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
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

Discover the Origin Story of Nosferatu with writer-director Robert Eggers, while the cast give you A Look Inside his gothic tale of romantic obsession and untold horror.

“I was such a fan or Rob’s movies going into this that I just really wanted to do justice to him and his vision because it’s something that he’s wanted to make since he was eight years old,” says Nicholas Hoult.

From Robert Eggers, writer-director of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman, comes Nosferatu, a terrifying, gothic reimagining of a classic.

In Eggers’ Nosferatu, estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) travels to Transylvania for a fateful meeting with Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), a vampiric prospective client. Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), Hutter’s new bride, is left under the care of their friends Friedrich and Anna Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin) in his absence. Plagued by visions and an increasing sense of dread, Ellen encounters a force far beyond her control.
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

Starring Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney and Willem Dafoe, Nosferatu will be released in Aussie cinemas 1 January 2025!
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

Starring Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney and Willem Dafoe, Nosferatu will be released in Aussie cinemas January 1, 2025!
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU/

From Nosferatu in the twenties to Bela Lugosi in the thirties to Peter Cushing in the fifties and now to modern versions like True Blood, the vampire myth and the Dracula character in particular has seen so many theatrical versions it’s amazing. Into this landscape comes Dracula Untold.

In this latest take we are introduced to Vlad ‘The Impaler’ Tepes (Luke Evans) before he became the Count. He is a family man and leader trying to save both his family and his people and he becomes one of the undead to do it. We as the audience are given no real back-story on Vlad’s past and the film suffers from that. It also suffers from a very dark colour palette and it’s lack of any colour outside that of the gray scale makes for a fairly dreary visual experience.

The story has its moments of interest but the film is very easy to dismiss and its staying power in your mind is quickly diminished. If you are a fan of all things undead, the film is a modern take on an old story and should be seen, as for the rest of us it’s a rather indifferent experience.

Rob Hudson
www.draculauntold.com.au