Warning: Spoilers Ahead!
It’s been 15 years since Edward Cullen’s sparkly face graced movie screens and began popularizing vampires in the media. The new “Nosferatu” movie continues this task and takes its place among other infamous vampire stories such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight.
“Nosferatu,” directed by Robert Eggers, reimagines the original movie, “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror,” a German silent film that underscores each jump scare with a white screen dictating the word, AHH! The 1992 version is an unofficial adaptation of Dracula, an English novel by Bram Stokers that details the story of Jonathan Harker, a lawyer who travels to Count Dracula’s house to complete a real estate contract. “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” follows a similar plotline with name changes to make it more appealing to their German audience: Thomas Hutter ventures to Transylvania to deal with a mysterious recluse, Count Orlok to close a deal on a manor. Hutter soon becomes suspicious of Orlok’s sinister persona and begins to question whether Orlok is really a human or something else entirely.
Eggers’ version centers on Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), a haunted woman struggling with the repercussions of a plea she made to the universe, years ago, to grant her companionship. This call is answered in the form of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), who uses Ellen as a way to sate his unfettered desire. Years pass and Ellen is now married to Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), an aspiring real estate agent sent from his home in Wisburg, Germany to a client’s castle. His task is to sell the client a manor in Hutter’s hometown. The mystifying client is actually Count Orlok, who, unbeknownst to Thomas, still harbors intense lust towards his wife. In the wake of Thomas’s departure, Ellen is left with her friends Anna (Emma Corrin) and Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor Johnson). She returns to her haunted tendencies, experiencing premonitions and possessions all surrounding Count Orlok. Aided by Albin Eberhart Von Franz’s (Willem Dafoe) unique knowledge of the occult, Ellen realizes the extent of Count Orlok’s villainy and her role in his demise.
Overall I thought this movie was well done. The cinematography was beautiful with a fitting color scheme of muted blues and blacks that gave the film an almost lifeless feel, as if it were drained of vivacity by Count Orlok himself. Orlok’s otherworldly presence also added to the film’s appeal. His voice echoed throughout certain scenes, making the atmosphere even more unsettling. I have never thought of vampires as scary but Skarsgård’s performance made me rethink this. Perhaps it was his comfort in playing villainous roles, yet Skarsgård was able to transform into a decrepit, gnarled body that even the addition of a larger-than-life overcoat could not hide. Depp also had a standout performance. I was amazed by her commitment to the physicality that the part demanded and cringed every time her body contorted in impossible ways.
While the movie was indeed disturbing, I found myself unable to take it seriously at times. It was almost humorous the way that every time Ellen remarked about longing for Thomas while he was away the screen cut to a scene of him just lying flat on the floor. The drawn-out way Count Orlok remarked, “Now we are neighbors,” to Thomas also made me giggle. The movie also had an unnecessarily long run time. The main conflict of the movie did not need to take that long to be realized by the characters. If the director had shaved off 30 minutes I would go as far as renaming “Nosferatu,” Yesfaratu!
