Nosferatu

Review by Mike Finkelstein

Robert Eggers has a very interesting filmography. His films are, at the very least, challenging, with the writer / director working in horror, folklore, and mythology into his various films, all while working to create as much historical accuracy in his films as possible. It makes for very artistic, very interesting movies that aren’t always massive hits with the general public. His debut film, The Witch, garnered Eggers success, bringing in $40 Mil against its tiny $4 Mil budget, and while his two follow-ups, The Lighthouse and The Northman, didn’t find that same level of financial success they were both critical darlings as well as impressive artistic achievements.

In a way, Eggers was the perfect choice to write and direct a remake of Nosferatu. Considering his previous films, which are all historical thrillers usually filled with moments of terror and creeping dread, one can only imagine the kind of vampire film he’d craft from the bones of the 1922 NosferatuPredating even the first official adaptation of Bram Stoker’s work, this German silent film was not authorized by the Stoker estate and was quickly sued over upon its release. It’s also considered one of the great classics of the silent horror era.. And the resulting picture, released (amusingly) for Christmas of 2024 certainly doesn’t disappoint. This is an Eggers film, through and through, with all the strange, off-putting, disorienting shots you expect from the director and his work. This is a lovingly crafted, arthouse vampire film that just so happened to get the budget and backing needed to write its story large on the big screen. And it works.

Taking the roots of its loose DraculaBram Stoker's famous novel, which launched a character that has been famous ever since. The lead character, Dracula, was based on the real historical figure Vlad Tepes. adaptation core, Eggers’s Nosferatu finds solicitor Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult playing the Johnathan Harker analogue) sent off by his superior, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney, playing the Renfield), to Transylvania to meet with the reclusive Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård, as our vampire). The count is interested in purchasing property in Wisborg, where the film is located, and Thomas must handle the sale and paperwork in person. But arriving at the castle, Thomas finds that the count is more than expected, a lurking, dark evil thing that is oddly obsessed with Thomas’s new wife, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp, playing the Mina Harker of the story). He takes what he wants, locks Thomas up, and feeds from his blood all while the count plots his move to be near Ellen.

As we learn, in her youth Ellen was prone to premonitions and seizures. In her sleep she reached out into the void of night and her mind met with Orlok, who was awoken. The two bonded and clung to one another until, eventually, she grew up and found Thomas. But while she turned away from Orlok he never moved on from her. Now, with a foothold in Wisborg, the count intends to make her his by any means necessary. He comes for her and kills those she holds dear, all to convince her to take his offer and become his bride of the night. It will take her power, and aid of Thomas and two doctors, Dr. Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson) and Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe, playing the Van Helsing analogue), to find the beast and fight back his threat lest she, and everything she knows and holds dear, dies in his wake.

There is a lot to like about Eggers’s Nosferatu, and it starts early. The film feels like a homage to the original, 1922 film, with opening titles that evoke the silent film era and washed out colors that make the film feel like it was filmed in black and white. Eggers’s eye for historical accuracy comes not just from the costumes and the sets but from the style of story, the execution of angles, and the way everything is staged. It’s both a throwback to the silent films of old and a modern production adding twists to the staging and cues to make something artistic but also original.

Take the scene where Thomas meets the Count for the first time. While the scene goes through all the expected beats – Thomas arriving, getting food and drink, putting out the paperwork – it’s done in a way to keep the audience off-kilter. The count moves with supernatural speed any time he moves off camera. The set flows and changes around Thomas as if the very castle is an extension of Orlok’s own power. And it’s all shot in moody darkness with a stark, single color palette as the scene is bathed just in the light of a fireplace. It fills the scene with dread as we know what’s coming and Thomas only starts to catch once it’s too late. It’s a masterclass in the introduction of a vampire.

So many scenes are like this, with long takes, odd close-ups, desaturated color, creating an almost dreamlike world for the film. This all comes from the 1922 original, where Eggers takes his cues before expanding and enhancing the material. He makes plenty of changes, crafting a film that is decidedly his own, but he does it with a lens that looks back and honors the film that came before. He had a vision, and it’s clear that was, in part, to honor the silent film and bring its horror and dread up to modern sensibilities. He did it, all too well.

With that said, not everything about this film is going to work for everyone. While I loved the film, I do note that it feels long in places. The movie has a lot of story to get through, not just the expected beats of Dracula but also fleshing out Mina’s… I mean Ellen’s story and bringing her more into the lore to have her be the prize Orlok seeks. This requires a lot of work, and while Eggers does it efficiently for the film’s two-hour-twelve runtime, it can still feel like a lot of movie to sit through.

And, if I’m being honest, not all the actors are up to what the material requires. While most are great, from Hoult to the always fantastic Dafoe, the absolutely lost in the role Skarsgård, and even a solid turn by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (playing the posh and pompous Friedrich Harding, essentially the Arthur Holmwood of the story), there is one gaping void at the center of it all: Lily-Rose Depp. The role was originally intended for Anya Taylor-Joy but she had to drop out of production in 2022. I’m not sure why the casting department settled on Depp (maybe they saw she was starring in The Idol and thought her star was on the rise) but it was a bad choice. She wavers between oddly flat and wooden in place to then overacting and flailing around in ways that just aren’t convincing. She’s a bad fit for the movie, sticking out like a sore thumb in an otherwise fantastic cast.

I don’t think Depp is enough to sink the film, though, as there’s so much that this adaptation gets right. Eggers and his crew put in so much work to make the world of this film feel both lived in and utterly alien. They create not just a sense of place but a mood that works perfectly for the subject matter. It all culminated in a vampire thriller filled with horror and dread, creating one of the better Dracula adaptations I’ve seen in some time. Sure it might not be for everyone, being a very strange, arthouse kind of film (as Eggers loves to make) but for those that love vampires, or that love cinema, this is the Nosferatu you’ve been waiting for.