Film Review - Nosferatu
Images courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Nosferatu has been a part of horror film iconography virtually since the beginning of cinema, the dastardly Count Orlock having first graced the silver screen in A Symphony of Horror over a hundred years ago. As is the case with many iconic villains like Freddy, Jason, and even the dearest of space puppies, the xenomorph, the further we are from their introduction to the zeitgeist of the macabre, the more diluted and silly they seem. So how do you make Nosferatu, the fiendish rat bastard who many of us were introduced to by a visual gag in SpongeBob SquarePants, scary again - that is, if one even can?
Brought to life by a completely unrecognisable Bill Skarsgård, the new and (potentially) improved Count Orlock is a fearsome lord who commands armies of vermin to bring pestilence upon the land. Director Robert Eggers is acclaimed for his attention to detail when it comes to evoking specific periods and settings, and his reimagining of the vicious vampire king is one that's certainly interesting, while a small design choice may split viewers on whether they find him funny or fearsome. Regardless, it's a unique take on the character, one rooted in culture that sees Skarsgård slip away completely under the facade, transformed to the point where he is completely unrecognisable both physically and vocally. I found myself constantly questioning whether it was truly him underneath the makeup, and it goes a long way to making sure Eggers’ version stands out, enough that one might even forget that Nosferatu himself was based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Speaking of which, it was equally interesting to see elements brought in from the history of the character that exist beyond his direct lineage. Lily Rose-Depp’s potent physical performance evokes Isabelle Adjani in Possession, who also starred in Werner Herzog’s 70s remake of Nosferatu, and frequent Eggers collaborator Willem Dafoe shows up as a mad professor who specialises in the occult, who in turn played Max Schreck in Shadow of the Vampire, a fictionalised meta-comedy about the making of the original 1922 film.
There are pieces of horror history to be found within the DNA of Eggers' film, elements of The Exorcist and German Expressionist cinema that were themselves inspired by Murnau’s classic, as if to pay homage not just to what once came, but also the never ending cycle of influence and metamorphosis. None of this feels like creative grave robbery, but more a desire to do things differently while also paying respect - there's even more of Stoker's novel incorporated, with a highlight being brief cuts to the voyage of the Demeter, done far better here than in last year's stand alone adaptation.
As I alluded to earlier, the new batch of casting goes down a treat, with Lily Rose-Depp being an unexpected highlight, as many scenes allow her to live in the character of Ellen as she goes through varying stages of madness, despair, and possession. While it took quite a while for me to be fully sold on her, any moment that commands her give it her all is approached with a fierce, primal intensity, whether Depp is practically Golluming out during a lover's quarrel, or she's doing this bizarre half-scream, half-orgasm thing, you can see Ellen slipping away under the veil of Orlock’s melancholic grasp. Nicolas Hoult conveys a sense of polite urgency that quickly turns to absolute dread upon meeting the loathsome Count, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson acts as a decently cuntish secondary foil, a man who clings to reason until the embodiment of fear itself is at his doorstep, with the stench of death stinging his nostrils. Likewise, there's committed performances from Corrin, Ineson, Dafoe and McBurney, whose characters each find themselves obsessed in different ways with the central villain.
Despite Nosferatu being in many ways Eggers' most normal and genuinely familiar film, there's much to be said about how it goes about telling its tale. It's passionate, isolating, creepy, and more than a little sexy. Even though I was hoping to get more genuine terror from the film’s horror roots, I was thoroughly glued to the screen for the entire duration, enamoured by its fresh approach to the material. It's somehow both cultured and savage, pumping with ice cold blood and a clear passion to prove itself as deserving of the century-long legacy it has to live up to.
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Nosferatu is screening in cinemas from the 1st of January 2025. For tickets and more info, click here.