A little over 100 years ago FW Murnau came out with his silent film version of Nosferatu. A vampire tale before all the vampire films and so forth that made this subgenre of vampire films popular. This was a highly influential horror film. It makes sense that Robert Eggers, a folk horror author, would want to take a shot at remaking this classic vampire film. He has been enamored with it for years now. After making three very different movies he finally got around to it. Nosferatu comes out this Christmas, but I saw it early and it’s definitely worthy of all the early praise it’s gotten.

Thomas  Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is a young lawyer who just married and is tasked with going to Transylvania to visit Count Orlock (Bill Skarsgard) to sign a deal for a new home he has purchased in the town of Wisborg, Germany in 1838. While there at Orlock’s home, he comes to the stark realization that this man is a bloodthirsty vampire interested in his wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) In a fight for his life he finds a way to escape and go back home to help his virgin wife before it’s too late.

Eggers decided to do a remake of this classic movie instead of doing a new version of it. I think that was a good idea because it allowed him to add in a few things that he wanted to make the story better overall in the end. Not much mind you. Just a few touches with the Orlock character in how he looked and so forth. This version Is a very thrilling and suspenseful adaptation of the original film. It shows how much of a fan of the original he was.

Besides the cast that I’ve mentioned already, there are some other very good supporting cast performances from Simon McBurney as Herr Knock, Hoult’s character’s boss, and assistant to Orlock. He goes mad and starts doing some crazy things like eating rats and birds, which are very entertaining to watch at times. Willem Dafoe plays a very forward-thinking Professor Abin Eberhart Von Kranz, who has ideas of what is going on in this town and what has happened to many of the citizens of the town, specifically Depp’s character.  Aaron Taylor Johnson and Emma Corrin play another young couple who are friends of Holt and Depp’s characters. They get sucked into this deadly game by Orlock and his crazy assistant Knock. They’re both good in small roles. The cast as a whole is fantastic with Depp and Holt as the standouts.

Bill Skarsgard is an actor who most has come to be known as Pennywise the Clown in the It films, but he’s made a career of playing characters covered in makeup over the years. His performance in Nosferatu is fantastic. He speaks in a foreign dialect and comes across as very menacing and scary. He genuinely frightened me at times during the film. Numerous times he came out of nowhere and attacked another character in the movie. These scenes were chilling, to say the least. He has owned this type of character in his career and I hope he continues to play frightening makeup-clad characters like this one.

Eggers has made a career of doing horror films people didn’t see coming beforehand. The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman have all surprised and shocked viewers in more ways than one. He has a knack for doing things in the folk horror genre that are wholly original and groundbreaking. He makes people jump out of there at his films. The blood guts and gore are done in a very intelligent respectful way for the horror genre. Sometimes these things can be used in a way that isn’t very good in horror films, but Eggars makes them a part of the film in a good way. 

With Eggars films the technical aspects have to be done with great detail. The costumes, sets, and locations all have to be on par with the story he’s telling. In the case of Nosferatu, this movie looks exceptional in that regard. The seamless visual effects matched perfectly with the incredible realism of the production design and the sets created by Beggars and his crew. I felt like I was in the 18th century and the weather was cold and windy. I felt that cold in the theater where I was watching the film. I’ve dealt with cold weather in my day and this movie felt frigid at times literally and figuratively.  The rain and snow were everywhere and felt like a character in the film. This was one of the most realistic movies I’ve felt considering it’s a period piece set in the 1800s. The cinematography was amazing as well. This was an exceptionally well-shot film.

The two stars of this film are Nicholas Holt and Lily-Rose Depp. Hoult has been on fire lately regarding his career. He’s had roles in The Order and Juror #2 to go along with his turn in this film. He’s started to mold into an actor who can play any kind of role. With Nosferatu he has to be believable as a husband who is being duped but also a man who can recover from the pain and suffering He’s endured at the hands of Count Orlock. He knows his life isn’t as important as his wife Ellen’s. Depp exudes every kind of emotion you can think of as this tormented woman. In both Holt and Depp’s dream sequences where they are being taken control of by Count Orlock, they are in a world of trouble. Working together they have great chemistry and I believe they love each other. They were both amazing in their roles. Here’s hoping there are some gold awards in their future. I was mesmerized by both of them in this dark Gothic horror love story.

Two specific things about this film that stood out to me the most were the cinematography by Phedon Papamichael. With Eggaer’s inspiration he used shadowing over his camera work that showed a black hand creeping over the city and in other moments in the movie. This was a very affective tool in showing the impending death everyone in town was facing. I loved the cinematography in the film so much. It’s some of the best in any film all year long. Also the score by Jarin Blashke is moody and menacing. I love a dark and brooding score. This was one of those for me for sure.

Certain films are considered masterpieces and Nosferatu from 1922 is one of those movies. I wouldn’t have wanted a remake of that movie until I heard it was Robert Eggers who wanted to remake it. I have the utmost confidence in him that he could do the 1922 film justice. He exceeded my expectations in every way possible. Everything he’s done up until now has led to this moment where he was able to remake one of the most beloved horror films of all time. His background in folk horror made it simpler for him to craft this amazing vision of a film. The actors put everything they had into their roles and left nothing to the imagination or surprise. Anyone who watches this movie will see the craftsmanship and hard work everybody put into this incredible folk horror remake. Eggars has become one of those directors who I look forward to seeing what he’s got in store for me and Nosferatu is another crowning achievement for him.

5 stars

Dan Skip Allen