When German director F. W. Murnau released the silent film Nosferatu over one hundred years ago in 1922, the Expressionist vampire film was unlike anything the world had seen before. He had taken Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula and turned it into a less visceral but more frightening dream. The novel had been accused by some of being too frightening and so the film draped the story in a more surreal setting.
American writer/director Robert Eggers has taken on the challenge of remaking one of the most iconic films ever made and succeeded in making it his own. He uses an almost monochromatic palette and a generous 133-minute running time to reveal his version. He has also cast several current “it” actors such as Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård and Aaron Taylor-Johnson to make it even more relevant to a modern audience.
Skarsgård’s take on Count Orlok (the renamed Dracula character from the silent film) is one of implied menace and the voice he delivers is super creepy. As the film progresses and he emerges from the shadows, he becomes even more disturbing. This eventually leads to a final scene that could only exist in the current film world. It will be shocking even for those with a deep vocabulary of onscreen horror.
Decades in the making and much more than just an easy remake, Eggers delivers a languid take on the classic film Nosferatu in which he turns it into a gothic nightmare with many parables that are relevant to current times. It takes effort as an audience member but it’s designed to come to life in the dark recesses of your brain. It drills in and yet never loses the ability to shock.
Rob Hudson
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