Nosferatu Review: Robert Eggers' Dead, But Delicious Take

"Nosferatu" is based on the iconic film of the same name by F.W. Murnau. The character of Count Orlok was born because the German director sought to avoid a copyright dispute over Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula," slightly altering the original story and character names. Little did anyone know that the film would become a classic. Count Dracula is a glamorous vampire, capable of transforming into a bat, and sunlight isn't enough to kill him. Count Orlok, on the other hand, is a somewhat decayed creature that comes with rats and plague. In creating the film, Robert Eggers largely relied on Murnau's "Nosferatu," but to make the story more complete, he often turned to Bram Stoker's original source material.

England, the 18th century. Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) often sleepwalks and, in this state, comes into contact with a dormant evil, which she affectionately calls Death. After the heroine marries Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), her nocturnal adventures become less frequent. One day, Thomas receives a work assignment: to travel to Romania to see the mysterious Count Orlok to sell him an abandoned castle in England. The deal promises to bring the Hutter family a fortune. Thomas unquestioningly obeys his boss, but Ellen falls into despair. The young woman does not want to be separated from her husband, because he already does not pay enough attention and rarely engages in intimacy with his wife. Meanwhile, their friends Anna (Emma Corrin) and Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) Harding have already had two children, a third is on the way - they cannot tame their passionate glances.

After her husband's departure, Ellen falls into melancholy, suffers from epileptic seizures, and again begins to sleepwalk. All because Count Orlok is Death: he intends to separate Thomas and Ellen and finally reunite with his coveted beloved.

We waited for the premiere of "Nosferatu" for a little over a year, while Robert Eggers wanted to make the film while still a teenager. After a successful debut with the folk horror "The Witch," the director began planning his dream project, but the industry was not yet ready to entrust a newcomer with big budgets. First, Eggers presented the world with "The Lighthouse," then ran away from A24 to a richer studio and made the sweeping "The Northman." The film barely recouped the $90 million invested in it, but Universal was finally able to allocate all the necessary resources for Eggers to shoot "Nosferatu." Dreams do come true.

If "The Northman" was a Nordic tale, then "Nosferatu" is a Gothic tale. Whether this is a scary movie or not depends on the reserves of your vestibular apparatus. If you fainted at some "Soul Collector," then yes, "Nosferatu" will seem scary. If you calmly ate popcorn at "Terrifier 3" or could go into a dark room after watching "Hereditary," then it is unlikely that anything can scare you anymore. "Nosferatu" seems not to have had the goal of frightening the viewer, but rather to give the blood-chilling story a deserved form, immersing the viewer in a foggy world of desire, anxiety, and approaching death.

If there is anything to expect from Robert Eggers, it is devotion to his vision, which he reproduces on the screen with obsessive meticulousness. Recreating the scenery of 18th-century England and Romania, the director, together with a team of historians and production designers, achieved authenticity in every minute detail: from the entourage of a settlement of Romanian gypsies, the attributes of Slavic churches to the buttons on Thomas's jacket. At one point, 5,000 rats were brought to the set, refusing to use CGI. Even the actors' accents sometimes require subtitles - it's not so easy to make out aristocratic British. Count Orlok has undergone a rebranding and returned to his Romanian roots, abandoning his recognizable and even iconic bald head and rat ears. Now he wears a fur coat and an impressive mustache, as befits a Romanian count of those times. The emphasis on realism is only beneficial to the picture - away from the fantasy dimension, the nightmare becomes more tangible.

Given the rich visuals, it is clear why Eggers tries to keep the story as simple as possible to digest. The intense viewing experience of "Nosferatu" could easily have been overloaded with an extra character arc or a "rethinking" of the original, which Hollywood now shamelessly and unscrupulously does. The symbolism in the plot remained the same but acquired a more lively form. Any manifestation of the character of women in the 18th century was considered, if not hysteria, then possession. The diagnosis of "melancholy" was handed out left and right, and natural sexual desires were stigmatized in society, considering them dirty and impure. Lily-Rose Depp's heroine absorbs all these "vices," and Count Orlok becomes their physical embodiment - rotten, frightening, but at the same time intriguing. Perhaps it's all about Bill Skarsgård, who retains his charm even under ten kilograms of makeup.

Over the years of planning the shooting, the cast changed several times. In Depp's place was supposed to be the director's muse Anya Taylor-Joy, but it is more difficult to overcome scheduling conflicts than the plague. Lily-Rose Depp was ultimately approved for the lead role, drawing inspiration from "Possession": she had to writhe in convulsions even more often than Isabelle Adjani. The young actress finally showed herself and atoned for the sins of the failed and completely unserious "The Idol." Nicholas Hoult has once again demonstrated his talent this year and convinced everyone that he knows how to tremble and create suspense like no other. Bill Skarsgård was originally supposed to play the role of Thomas, but the stars played in our favor, because the audience got the best Orlok in a century-old history. Bill trained with an opera teacher to lower his voice and achieve absolutely diabolical frequencies (yes, his voice really sounds in the film). Willem Dafoe ... remains Willem Dafoe. Dr. Van Helsing in his performance brings the necessary relief with humor. The doctor serves as a small cog that starts a huge mechanism - there is little screen time, but without his appearance, everything would definitely have fallen apart.

"Nosferatu" is a triumph of visual art, which throughout the session makes the brain vibrate and reminds us why we go to the cinema at all. Two hours and twelve minutes of pure perverse pleasure, after which you will want to repeat this experience again and again.