I have to admit, I’m pretty torn on the movies of Robert Eggers.
While they’re all technically impressive, only The Lighthouse really blew my socks off, with The Northman being a downright drudge. And Nosferatu – a remake of the 1922 classic of the same name – seemed an odd choice to me, a remake of an off-brand adaptation. But, at the end of the day, I love the drama of a gothic horror, so I was there on day one of release to see the story of Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) as she is stalked by the mysterious and deadly Count Orlok in 1830s Germany play out.
And, of course, this is one of the most sumptuously beautiful films you’ll see this year, if not this decade. It’s not a surprise, given Eggers’ previous work, how stunning Nosferatu is, but it’s still worth mentioning, especially when it comes to how he uses those visuals as part of the storytelling. The way he saps colour from the screen when Orlok is nearby, the dark shadows reaching out across the city as Orlok seeks out Ellen again, the uptight costuming coming apart as the characters fray at the edges; it’s not just beautiful, it’s functional, and it’s a joy to watch.
Across the board (almost, but we’ll get to that), Nosferatu’s cast is outstanding – Nicholas Hoult is an exceptional choice for Thomas, his fever-dream terror as he travels to Orlok’s castle all too visceral; it was such a treat to see Simon McBurney (who I adore in the brilliant Rev.) as our Renfield stand-in, chewing the scenery as well as various small animals in the process. Willem Dafoe breathes life into the movie as occult expert Professor Von Franz in usual effervescent fashion, while Aaron Taylor-Johnson surprised me with his presence as Harding. Perhaps my favourite, though, is Bill Skarsgård as Orlok himself – the transformation physically is exceptional (including his gorgeous and mesmerizing vocal cadence), and Skarsgård pulls the Count from potentially-silly territory into commanding, compelling, and skin-crawling brilliance.
Despite all this, though, there are two issues I have with Nosferatu – one of them very much within the movie’s purview, and the other perhaps not as much. The first, and probably the most damaging to the actual quality of the movie presented here, is Lily-Rose Depp. I know a lot of people love this performance and I truly went into it with an open mind even though I’ve been been distinctly unimpressed with her acting before, but from almost minute one, I found this a near-unwatchable lead. While her physical performance is generally alright, when it comes to dialogue, it was almost comical how bad she was; it feels like she’s concentrating so hard on not letting that accent slip that she resorts to just reading from cuecards three inches off-camera. If I was feeling ungenerous, and I am after sitting through two hours of it, I would say that her turn as Ellen is mostly orgasmic whimpering interspersed with an amateur-dramatics reading of Cathy from Wuthering Heights. She desperately wants what Eva Green as Vanessa Ives has, but falls, along with some of the writing, embarrassingly short.
And, given that the film really hinges on her and her ability to imbue this relatively thinly-written character with a sense of weight and presence, that’s a big problem – the movie crumples in around her somewhat, despite the otherwise-excellent cast.
But, beyond that, the other issue is one that could well be just a me problem. Because I doubt that most people going in to this movie will have watched double-digit Dracula adaptations in the last couple of years and spent hours writing about every one – but I have, and I couldn’t help but feel like Nosferatu elevated itself with any single element above the other versions we already have. It looks gorgeous, yes, it’s directed well, it’s acted brilliantly for the most part, but it just felt like yet another in a long line of adaptations of this story that has basically been interrogated from everything interesting angle it can be. Not that a movie has to exceed everything that’s come before to earn the right to exist, but I found myself wishing that Eggers had turned his talents and really specific to something more unique rather than retreading this story once more.
As a whole, Nosferatu is a beautiful, muscular, and often brilliant take on a story I’m not sure needed to be told again – even with a sincerely dodgy central performance from Lily-Rose Depp. But I hope that Eggers’ next movie is one that swings for the fences in terms of originality, and we can see this same stylistic skill applied to something utterly unique.
What did you think of Nosferatu? How does it rank up against the original, and other Dracula adaptations alike? Let me know in the comments!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Stanisland Magazine)
No But Listen 