Way back in the mid-90s, I took my first film course titled German Expressionism and Film. The class was introduced to such fine classics as Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and one of the most frightening films of my entire life, Triumph of the Will (incredibly relevant nowadays). When the course dipped into horror, we were introduced to Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, a re-telling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
The film was sparse on the details, focused purely on the visual horror, and introduced the world to one of the scariest and most memorable vampires imaginable, Count Orlok/Nosferatu. It represented the style of genre it was born within as it brought heavy shadows, disfigured characters that oozed with creepiness, competing contrasts, and a constant feeling of uneasiness. To put it lightly, it was perfect in its form and style, and a film that would echo its essence for nearly a century.
Now, that film has been reimagined by director Robert Eggers. While his ideals were taken from the original movie, and followed closely, his style and art were brought in to lay on top. Did it serve its purpose and represent the first film well? In a way, absolutely, but sometimes you just must leave art alone to create art.
Let’s get this review going.
Official Synopsis
NOSFERATU is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake. Starring Bill Skarsgård (It franchise, Barbarian), Lily-Rose Depp (“The Idol”, The King), Nicholas Hoult (Renfield, The Menu), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals, Bullet Train), Emma Corrin (Deadpool & Wolverine, “The Crown”), and Willem Dafoe (The Northman, The Lighthouse).
Right off the top, let me give huge kudos to the cast in this film. They represented their characters well, especially Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok and Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter. They were amazing in their roles. Bill Skarsgård brought a beautiful and haunting rendition of Orlok, as he sold the immense terror and overbearing evil that Orlok wore proudly on his sleeve. In addition, Skarsgård sold Orlok’s internal and external suffering, as well as his cruelty, creating an emotional competing rollercoaster ride for the audience. You love him, you hate him, and then you understand him. Skarsgård’s delivery brought this to the screen and was present from beginning to end.
Lily-Rose Depp equally created and sold Ellen Hutter’s unintended connection with Orlok, her desperation with keeping Orlok at bay, and her regret and internal suffering that she carried with her thanks to the tragic mistake made by summoning Orlok in her hour of need. She was helpless, hopeless, and isolated as Hutter, and separated her performance from the other characters while pairing perfectly with Skarsgård’s Orlok. In a sick and twisted way, they were meant to be, even if it was unwanted.
The two leads were meticulously woven together in a terrifyingly beautiful way that you couldn’t help but feel their journey was complete by the end. And what a journey it was, as the film pulled no punches and was able to push content boundaries through violence and other risky sorts of visuals. It pushed more boundaries because the original 1922 film didn’t have ratings other than ‘Please don’t show her ankles’.
Kidding aside, the film was good. The story, if you’re not familiar with it, revolved around Ellen and her childhood, where she had to escape the clutches of her family, who felt she had an unnatural connection to the world. She was constantly isolated, put away, and eventually felt so alone that she desperately called out to whomever to come find her and be with her. And the whomever was a demon named Nosferatu (or Count Orlok).
While the story took this prequel information and scattered it throughout the film like a mystery that was slowly uncovered, as you don’t know the direct connection between Orlok and Ellen until the end, the reveal was icky and uncomfortable, as sometimes context just needs to be implied rather than told. I think that is what made the original film so good, as you didn’t need to be told directly how the two characters connected. It was left up to the imagination of the viewer, which is something that filmmakers can sometimes do well, even Alfred Hitchcock lived off that concept.
Anyway, as the film begins, the impending doom of Orlok’s arrival in Ellen’s town is introduced through the plot of Bram Stoker’s Dracula story, as Hutter’s husband, Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), must go seal a deal for a real estate purchase with Orlok. The best part of this retelling is how Ellen knows that she is going to be alone and vulnerable with Orlok but can’t tell Thomas straightaway that this is the reason she begs him not to go. Regretfully, Thomas and Ellen are in two different mindsets about the Orlok visit – she knows what and why he has engaged in this deal with Thomas’ company, while Thomas is hellbent on going on the trip to establish his family’s future. Both are worthy reasons for Thomas not to journey and to journey.
This first act establishes Ellen’s issues while introducing the first sprinkle of her past, all of it triggered by her husband’s decision to leave to visit Orlok. It also shows the isolation, internal suffering, and shame she has carried with her since the first moment she encountered Orlok. Depp’s performance sold Ellen’s feelings well and perpetuated stress to the viewer, which creates a hefty, as well as useful amount of impending doom from Orlok’s arrival. Depp pulled this off so well and created drama through her actions without having to reveal too much. It certainly puts a spotlight on the situation and makes the simple task of selling a house feel like the greatest mistake in the world.
The second act begins with Thomas’ journey and eventual capture. Thomas makes his way to Orlok’s castle, after running into several villagers that try to dissuade his ventures. While we are not fully introduced to Orlok while Thomas is his guest, his cruelty and shape are revealed as he slowly drains Thomas of his life while keeping him trapped and unwell in his castle. Orlok’s goal is to weaken Thomas so much that the vampire can make his way to Ellen, and Thomas will be unable to stop him. It’s a sinister plot that adds evil to Orlok’s character and makes what he does such a terrifying and unforgivable move that only magnifies his persona. It’s brilliant, as it is true horror.
The second act was everything it should have been. It was uncomfortable and unsettling, and it didn’t pull its punches. Robert Eggers nailed the visual style and carried over a good bit of German Expressionism established from the original 1922 film into nearly every scene. As the story became more sinister, the visuals began to match it. Camera movements and angles reinforced the unsettling nature of Orlok and his reach toward a vulnerable Ellen. The story in act two became faster, creating a sense of drama that constantly built higher and higher as Thomas fell deeper into Orlok’s spell, while Orlok kept focus on Ellen. At some point in this act, all you wanted to do was root for Thomas to stand up and get going, as the stakes (pun intended) became more real, as did Ellen’s warning of what would happen if Thomas left. There was so much good drama in this part of the rollercoaster ride that by act three the hill was steep enough to scream in terror loudly as the story fell to its final point. Eggers strategically and surgically put this act together with fine precision so much so that I can’t remember when I have seen a better act in a horror film.
When the third act arrived, everything started to come together. Thomas made it back to Ellen but just barely, and weakly. Thomas and his friends, Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Dr. Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson) come together to realize that everything that Ellen has been saying all along, the impending doom and her need to be protected, were not the words of a woman with mental health issues, rather someone who had been telling the truth, while also carrying a dark secret. Of course, Thomas, Friedrich, and Sievers couldn’t directly help Ellen, so they must get a doctor of the occult, Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz (Willem Dafoe) to guide them about how to stop Orlok.
The story concludes on a satisfying, yet tragic note, while at the same time leaving behind lessons to be learned in several areas. Those lessons are up to the audience’s interpretation, though I suspect isolation, ignorance, and shame are somewhere in the mix. For me, I’m left wondering if there is truly a good person in the story. It feels like Ellen might have been forced into her predicament thanks to poor parenting and isolation. Her character understands the wickedness she has been a part of for much of her life, and she can’t outrun or avoid what is eventually going to happen. She is a tragic character who is a victim of her circumstance that she didn’t mean to create, but didn’t bother to figure out how to stop. She was prayed upon by a demon, while she was screaming about it to the walls. There wasn’t a good way this was going to end for her, as her character had long since been cursed to unimaginable doom. Maybe she is the hero in a way, as she is the closest thing to that structure.
Thomas was a means to an end. Much like Reeves’ character in the 1992 film Dracula, Hoult’s Thomas was a character written to push the story between Orlok and Ellen, while also being a throwaway should something happen to him. Thomas isn’t a hero at all in this film, but rather just another person in Ellen’s life who didn’t listen to her and paid the ultimate price because of it. It sounds cold, but if you ever need a more obvious lesson from Thomas’ character it is this – listen to your spouse when they’re spilling their beans.
As for the rest of the characters, Taylor’s Friedrich was meaningless, as nothing turned out well for him and he was just another reinforced deaf player in Ellen’s life. His reason for being in the story is repetitive at best, as Thomas’ lack of respect and ear for his wife would have been enough to show how truly alone Ellen was in her life. His character was just an echo of an already yelled sentence.
As for Dafoe’s occult doctor, he served as a delivery system for the exposition. He came out of nowhere, dropped how things would be with Orlok and how to stop him, and then quickly left. While I loved Dafoe’s performance, I felt like there was too much respect given to the original film, and he could have been sorted out much better. With remakes of this type, it’s okay to shift and go in a different direction with characters. Sometimes it is better to do so, and this character, and how he was written/developed, could have been done differently.
While I understand that Robert Eggers wanted to respect the material, and there is nothing wrong with that, I think that he went along with it too closely. Like a film teacher toting the importance of Citizen Kane or La Strada to the world, there is no way those movies would be remade the way they were originally presented. Modern cinema has evolved beyond those story structures, art, and characters, as technical restrictions and opportunities have offered new ways to tell stories, so any excitement for recreating them would be because they are niche. The same goes for Nosferatu. The material landed too closely to the original and I think that Eggers could have done something deeper, more impactful, and more frightening than follow the path that was laid down in 1922. The only big differences between that film and this modern re-telling are the visuals and the actors. The story feels like it should have been far better than it turned out.
All this said I did enjoy the film. I felt like it still brought frightening moments, fantastic cinematography, and superb acting. The story just needs a bit more connection between characters and acts, and far less obvious exposition. For those who have not seen this, it is still worth your time.
Special Features
NOSFERATU Extended Cut
- NOSFERATU: A MODERN MASTERPIECE – Explore NOSFERATU’s deepest, darkest depths with the actors and artists whose commitment and craftwork take the classic vampire epic to horrifying new heights.
- BREATHING LIFE INTO A DREAM – Filmmaker Robert Eggers’ lifelong dream becomes a startling cinematic nightmare as the actors collaborate on transformative performances to make his Gothic vision an astonishing reality.
- BECOMING COUNT ORLOK – Practical makeup FX seamlessly melds with Bill Skarsgård’s bold interpretation of Count Orlok to resurrect a villain whose unsettling appearance is both creepy and captivating.
- CAPTURING THE MOOD – From sunlight, snowfall, and shadows to candlelight and complicated camera moves, see how each visually rich detail contributes to NOSFERATU’s incredibly eerie atmosphere.
- RECREATING 1838 – Open a virtual time capsule with production designer Craig Lathrop, whose intricately detailed sets immerse viewers in an entirely authentic world.
- DRESSING THE PART – Whether accenting Count Orlok’s otherworldliness or telling background tales through clothing, watch costume designer Linda Muir fashion distinct looks that extend each character’s story.
- THE END IS JUST THE BEGINNING – Visual effects supervisor Angela Barson and composer Robin Carolan enhance NOSFERATU’s nightmarish fantasy using stunning CGI and a breathtaking score.
- DELETED SCENES
- Ellen at the Window
- Harding’s Bedchamber/Dark Corridor
- Behold, the Third Night
- FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH WRITER/DIRECTOR ROBERT EGGERS
