If awards season and/or the holiday season aren’t the perfect times for unchecked enthusiasm and hyperbole, I don’t know what the right time is. So even if it was a bit hyperbolic for me to think, “I don’t see how anyone could make a better horror movie than that” right after Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu ended, hopefully you can understand how my enthusiasm could overtake me like a vampire biting into my neck.
Eggers has been a preeminent voice in horror since his feature debut, 2015’s The Witch. Though his two films between then and now haven’t been horror in the strictest sense, his trademark has always been deeply authentic period pieces, and Nosferatu, a gothic horror masterpiece set in 1838 Germany, is certainly no exception (despite the predominant use of British accents). The technical prowess of Eggers and his crew makes the film stand out and hold its own among a century-long string of adaptations of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, including F.W. Murnau’s silent classic Nosferatu (1922), of which this film is an expansion and a re-imagining.
The other pillar of the film which makes it stand out is its incredible cast. Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult are young newlyweds, and Bill Skarsgård (completely unrecognizable under an amazing makeup job) is Count Orlok, the infamous vampire of folk legend (commonly referred to as Nosferatu) who stalks man and wife, both physically and supernaturally. Ellen (Depp) had a run-in with Orlok years before the thrust of the film begins, and he has haunted her ever since. As a real estate agent looking to prove himself to his new company, Thomas (Hoult) agrees to travel to Transylvania to meet Orlok and complete a sale of an estate so that the Count might move to the newlyweds’ neighborhood. Very few seem to know the truth of who and what Count Orlok is. That is, until Thomas meets the terrified locals who live near Orlok’s castle, and later, in one of the best scenes of the year in movies, meets the monster face-to-face.
Depp’s work in particular is brilliant, and it’s especially because she has so many notes to hit. Ellen is lovestruck for Thomas, then despairing over his long departure, then stricken with a very specific illness and mania, and then, after everything, must become the film’s most confident character outside of Nosferatu himself. Depp is perfect in every section, imbuing Ellen with a depth that may not have even been there on the page. That’s not to disparage Eggers’ writing, as much of his dialogue is as genuinely entertaining as anything else in the film. It’s just that I think Depp adds layers to it that perhaps others wouldn’t. Hoult adds layers to Thomas as well, although that character is necessarily more of a scaredy-cat throughout the entire picture. Skarsgård’s abilities really shine in his voice work for the Count. I’m not easy to scare, and the first time this devilish concoction between Russian, German, and demon hit my ears, my spine tingled and I could feel myself tensing up with each new sentence.
The rest of the ensemble is fantastic as well, especially Aaron Taylor-Johnson in what is probably my favorite role of his to date: Friedrich Harding, a wealthy friend of Thomas’ who allows the young couple to live in his extravagant home. Like Depp, he also has to hit several notes throughout the course of the film: pretentious, vain, guilty, horrified, grief-stricken. The incomparable Willem Dafoe plays a professor of the occult who begins as an exposition machine, but becomes so much more by the film’s end. Simon McBurney is unforgettable as one of Thomas’ bosses who knows a little more about Orlok than he initially lets on.
As the Count winds his way back to Ellen, Eggers finds clever ways to make his Nosferatu more than just a thrilling and visually magnificent exercise. Woven into its thematic fabric are comments on our current political situation, not in the sense of partisan endorsements, but more so as an exploration of how we got here. It’s impossible to miss the COVID-19 parallels when Orlok’s presence brings about a plague, and characters’ theories as to how to solve this crisis ping off each other as our intellectual allegiances change just as quickly. You could certainly watch and enjoy the movie without caring about any of that stuff, but it’s there and it’s a stroke of pure genius on Eggers’ part.
Finally, Eggers’ genius is in perfect partnership with his cinematographer Jarin Blaschke. The dark imagery in this film is truly unforgettable, and the modern ways in which the camera sometimes moves add a sly humor to the proceedings. Leave it to Eggers to give us this many brilliant layers. | George Napper
