In just three films writer-director Robert Eggers has established himself as one of the most idiosyncratic and visually distinctive of filmmakers and that continues with his fourth film a remake of the 1922 vampire classic Nosferatu. That first film saw Max Schreck as a the vampire in a defining one for future versions and a belated remake followed in1979 with Klaus Kinski and now it’s the turn of Bill Skarsgard as the undead title character presented here as a disconcerting hybrid of towering athlete and decomposing corpse.
Eggers version is a mash up of the 1932 Dracula and the original Nosferatu which purloined Bram Stoker’s story that eventually saw the film being sued by his widow. Eggers version sees socialite Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) now the wife of junior lawyer Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) and a terrific opening scene finds her already haunted by dreams of Nosferatu aka Count Orlok who in turn sees her as his love destiny increasingly invading her very existence to detrimental effect. But it’s her husband who is sent by his manager at his employer’s real estate office to Orlok’s castle (Transylvania is never mentioned but only hinted at on a map), in order to purchase it for his company in an effort to impress his boss and ensure his future promotion. Not knowing the true nature of Orlok there‘s a series of increasingly unsettling scenes that sees him escape with his life back to 1838 Germany. Like the story of Dracula, the Count sails (as cargo) to Germany decimating the crew and introducing thousands of plague rats to his destination where he determines to make Ellen his own.
The film has been a passion project of Eggers for years and it has all his usual trademarks, stylish production design, obscure lost languages & dialects (here it’s Orlok’s mode of speech), and his repertory of actors that includes Willem Dafoe & and the always great Ralph Ineson. The cast are nearly all terrific. We say nearly all because as much as we really like Aaron Taylor-Johnson he is to Nosfearatu what Keanu Reeves was to Coppola’s Dracula. Lili Rose Depp really proves herself beyond the nepo baby tag in what must have been at times excruciating physically demanding performance. Nicholas Hoult is sympathetic in what is his second Dracula themed role after appearing as the title character in ‘Renfield’ opposite Nicolas Cage. But all eyes are on Bill Skarsgard proving once again that he is the go to guy for these grotesque monsters having caught the eye as Pennywise in ‘It’. His presence as Nosferatu is both imposing and full of contradiction. Physically imposing yet gaunt and grey skinned never out of the shadow adding further menace and speaking in a heavily accented breathless guttural tone that has him sounding like Borat’s asthmatic cousin. Skarsgard is tremendous.
This Nosferatu avoids the clichés that the genre is so beholden to but the film is creepy rather than scary as is so typical of Eggers films. As might be expected form the director this is another visually brilliant film but once again a little overlong and it’s that which is unlikely to attract new fans which is a shame as this is a director whose release of each new films is, like those of Christopher Nolan’s, an event to relish.
related feature : ‘Renfield’ director Chris McKay talks Nicolas Cage, eating insects and those hidden Easter eggs
related feature : ‘Salem’s Lot’ – Review
Here’s the Nosferatu trailer…….
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