NOSFERATU
FOUR STARS Ellen has become obsessed by the an obsessive Transylvanian count. Can her husband save her? #NOSFERATU
Starring Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult
When judged by atmosphere alone, Robert Eggers’ vampire flick is a triumph. For better and worse (mostly better), the director of THE LIGHTHOUSE has applied his meticulous arthouse process to this richly gothic adaptation of Murnau’s chilling NOSFERATU.
Forget sexed-up vampire tales of the past fifty years for this is a straight down the line tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Lily-Rose Depp) and the infatuated but terrifying Count Orlock (an unrecognisable Bill Skarsgård). Yes there is a husband, concerned friends and a well-meaning vampire hunter (Willem Dafoe’s distracting Eberhart) but the meaty action is between Ellen and Orlok.
“Does evil come from within us, or beyond?” she queries, clearly terrified. A cold opening reveals her writhing in torment or ecstasy, perhaps both. Compelled by a force known to us but mysterious to her and husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), she runs outside to collapse on the grass under a cold, blue moon. It’s 1838 and it’s all downhill from here.
Unlike much of the director’s earlier work, NOSFERATU plays it straight (mostly) and if you’re looking for classic Hammer as directed by Robert Eggers, that’s exactly what you get. He’s celebrated for remarkable visual spectacles and doesn’t disappoint with this grand vision of gothic Europe subdued by the shadow of vampiric corruption. Dramatic lighting helps create a permanent sense of dread where even daytime scenes are dominated by the Count’s dark shadow. Throw in appalling weather and snowstorms (is this a Christmas movie: discuss) plus a sound design that runs the arc from subtle to assault (another of Eggers’ trademarks), NOSFERATU is truly a film for the senses.
Themes of love, sex and compulsion are the mainstay of vampire stories and NOSFERATU has them all. Yet when the romance between newly-weds Ellen and Thomas is torn asunder by a scheming acolyte, obsession fills the void. Working out who is stuck on whom and why is part of the fun although Skarsgård’s horrific Orlok soon turns that sour as step by unbearable step he sucks all the light from the story. If you’re after passion and desire a la Vampire Diaries, you’re in the wrong cinema (and it should be noted that to fully experience the wonder of NOSFERATU, you should see it in the biggest, loudest cinema you can find).
Scene by incredible scene Eggers ramps up the horror, such as Ellen’s physical deformation by Orlok, or when the hapless Thomas barely escapes the Count’s foreboding Transylvanian castle with his life. We are all powerless in fear of ancient terror. Like so much of the film, the rich detail of these sequences is truly awesome though with repetition, his characters and audience alike risk suffocating under so much ambience.
Thus NOSFERATU is, undoubtedly, a success; it looks and sounds stunning, is packed with more distress than anyone needs while cooly revisiting a narrative we know and love. Yet maybe that’s also what keeps it from being a perfect movie. In reducing Orlok to simple, cold, calculating, obsessive evil, Eggers excises heart from his film, excising the one last thing to give us hope. It doesn’t undo it, but it does prevent this from being a defining film of our times.
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