“The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger; and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil.” - Bram Stoker
The re-emergence of horror is in full swing this year featuring phenomenal releases. Cuckoo, The Substance, I Saw the TV Glow, Smile 2 and now Robert Eggers’ fourth feature, a story more than a hundred years in the making, Nosferatu.
I think one of the most pivotal and important truths about horror is that despite the ugliness that the genre tends to expose or illuminate, there is still always a beauty among the wreckage. Few understand this better than Robert Eggers. As unique as his chosen stories are, it’s his vision of what these settings will look like that elevates his work from something more than simply a fresh idea. His visual sense is nothing short of masterful creating breathtaking shots of abandoned, dreary forests and cobblestone laid streets in a fictional Germanic city brimming with potential but also an impending doom that he brings to life with such detail and creativity. His visual sense is every bit as living as the characters he collects to inhabit these visual, tactile creations.
Only four films in and he already has his known proclivities such as his choices visually speaking but he’s equally acclaimed for his attention to dialect accuracy sticking strictly to the time period’s particular accents, local colloquialisms and vernacular to create the most accurate and complete picture of what it would have sounded like between people conversing in the setting of his stories and of course the pertaining time period. Often, as is the case with Nosferatu as much as his previous works, despite being able to understand their unique dialects, it’s always just foreign enough to feel otherworldly or of a distant land. It’s a fantastic way to carry an audience away as they lose themselves in the story.
In The Witch it is especially apparent listening to the characters converse in what is known as early modern English resembling the language spoken by English colonists in 17th century New England, featuring archaic vocabulary and grammar, giving it a distinctly old-fashioned and formal tone. So when they discover their daughter has been fraternizing with literal witches and the devil himself, they say something like, “Devil! You have their blood upon thy hands! It is you! It is you! The devil is in thee and hath had thee. You are smeared of his sin. You reek of evil. You have made a covenant with death!” Imagine this being said with disdain and terror in a mother’s betrayed, trembling voice. It is absolute poetry. He brings this detail and intensity to Nosferatu just as he did with The Lighthouse and The Northman. He brings so much to admire from a horror aspect but it’s the details surrounding these elements that take something so abhorrent and despicable and turns them into gorgeous, beautifully written, fiercely acted pieces of moving art and his work is truly something to be admired and praised.
For Nosferatu, a classic, hundred year old approach was taken in a visual sense with classic grays and shadows hiding the ceaseless number of mysteries. The foreboding, massive estate on the distant mountainside looming over a pitifully petrified town. The air of an ancient danger always threatening escape, creating a town of pessimistic, hopelessly superstitious and unwelcoming townspeople. The streets of a bustling, fictional German city still very much in a time of barbaric practices labeled as medical procedures. An uncleanliness and stuffiness spill into every dirty crevice, every dimly lit foyer and overly dressed inhabitant. And the fear induced by superstitions and a lack of education permeate into the city’s people and ways of operating in 1838 Germany. It’s all so strategically researched and inserted for the most immersive experience of an 1800s life threatened by plague and supernatural evils.
Originally set to star Anya Taylor-Joy, due to conflicting schedules, she was replaced by Lily-Rose Depp, a choice that had me worried. Up until now I had never seen Depp do anything that would convince me she could handle such a role but I trust in Eggers so I reserved judgment until I saw the performance myself. Oh how pleasantly surprised I am. She is nothing short of spectacular here having to perform so many emotionally and physically draining scenes, some with uncomfortably long single takes. She plays, sometimes almost all at once, terrified, determined, crazy and hopeless and does it seamlessly.
Becoming a common presence in Eggers’ movies, Willem Dafoe is the crazed believer of all things supernatural and unnatural. He is the Van Helsing of the Nosferatu interpretation. He is a maniacal vampire hunter dangerously focused on destroying Count Orlok once and for all; even at the risk of anyone willing to help. Dafoe brings his legendary touch of crazed obsession with hints of unstable tendencies making for a lively performance in the wake of true horror that he will inevitably face in the company of a living vampire.
The cloaked figure himself, Count Orlok is scarily ethereal but simultaneously brutish and demanding. He is obsessive and without reasoning threatening to distract him in any way. He is formidable to the uninitiated, flowing over surfaces or sometimes just appearing out of nowhere as if from another world. But the brilliance of this character, and where Bill Skarsgård shines is in the brittleness he desperately hides with layers of dusty, heavy garbs. Make no mistake, he is a villain with ill intent and evil abilities at his disposal but for the sake of loneliness and finding its cure, Lily-Rose Depp’s character, Ellen Hutter, he is hopelessly weakened and emaciated. His true nature however overshadows any chance of feeling sympathy for as he is a living embodiment of unholy origins. Skarsgård plays Orlok with award worthy conviction and makeup effects, losing his identity completely within the character who is a sight all himself to behold.
The Witch at the forefront of its themes are paranoia and self-delusion. With The Lighthouse it’s about mythology and madness, identity and toxic masculinity. The Northman explores themes of revenge and cycles of violence, fate and masculinity. Nosferatu is heavily into themes of obsession and fate, fear of the other and sexual expression. He delves in greater detail with death and sex heightening the forbidden nature of such desires and outcomes.
Nosferatu is an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, created in 1922. It tells the tale of a reclusive presence who desires new residence in the same area of his beloved and reluctant victim who has already wed another man. He lures this man to his estate far off in the lands of rural Transylvania where he can torment and make his plans perfectly clear, sending this man reeling and tortured back to his coveted wife letting her know of the approaching nightmare. Along with this cloaked figure he brings with him untold horrors to an unsuspecting city and its ill-prepared people.
Nosferatu never feels like it’s trying to be scary; rather it’s attempting to be epically immersive in its themes of gothic horror and pouring every ounce of dread that can fit into it without making it feel desperate. It’s telling a story, a tale of ancient evils, unrelenting tension, impending terror and dreadful obsession. It incorporates extreme moments of bloody, gory acts fit for no one to witness and yet it’s on full display to make anyone present for it twist in discomfort. It is visually masterful, expertly acted and hopelessly, wonderfully abominable. It is a machine of cogs working together in perfect harmony to create something undeniable and horrifically ravishing.
Rated R For: bloody violent content, graphic nudity and some sexual content
Runtime: 133 minutes
After Credits Scene: No
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Mystery
Starring: Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe
Directed By: Robert Eggers
Out of 10
Story: 10/ Acting: 10/ Directing: 10/ Visuals: 10
OVERALL: 10/10
Buy to Own: Yes.
Check out the trailer below: