“Nosferatu,” the latest horror film from esteemed indie director Robert Eggers, is yet another home run for the young creator. A remake of the original 1922 film considered by many to be the original horror movie, “Nosferatu” manages to take everything great about the original and make it even better.
This film follows the story of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard), a terrifying vampire who has been fated to wed Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp). Hutter is a young woman who suffers from manic hallucinations and horrible nightmares, desperately attempting to escape the monster she is betrothed to.
Taking place in 1830s Europe, a large cast of characters like Hutter’s husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), Hutter’s best friend Anna Harding (Emma Corrin) and estranged witch doctor Albin Franz (Willem Dafoe), race against the clock to save Hutter from her terrible fate.
The film begins by following two sides: Hutter’s friends and family trying to find a solution to her unique plight and Orlok and his henchmen preparing his home and traveling to his betrothed’s hometown. The movie jumps between the two groups until the finale, when everything comes to a head and all are forced to reckon with their greatest fears.
“Nosferatu” is a true masterclass in pacing and editing, as each character is given the proper amount of importance to the plot and enough screen time to let their emotions and motivations be fleshed out. This provides the audience with an extremely enthralling story, keeping people glued to the story as the puzzle pieces of mystery slowly fall into place across the 132-minute runtime.
Every actor in this film truly embodied the setting and their characters, especially Depp, Hoult and Skarsgard. In the original film, Depp’s character was a simple damsel in distress, but the remake finally provides her with agency, allowing her to voice her own fears and play a key role in the conclusion. Depp shines in this role, delivering haunting monologues with a true face of fear, embodying her role of the timid Hutter who turns animalistic as her terror grows.
Hoult plays the doting husband perfectly, spending the majority of the film with the sole purpose of returning to his love. Sharing most of his scenes with Orlok, Thomas acts as a conduit for the audience’s fear and curiosity, providing a powerful role as the man forced to speak with evil incarnate.
Both Depp and Hoult are truly amazing, but Skarsgard steals the show with his dedication to the character of Orlok. Spending six hours in makeup every single day, the Swedish actor is unrecognizable, with a different frame, face and even voice. Clearly pulling from his larger-than-life performance as Pennywise in the 2017 adaptation of “It.” Orlok draws all the attention anytime he is on screen.
Working with a budget of only 50 million dollars, there was a serious focus on practical effects and settings. “Nosferatu” was filmed entirely in eastern rural Europe, with the production team ensuring the settings and structures present were all era and culturally appropriate. The scenes in Orlok’s castle were filmed in a real Transylvanian castle, and all these details help to bring the viewer into the film, adding a dimension of reality to this otherworldly tale.
A largely unsung aspect of this movie, and the element that truly cinches it together, is the lighting. Shadows play an extremely important part in Orlock’s character, whether it is the shadows of burning flames hiding the true horror of his face or him creeping around via the shadows of the moon, lighting is crucial to this film. It plays into how the vampire’s one weakness is the light of the sun, further adding to layers of this character and his sense of terror.
It is clear from the many elements present, that every single person involved in this movie truly loved what they were doing. The cast carried a level of dedication not apparent in most modern films. Eggers’ passion for gothic tales and horror translate extremely well into this remake, putting it on par, perhaps even above, its predecessor. In a world of “Twilight” and “Abigail” vampires, “Nosferatu” shines by providing a truly grounded and horrifying portrayal of these wicked creatures.
