‘Nosferatu’ Review: Robert Eggers Turns an Iconic Tale Into a True Gothic Horror
Image via Focus Features
Vampires are having a bit of a renaissance in pop culture lately. Last year, the unfairly maligned Last Voyage of the Demeter tore a page out of an oft-overlooked chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and this year, Robert Egger’s stylistic remake of Nosferatu has arrived on the scene to horrify the weak-stomached and delight the ghoulish fiends. The original silent film, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, was an unauthorized adaptation of Stoker’s work that largely follows the same story, with some notable changes, including character names and locations. Rather than Count Dracula, the film’s young couple is terrorized by the grotesque Count Orlok, who travels from Romania to Germany (instead of London) to prey on the tormented Ellen.
In 2016, while Eggers was on the press tour for his supernatural horror The Witch, he first began to discuss his plans to remake Nosferatu. At the time, he revealed that he “lost his mind” when he first discovered Nosferatu in elementary school and even went on to direct a staged production of the story for a local theater, after directing it in high school at just 17. The lifelong obsession with Nosferatu is evident in Eggers’ surprisingly faithful adaptation of the film, though he brings his own modernized approach to gothic horror, which strays from the German Expressionist stylings of F. W. Murnau’s seminal work.
Robert Eggers Stays (Mostly) True to ‘Nosferatu’s History
Image via Focus Features
The overarching structure of Nosferatu’s plot remains unchanged in Eggers’ adaptation. Real estate agent, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), takes on a curious assignment at his firm, eager to earn a promotion from his employer, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), to ensure a more financially stable life for his new bride Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). The assignment will see him make an arduous journey to the Carpathian Mountain in Transylvania to meet with the eccentric Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) about a piece of property he intends to purchase, conveniently located near the newlyweds. In Thomas’ absence, Ellen stays with the couple's friends Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Anna Harding (Emma Corrin). Unbeknownst to Thomas, Count Orlok is the monstrous creature behind his wife’s frequent nightmares, and Herr Knock is in on the scheme that would see Thomas sell off his wife to the undead count. Willem Dafoe gives an exceptional performance as Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, a scientist who was cast out of his scientific circles for lionizing the occult. He alone believes Ellen’s dire warnings about the evil lurking in the shadows.
Skarsgård’s walking corpse of a vampire bears no resemblance to Max Schreck’s piteous Count Orlok. Eggers’ Nosferatu makes a point of discussing how Count Orlok rose from the dead after being buried, which explains why the bestial man looks and sounds like a rotting corpse. Skarsgård is the only member of the cast who truly commits to his character’s origins, doling out a raspy Romanian accent that is as haunting as his visage. Confoundingly, Skarsgård’s Orlok has no real opportunity to have chemistry with his obsession, Ellen. Their history is told through shrouded commentary and hazy recollections. The obsession feels artificial, which hinders the core motivations of the plot. Because of this disconnected aspect, Orlok ends up having more tension with Thomas, than with his wife.
Nosferatu is a decadent gothic horror, filled to the brim with rats, nudity, bloodshed, necrophilia, decrepit mansions, and sheer, unadulterated madness. It’s a dizzying film that lures its audience into a false sense of security at certain points, before pulling the rug out from beneath their feet and reminding them that the filmmaker has a taste for the macabre almost as sizeable as Orlok’s hunger for blood.
‘Nosferatu’ Isn’t Without Its Faults
Image via Focus Features
Eggers reunites with his frequent collaborator, Jarin Blaschke, to craft breathtakingly haunting imagery with the film’s cinematography. The film is jarringly void of vibrancy, and whenever there is a flush of color, the color starts to fade, as if the vampiric undertones are leeching the life from it. It is this masterful use of style that helps to elevate the film when the story is found lacking—because Nosferatu isn’t without its faults.
In Eggers’ pursuit of remaining true to Nosferatu’s Germanic origins, the writer-director writes himself into a corner with his casting choices. He intersperses German words throughout the screenplay, with greetings and titles, and each time a “Herr” is uttered by the distinctly British accents of Taylor-Johnson or Hoult, or the obviously put-upon accents of Dafoe and Depp, it breaks the illusion. With the commitment to anglicizing many elements of the story, it would have made more sense for Eggers to pull from Dracula for the film’s setting.
Much of the film hinges upon how society treats women who are viewed as “different.” Ellen describes how she has been “othered” since childhood and referred to as some sort of garden fairy or nymph. The source of these claims seems to be rooted in the fact that Count Orlok raped her when she was a child, stealing her virtue and making her a burden to her parents. Her marriage to Thomas helped to save her, in some regards, but even his friends still treat her with little respect, because in society’s eyes, Ellen was responsible for what happened to her. The thrall that Orlok still has on Ellen manifests itself in epileptic fits that are brushed off by medical professionals as hysteria, and her warnings about the evil that is set to descend upon them are nullified by laudanum. In the end, the culmination of this murky commentary takes a tragic and unnecessarily cruel turn that amounts to: traumatized women can save society by dying in their rapist’s arms.
While Nosferatu leaves something to be desired, it is sure to delight horror fans who relish in the distinct brand of unsettling that Eggers is known for.
Grade: B-
Nosferatu is in theaters now. Watch the trailer below.
