Robert Eggers is a man who never fails to amaze his fans with his superb attention to detail in creating authentic period pieces. His latest, “Nosferatu” (2024), is a cold look at impending doom in the form of a creature that, in a lot of ways, is far worse than evil itself.
“Nosferatu” follows Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) and how the vile Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) becomes infatuated with her. Her husband, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), journeys to Transylvania to meet Count Orlok to discuss a real estate contract. Unbeknownst to Thomas, he actually signs away his wife to Orlok.
As Count Orlok makes his way to Wisborg, Germany, Thomas and others try to stop the vampire from taking his wife and causing other town residents to die of a rat plague.
Eggers previously stated in an interview that he saw the original “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” (1922) when he was just a young boy. At that time, Max Schreck’s performance and the film’s creepy atmosphere stood out to Eggers the most.
“I was maybe 9 when I first saw it, and it was very much Max Schreck’s performance, and the haunting atmosphere of the film, and how it distills the Dracula story into a simple fairy tale [that made an impression on me],” Eggers stated.
Skarsgård takes what Schreck did and does his own spin of the character based off of Eggers’ screenplay. He is truly devilish and conniving as Count Orlok. Eggers does the classic trick in the filmmaker’s book in not revealing Count Orlok’s face just until the right moment for both the characters in the film and the audience watching.
Initially, the only things shown of Count Orlok are his long spider-like fingers, and what is heard is his deep Transylvanian accent. When all of Orlok is revealed, he looks like what vampires are said to be depicted from that specific time period and in folklore.
The man behind the makeup, Skarsgård, does a career-best performance with Count Orlok. Audiences have seen him previously play other villainous characters that require him to completely disappear into the role like Pennywise the dancing clown in “It” (2017) and “It Chapter Two” (2019).
His counterpart, Depp, also delivers an outstanding performance as Ellen Hutter. Depp previously starred in HBO’s blunder “The Idol" (2023) as the lead character, Jocelyn. Here, she is given so much more to do as Ellen than what she was given to play Jocelyn.
Many of her scenes require her to act possessed and show a wide range of emotions. She bounces off the other actors and actresses in the film very well, such as Emma Corrin’s Anna Harding, Aaron-Taylor Johnson’s Friedrich Harding, Willem Dafoe’s Albin Eberhart Von Franz and, of course, Hoult’s Thomas.
Likewise to Rose-Depp, Hoult’s character requires him to be a deeply troubled man who doesn’t want his wife to be lost to a force of evil in the form of Count Orlok. People watching will really get the feeling of desperation and fear for his loved one from Hoult.
All of the film’s performers are downright incredible no matter how little or big their screen time or importance is.
It is almost cliche now to say that a new film from Eggers features a near-perfect recreation of the time period it's trying to capture on camera. Every shot and every frame of “Nosferatu” is like a beautiful drawing that was done in the early 1800s.
The fictional town of Wisborg, Germany feels like it’s lived in, and those who inhabit it look like people from that time. No one feels or looks out of place in this film.
The cinematography by Jarin Blaschke is phenomenal, and there are moments where the film looks like a film from the early 1900s in black and white.
One issue that does need to be addressed is the film’s pacing. The first and third acts are well done, but the middle is where it could potentially lose the attention of the audience. Nevertheless, Eggers hits a fourth home run with “Nosferatu,” currently playing in theaters.
Rating: 4/5
