Nosferatu: Capstone To Strong Year In Horror

Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic

F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film Nosferatu is one of the most legendary and influential horror films ever made. An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it put Murnau on the map as a director, and Max Schreck’s Count Orlok is one of the most iconic vampires in film. It was remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog and his frequent collaborator, Klaus Kinski. Now, over a century after the original film, one of the preeminent writers/directors in horror currently, Robert Eggers, has remade Nosferatu for a new generation.

Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) and Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) are newly married, and Thomas takes on a big estate account from his employer, who tells him that a reclusive and wealthy Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard), from the Carpathian Mountains wishes to purchase a property in their hometown of Wisborg, Germany. Thomas sets out to bring the papers to Orlok’s castle despite Ellen's protests. What he finds is a castle in ruins and a nearby village that lives in fear of the man/monster who lives there. Orlok, unbeknownst to Thomas, has a deep obsession with his wife Ellen, and he is an unwitting pawn in Orlok’s scheme to be united with her.

Murnau’s original 1922 classic is iconic and a foundational template for the horror genre, but its storytelling is on the basic side, due in no small part to the limitations of silent films and the necessity for intertitles to convey dialogue and plot. However, it is heavy on haunting visuals and atmosphere. By comparison, Eggers fills in some gaps and builds out some parts of the story to enhance it. He also does an incredible job of creating a haunting and surreal atmosphere of his own.

One of the most notable changes is in the very opening of the film, where a younger, lonely, and vulnerable Ellen makes a spiritual connection with Orlok by essentially calling out to the void for any connection that will hear her. This is a small but fundamental change to the original, making the events of the film far more planned rather than happenstance in Orlok becoming obsessed with Ellen and increasing her torment while also making the journey that Thomas undertakes all the more sinister and perilous. 

While he is away on business, Ellen, who is experiencing seizures and somnambulism at night, is supported by her close friends Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Anna (Emma Corrin) Harding. They seek out the help of Dr. Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson) for Ellen’s afflictions. When Dr. Sievers reaches the limits of his expertise, he calls on a former teacher of his who has become obsessed with studying alchemy and mysticism, Professor Von Franz (Willem Dafoe), the Van Helsing of the tale.

Eggers litters in visual nuggets that are odes to the original film for those who are familiar with it. Thomas and his first encounter with Count Orlok, as he enters through the castle gate, come to mind immediately. When Orlok arrives and brings what the city fears is the black death, the street scenes evoke the original’s scenes of people carrying the dead through the streets in coffins. The way Eggers incorporates Orlok’s shadow is evocative as well. And, of course, the unforgettable ending scene is framed similarly.

For all of the visual callbacks to the original, Eggers creates many of his own to establish his own sense of haunting and surreal dread. Many of the nighttime scenes involving Ellen are shot in stark black and white (or maybe with an icy blue hue) to give it a cold and dream-like quality. As Thomas journeys from the village to the Count’s castle, there is an eerily foggy encounter with a horse-drawn carriage at a wooded intersection that feels like a nod to another silent film, The Phantom Carriage. In the scene where Thomas has dinner by the fireplace with Count Orlok, Orlok moves unseen from one place to another, creating a sense of Thomas being under a spell or there being an ethereal quality to Orlok. 

Sarsgard, who disappeared so completely under the clown paint for the two It movies a few years ago, is completely unrecognizable under the visage of Count Orlok. Max Schreck’s Count Orlok was creepy and wraith-like with his bald head, narrow frame, and elongated and outstretched fingers at his side, along with the two front teeth as fangs. It’s a very angular visual, which is fitting for the German Expressionism that influenced Murnau. 

By contrast, Skarsgard is hulking and imposing, with an equally imposing mustache befitting someone from Eastern Europe or Russia. The only thing the two depictions share are the bald head and the hands with the elongated, unnatural fingers. When he speaks, he speaks as though he is laboring to breathe, but also with a deep bass to his voice; it is a voice that sounds like, well, death.

Lily-Rose Depp, though, gives perhaps the most complex and impressive performance of the film. Ellen is a character haunted by Orlok, the Nosferatu vampire, who has been calling out to her, tormenting and enchanting her in equal measure for years. She has a porcelain appearance, especially in the cold and icy moonlit scenes. The role also looks physically exhausting on the actress, as she has to act out scenes of seizures and something akin to possession.

In one particularly unforgettable scene, she gets into a heated and impassioned argument with Thomas. She begins to unnaturally convulse more and more violently as she passes into a trance-like state under Orlok’s control. Depp has said that she wanted to embody the hysteria of patients of that time.

While the film is technically brilliant and all of the performances are exemplary, much like the icy tone of the night scenes, this film nevertheless left me a little cool to it, for reasons I am still struggling to understand. It is very clearly a passion project for director Robert Eggers. I have a sneaking suspicion that it may grow in esteem for me on a second viewing. 

I think it is safe to say that Eggers is probably the current master of evoking the perfect atmosphere for his films; from The Witch to The Lighthouse to The Northman and now Nosferatu, there is unmatched talent at bringing a time and place to life that feels real and authentic to that period. Nosferatu is a near-perfect distillation of gothic horror, marrying romanticism and the grotesque together in a way that few could. Nosferatu is the perfect capstone for what has been a shockingly strong 2024 for the horror genre.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars