The latest horror film from Robert Eggers, the maker of The Witch and The Lighthouse, Nosferatu, is the remake of the 1922 movie of the same name. The 1922 movie was an unofficial German adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic story Dracula, and the makers of that film made some adjustments to avoid copyright problems. When it comes to the remake which is now released almost a century later, Eggers maintains the German Expressionist elements in his treatment. With the cinematography and staging somewhat paying homage to the classical way of horror filmmaking, Nosferatu is an appealing blend of jumpscares and character drama.
Thomas Hutter, who is married to Ellen is sent to meet a Count named Orlok, who wants to buy a mansion in Wisborg. Despite Ellen’s request to not leave her and go there, Thomas decides to visit Orlok and the experience is horrifying for him. Who is Orlok, what’s his connection with Ellen, and how that eventually affects everyone in the city of Wisborg is what we get to see in Nosferatu.
This is an unofficial adaptation of Dracula and hence every beat of the story and what will happen to the characters is not much of a mystery to the audience. The two aspects that work in favor of the film are the placement of the equation between the Vampire and the beauty and the visual language of the film. Eggers and his cinematographer Jarin Blaschke extensively use thick blacks and silhouettes in the film to create that eeriness. The dynamic between Ellen and Orlok is what sort of makes it distinctive as the woman is psychologically helpless. This perspective of looking at the whole thing from Ellen’s viewpoint hits us once the movie is over because it is the climax that sort of manipulates us to think of it as a story of sacrifice.
The filmmaking here has a retro charm. The elaborate production design of the film takes us to that era. Since we already know what will unfold in Orlok’s mansion, Robert Eggers is trying to make things unpredictable for us visually. Like the scene where we are introduced to Orlok. In fact, there is no proper introduction scene here for that character where we see his face very clearly. He is in silhouettes or out of focus for most of the time and the anticipation of a big reveal along with some gimmicky elements of him moving from one place to another gives us chills without much jump scares or bloodshed. In the second half, the horror is shown more like a catastrophe caused by an epidemic. And that sort of gives the movie a chance to present itself as this debate between science and ghost theories. The fate of the family of Friedrich and Anna shows you the real horror of Orlok’s entry and it is not your typical ghostly intervention. And there is a breathtaking aerial shot of Orlok’s hands spreading over the entire city.
Lily-Rose Depp plays the role of the possessed and always-in-turmoil Ellen. The extremely dramatic pitch of that character was comfortable in her hands and one could sense the melancholy of that character in her eyes. The best performance in my opinion came from Nicholas Hoult. The character has multiple shades in the film as the story progresses and his performance in the sequences along with Orlok really helps the movie to increase the level of horror as the camera is mostly glued to his expression. After Pennywise from It, Bill Skarsgard gets to play yet another menacing character. This time since the makers aren’t really keen on showing him as a demon visually, the emphasis of the performance is on dialogue delivery and the body language. I am guessing the prosthetic makeup department may have felt bad after seeing the film as their efforts are not really shown because the character is shown in full light only at the very end. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, William Dafoe, and Emma Corrin are the other major performers here.
Nosferatu is not necessarily a reimagination or reinvention of the genre. It felt more like how the classical style of filmmaking can be made appealing to the current-day audience by making subtle adjustments in the way the film gets presented. With its atmospheric staging and emphasis on psychological horror over gore, Robert Eggers succeeds in creating a visceral film that stays in your head.
With its atmospheric staging and emphasis on psychological horror over gore, Robert Eggers succeeds in creating a visceral film that stays in your head.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended