By Matthew Moorcroft

Highest Recommendation

• Directed by Robert Eggers
• Starring Bill Skarsgard, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe
• R

Early in Nosferatu, our leading man Thomas finds himself at a literal crossroads waiting for a carriage that will take him to his next client – the mysterious and reclusive Count Orlok, who lives in Transylvania alone and has “one foot in the grave” so to speak. The night is foggy, stepped in darkness until a sole carriage follows up, and mysterious stops in front of Thomas and opens up to him. Thomas then proceeds to literally float inside, almost like he is at the will of powers beyond his understanding and control. It’s haunting, ethereal, and magnetic, and one of the most powerful images in film from the past year.

Nosferatu is drenched in this. It’s a brilliant, gorgeously rendered picture with the authenticity and attention you’ve come to expect from the ever reliable Eggers, but now with an Expressionist twist. It seems crazy on the outset to remake a film like Nosferatu – it’s very existence one of being the result of creatives desperately wishing to tell a certain kind of story and all of the loopholes around that – but it’s been done before well and Eggers’ interests as a director line up considerably with that of F.W. Murnau’s classic original.

Immediately though, from frame one, there is a beauty to this version of Nosferatu that is just immense. It’s impossible to overstate just how stunning Eggers’ vision for this is – the gothic tones wash over the film like waves, completely engulfing you in it’s mix of sinister overtones and seductive undertones. Shadowy hands in the darkness reign over the city causing plagues of death, while characters find themselves driven mad by the circumstances. Eggers’ lean into the gothic side of the Dracula story aids in his clear fascination with the cold attraction of the vampire – despite being an ugly, perverse being, there is something about it you can’t help but be drawn in by. Orlok is evil incarnate, but he’s also a presence you want to strangely by around.

This really aided by a spectacular title performance by an unrecognizable Bill Skarsgard. Beyond just his voice – and it’s a really great, chilling, iconic voice – but Skarsgard embodies the character’s physicality and general presence with ease. Even if he’s never seen in full outside of a couple of brief moments, his body language is so distinct and so well realized that it stops being Skarsgard and just becomes Orlok. He would be the clear standout performance of the film if wasn’t for a revelatory level role from Lily-Rose Depp, whose tragic yet demanding performance as Ellen steals the show in multiple ways – especially as the second half hits and she becomes the defacto lead of the picture.

And like a lot of efforts by Eggers, the film’s second half is really where it comes alive. That isn’t to say the first half isn’t bad, it’s excellent as well; the entire sequence in Orlok’s castle is just spectacular stuff. But it’s really the second half, from Ellen’s “hysteria” to the introduction of the plague to the slow menace that builds throughout it’s runtime, that really makes it sing. So many instantly gripping images, so many arresting background details. I really simply cannot overstate how lavish and gorgeous the film actually is, and on the big screen it just sings. It’s a perfect rebuttal to the current age of cinema with it’s massive overspending and unwiedly budgets; this can be accomplished through simple strong craft and a willing eye for detail. That detail allows these characters, as simple on paper as they may seem, to come alive. Eggers’ unmocking tone towards his subjects have always made these seemingly old-fashioned character relatable, and Nosferatu is by far and away the best example of this as these characters feel real and human in spite of their distance in time away from us.

Hell, half the scare factor in Nosferatu simply comes from the enveloping dread that comes with the fear of the unknown; a society that has only known certain things for much of it’s existence would be lost against something that seems impossible to understand. As Albin Eberhart Von Franz, our Van Helsing stand in for the feature, puts it, “we are not so enlightened as we are blinded by the gaseous light of science”. As an audience member, we find ourselves finally tapping into that mindset, understanding why they felt the way they did, even if nowadays that way of thinking is antiquated or even unrealistic.

And by the time it’s unforgettable final frames happen, Nosferatu completely sheds it’s roots as a remake and becomes it’s own, equally transgressive beast. It’s eroticism is achingly palpable but also disturbing at the same time, and it’s relationship to the occult feels like the perfect mix of love and hate with a pinch of wonder and fear. And by the end, you are left completely breathless in it’s wake. If you aren’t sold on Nosferatu yet then I don’t know what will convince you, but personally I think this is one of the most beautiful horror films to come out in recent memory, and one of the most instantly iconic this way of The Exorcist. Just a magnificent, brilliant film and my new favourite from Eggers.