Right out of the gate, filmmaker Robert Eggers (“The Lighthouse,” “The Northman”) seemed preternaturally formed. His arresting debut, “The Witch,” not only introduced us to Anya Taylor-Joy, but the horror chilled to the bone and announced the arrival of a bold new filmmaker. Eggers has made good on that promise ever since with all his audacious and ambitious films, but he crafts his chef kiss masterwork with the stunning and utterly spine-chilling “Nosferatu.”
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Essentially a remake of 1922’s silent German Expressionist vampire film directed by F. W. Murnau, Written and directed by Eggers, the filmmaker has long revered it as his favorite film—the picture is a culmination of something he’s aspired to for years. And it shows—made without idolatry and he updates the material with such craft and care, it will likely be regarded as a modern masterpiece for years.
Breathtakingly unsettling and distressing, Eggers’ superb gothic tale of obsession centers on Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), an unwell and haunted woman, her dutiful husband Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) and the mysterious Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), a vampire infatuated by her and calling to her from across the realms of time, space, dreams and nightmares.
On assignment from his employer, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), Thomas travels to Transylvania to meet Count Orlock; a prospective client looking to sell his castle. Meanwhile, his wife, plagued by these horrific visions, begs him not to go. But money and obligation come first, but it soon becomes clear: Knock is a Renfield-like simp doing his evil master’s dirty work, and Thomas is on a very fateful journey.
On his odyssey to Transylvania, Thomas begins to encounter increasingly strange occurrences, suspicious people, and his own hellish hallucinations during sleep. Something is clearly amiss and it all grows steadily and carefully more disquieting as the story progresses.
To say much more, could ruin the surprises, but “Nosferatu” will certainly raise your hackles and leave you on the edge. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin play the married Harding couple entrusted to watch over the progressively unraveling and possessed Ellen why Thomas is away, and Willem Dafoe features as Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz, an occult specialist akin to a vampire hunter, called in to help Ellen when she begins to succumb to madness.
Across the board, on every level, “Nosferatu” impresses and dazzles (and the Academy absolutely will take note). The cast is uniformly excellent, but Lily-Rose Depp astonishes with an electrifyingly scary performance, easily her best. Caked head to toe in remarkable, ghoulish and frightening make-up, Bill Skarsgård may be unrecognizable, but his turn is disturbing, and the menacing voice, is terrifying. Even in a somewhat more thankless role as the deceived man, Nicholas Hoult reminds us why he’s one of the best actors of his generation, making so much more of the role than one might imagine. And well, Dafoe is always remarkable, and that doesn’t change here.
From there, it’s essentially a laundry list of amazing talents helping an already refined, elegant, but nerve-wracking movie become that much more impeccable. Jarin Blaschke’s chiaroscuro-driven cinematography is off the charts striking, Robin Carolan’s score will help raise the hairs on your neck, and the overall craft of costuming, production design, sound and editing is flawless—one can’t remember the last time a horror movie was this artistically distinguished.
And that’s just it. “Nosferatu” stands out because it’s not a run-of-the-mill horror, but a work of art from a master filmmaker. Focus Features surely spent a fortune on this film, but they should know its outstanding mien is worth every penny.
“Nosferatu” not only looks jaw-dropping aesthetically, but Eggers’ composition and well-orchestrated camera moves—tracking shots, pans, and many of them inventive with brilliant use of creative and inspired transitions—deeply impress. It’s a new grammatic visual language to his oeuvre and it makes an enthralling drama all the more mesmeric.
While different in their objectives, Eggers’ work evokes the petrifying, disturbing horror of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” in the overall discomfiting atmosphere which is thick and choked with overpowering shadows and a flop sweat of suffocating dread.
And while it induces great anxiety and terror is its main métier, “Nosferatu” also throbs with a dark eroticism— the type that’s genuinely carnal and arousing but knowingly morbid so given the context. Eggers knows these dispositions of sexual desire and nervous terror are incongruous, unholy even, and he derives so much mileage from acutely understanding that inherent cinematic tension that we are fascinated by and recoil from at the same time. Eggers also imbues the entire affair in revulsion and a feverish delirium that dizzies.
Bloodcurdling to the last delicious drop, “Nosferatu” is extraordinarily compelling, one of the best films of the year, and an unforgettable, phantasmagoric experience for theaters that will astonish. [A]
Focus Features releases “Nosferatu” in theaters on December 25.
