A lonely, married young woman seeks to fill an emotional void in her life, and in doing so unknowingly awakens an ancient evil in the form of the mysterious Count Orlok.
Written and directed by Robert Eggers, who has recently given us some deeply disturbing delights such as ‘The Lighthouse’ and ‘The Northman’ comes a tale of longing as old as time in ‘Nosferatu’. A visually and emotionally dark gothic horror film based in the 1830’s and set in both the fictional German town of Wisborg and the very real Transylvania’s Carpathian Alps, this latest version goes to depths that will almost certainly stay with you long after the muted colours of the 35mm reel has ended.
Eggers originally expressed his desire to remake the classic tale in 2015 but felt as his second film he would be doing a blasphemous disservice to such an emotional and historic tale. With many parallels to the original Nosferatu which was released in 1922, which itself was loosely (and controversially) based on Bram Stoker’s very well-known Dracula written in 1897.
Staring Nicholas Hoult as Thomas Hutter, our reluctant hero who must travel alone through Transylvania for the signature of an extremely rich yet unknown Count sent by the also eccentric Herr Knock. Also starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as shipping magnate Friedrich Harding, Emma Corrin as Anna Harding and Simon McBurney as Herr Knock, each putting in excellent turns in this beautifully adapted film. But the acting prowess comes from the scene stealers who turn this new adaptation from just another film into something quite emotionally moving. With Willem Defoe who stars as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz, whose speciality is the occult over mere medicine; Nosferatu gives Defoe something to get his teeth into – so to speak. Some may see this role as too much but with the fantasy Eggers is looking to create this does work extremely well. However it is Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hunter and Bill Skarsgård as our title character who really make this film far darker than I was either hoping for, or indeed expected.
Shot on 35mm film (a rarity nowadays), it was desaturated in post-production down to a gorgeous chromatic black & white. In some visionary ‘dream type sequences’ each scene becomes an almost framed ‘piece of art’, creating something more reminiscent of the cinema of the early 1900’s, but using the technical detail and versatility of today’s high quality cameras. With beautiful close-ups of Lily’s character’s often distraught face, Eggers uses the camera as if the Count was staring deep into her soul through her thoughts, and the emotion this invokes put this film on another level for me. With some of Lily’s physical scenes going further – in my mind – than ‘The Exorcist’, ‘Nosferatu’ is by far the best of this horror style for many years, and will set a high bar for many years to come.
Where Nosferatu has become more than just a new adaptation is where Skarsgård insisted on training his voice over a period of several months working with the Icelandic opera singer Ásgerður Júníusdóttir to lower his vocal range a whole octave, incorporating Mongolian throat singing into his lines, creating something quite ethereal and superbly dark. In the words of Skarsgård he likened the experience of “conjuring pure evil.” Using shadowy visuals to purposefully disguise the complete image of the count, his voice also felt as if another possibly physically larger actor was used – it was not. In August 2017, actress Anya Taylor-Joy was originally cast alongside Harry Styles but both dropped out of the project in 2021 with scheduling issues leaving us with possibly greater actors for their roles in a film that will most likely disturb you as it tugs on your emotional heart strings taking you to a depth not seen in quite some time on the large screen.
In my opinion, Nosferatu is not for the feint of heart as this is far more than just blood and gore, but an emotional story of longing, loss and heartbreak. With some brief shots that take this deeper through scenes of innocent death, Nosferatu will become a modern classic that many new horrors will aim towards, yet I fear will fail to improve upon.
Author: Piers, Maidstone Store
