferatu doesn’t stray too far into sequences of symbolic imagery. Aside from one or two short sequences, the film is less interested in nightmarish surrealism than it is in delivering a scary but entertaining story. While Nosferatu is a terrifyingly enjoyable time, Nosferatu still isn’t for the faint of heart … unless your heart is filled with darkly sexual, blood-thirsty desire.
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Nosferatu opens in theaters on Wednesday, December 25th.
