The director of The VVitch and The Northman uses a committed cast and stripped-down gloom to make true terror in Nosferatu.
If there’s one thing that Robert Eggers does right, it’s depict evil on a movie screen. The writer/director has a unique skill of expertly building a creeping dread that leads to shocking moments of sinister actions. His slow camera movements, minimal set designs, and haunting scores create this near-overwhelming sense of tension that other horror films struggle to develop. Eggers movies don’t jump out and scream into your face; they quietly sneak up from behind and grab you by the throat the second you try to outsmart them. So if anyone was qualified to make one of cinema’s greatest monsters truly terrifying again, Eggers is the guy to do it. And boy, does he.
Nosferatu is a remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name, which itself is a loose adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. That means that Eggers’s film is already at a disadvantage, trying to differentiate itself from the hundreds of other Draculas that’s appeared in pop culture. The solution? Strip it all back to its roots, specifically in 1838 Germany where Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is sent to Transylvania to help the mysterious Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) purchase property in Hutter’s seaside town. While Thomas feels a growing sense of unease the closer he gets to his client, his wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) feels lost without her husband and is having ominous dreams about a figure she once prayed to as a young girl. With the help of some wealthy friends (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin), the town doctor (Ralph Ineson) and an elderly paranormal expert (Willem Dafoe), Ellen tries to combat the visions that grow more dangerous every night while the presence of the Count grows closer and closer.
A beautiful nightmare
Eggers’s last film, The Northman, had his biggest budget ($70 million), biggest sets (Iceland and Northern Ireland), and biggest lead actor by muscle density (Alexander Skarsgård). With that underperforming at the box office and this being a remake, you’d think Nosferatu would be a step backwards. Not so, as Eggers continues to flex his craftsmanship in doom and gloom. He still knows how to wring tension out of scenes with confrontational tight shots of frazzled actors and uses sharp editing to punctuate every scene. The Northman composer Robin Carolan returns for a sparse, haunting score that helps the spookier scenes crawl to their horrifying conclusions. For all the horrors Eggers throws at the screen, he doesn’t let them overshadow the actors who writhe and sweat through the misery of the Count’s plague. Nosferatu is as much about the human soul as it is about eroticism and rats.
With a more mystical story this time around, Eggers gets to play more with practical effects and visual trickery. The most prominent feature of Nosferatu is its cinematography, with longtime Eggers collaborator Jarin Blaschke alternating between a faded gray palette (only occasionally lightened with lamps and devilish flame) and black-and-white. The latter look is used for the fantastical scenes, including the jolting opening and Thomas’s exquisite entrance to the Count’s castle. Those scenes also showoff Eggers’s mastery of blocking (worthy of an “Every Frame a Painting” breakdown), slo-mo, and even a Spike Lee-esque dolly shot. The patience that leads to every horrific punch the movie has to offer leaves a lasting impression. There are tiny echoes of previous adaptions (Coppola’s Dracula springs to mind with the Victorian-era costumes and hints of romanticism), but Eggers’s Nosferatu is truly his own thanks to his commitment to making the titular vampire look (and feel) monstrous.
Poor unfortunate souls
Fair warning, you won’t see all of the Count for most of the movie. The good news is that the mere presence of Bill Skarsgård (along with the costume and makeup designed for him) is enough to make you shiver. There’s no romanticism or longing to soften the Count’s aura. Every line and arm reach Skarsgård delivers in his little screen time is soaking in pure evil. More credit is due to Depp, who brings an incredible amount of physicality and poise to her performance. The way she tears off her clothes and nearly breaks her spine trying to shake the evil that haunts is revelatory. Even without the stress she puts on her body, Depp has an impressive grasp on the dialogue as she tears herself between the light and the dark.
The levity (if there is any) in Nosferatu comes from the great Dafoe. It would be easy to peg him as the wacky vampire expert giving loud speeches on how to kill a ghoul like the Count, but Dafoe is an old pro. The intrigue on his face as he learns more about the titular monster turns to dire desperation. Same goes for Hoult who makes for a fine oblivious player in the games of the Count, though he has less of an impact on the movie’s climax. The rest of the cast make for fine placeholders throughout the madness, especially the pompous energy of Taylor-Johnson and The VVitch alum Ineson.
The bottom line
To remake one of the earliest and most influential films in history is a heavy burden, so the fact that Nosferatu leaves such a lasting impression on its own is something to celebrate. Eggers and his team have made something with the spirit of the silent original and the imposing body of modern horror filmmaking. The striking technical skills Eggers displays is a good balance with the disturbing visuals the movie puts on. What will Eggers do next is unclear, but it’ll be hard not to succumb to his dark storytelling.
Nosferatu is now playing in theaters everywhere. You can watch the trailer here.
Photos courtesy of Focus Features. You can read more articles by Jon Winkler here.
REVIEW RATING
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Nosferatu - 10/10
10/10
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