NOSFERATU
(director/writer: Robert Eggers; screenwriters: inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the screenplay by Henrik Galeen; cinematographer: Jarin Blaschke; editor: Louise Ford; music: Robin Carolin; cast: Bill Skarsgard (Count Orlok), Lily Rose-Depp (Ellen), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Frederich), Emma Corrin (Anna), Willem Dafoe (Prof. Albin Eberhart), Ralph Ineson (Dr. Wilhelm Sievers), Simon McBurney (Knock), Nicholas Hoult (Thomas Hutter); Runtime: 133; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Chris Columbus, Eleanor Columbus, Robert Eggers; Focus Features; 2024-USA/UK/Hungary in English, German, Romanian, Russian, with English subtitles)
“An exquisite modern-day horror pic.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
“Nosferatu” is based on the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker.
The artistic filmmaker Robert Eggers (“The Northman”/”The Lighthouse”) combines the old fashioned and present day horror pic techniques to make an exquisite modern-day horror pic.
This stylish version is the third remake of FW Murnau’s unofficial “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror,” his 1922 German expressionist silent classic on Count Dracula–the gold standard on Dracula pics. The other versions are Werner Herzog’s 1979 “Nosferatu the Vampyre” and Francis Ford Coppola’s baroque 1992 “Eggers’ Nosferatu.”
Count Dracula in this film is the grotesque Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard), a menacing tall silhouette figure who speaks a dead Balkan language in a raspy threatening other-world voice.
The story is set in 1838 in the small fictitious German town of Wisborg.
The ambitious young real estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), plning for a promotion, agrees to his boss’s (Simon McBurney) request to venture to Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains to have the mysterious Count Orlok sign the legal papers so he can buy a crumbling mansion in Wisborg. While there, Hutter’s stricken with mysterious nightmares. He’s unaware that as a child his new wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) formed a psychic connection with the vampire demon Orlok, who has been obsessed with her ever since. His reason for wanting the mansion is to fulfill his desire to take Ellen from her husband.
When Ellen begins to act strange the closer Orlok comes to her German village, her suspicious physician Dr. Sievers (Ralph Ineson) consults with professor Von Franz (Willem Dafoe), a kooky expert in the occult, about her condition.
In a brilliant terrifying shot, signifying that Orlok means business, the shadow of his hand covers the small German village suggesting his presence. While another eerie shot has thousands of rats running through the streets of the village, bringing on a plague.
The artistic production values of the set designs and the creative photography capture the power of German expressionist filmmaking, which in this case gives the viewer a sense of unease as the retched Orlok, whose face is covered with rotting blotches of flesh and who is a scary figure who furtively moves around in a frightening way.
While the dark mood set is one of dread, this haunting and well-acted pic is one of the better and more scary horror pics I’ve seen in years.
Spoiler:
It ends with Orlok drinking Ellen’s blood, as she sacrifices herself so the vampire will die when she keeps him distracted in her presence until the dawn.
REVIEWED ON 12/26/2024 GRADE: A-
dennisschwartzreviews.com