MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Nosferatu (2024)
Nosfera-2: German Vacation
Matthew D. Smith also has a podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai. You can find it here.
Nosferatu (2hr 12mins)
Directed by: Robert Eggers
Featuring: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård
Synopsis: Ellen and Thomas Hutter (Depp, Hoult) are happily married, still in the honeymoon period and looking forward to Thomas’ big promotion. All he has to do is secure a client’s signature and his cranky old boss will give him that raise. There’s just one problem: that client (Skarsgård) is a vampire!
Review: Despite not knowing nearly enough about the Nosferatus (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, Dracula, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Dracula: Dead and Loving It) that came before, it’s clear Robert Eggers loves the original 1922 production. Looking like it was shot in 1022, the original movie version was almost lost when it was made clear that the makers did not have the legal rights to actually adapt Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Names were changed, legal action still went ahead and it’s only because of fortuitous timing that we even have knowledge of F. W. Murnau’s attempt at terror.
But to love Nosferatu (or Dracula, or almost anything with vampires) is to indulge oneself. Promotional material for Nosferatu seems to be pushing the idea that this film is a serious, po-faced adaptation, something to watch when you’re in the mood for a ‘proper’ film. The only issue with that is Nosferatu is as campy as they come without spilling over into silliness.
Everyone knows what sort of movie they’re in.
This is a compliment. Nosferatu is a fun time at the movies! Bill Skarsgård is hiding and cloying in the shadows, obsessing over the one that got away. Depp is throwing herself around as she experiences visions and communications with the night. Willem Dafoe plays an occult-obsessed doctor with a pipe rivalled only by Hans Landa. It’s all played straight, and as everyone knows campy material works best when it’s played straight.
Performances likewise get the right balance. Everyone knows what sort of movie they’re in, meaning there isn’t a single weak link in the acting stakes.
The problems rear their ugly, wrinkled heads when it becomes clear that there are ten times as many smiles to be had compared to any white knuckles. Save a truncated sequence wherein Thomas attempts to off Count Orlok before he can even get going, there aren’t really any moments where fingers are pawing into seat rests or covering eyes. It could be said that this isn’t a problem, depending on what kind of experience you’re after.
There’s confusion over metaphor and fantastical.
Eggers does his usual when it comes to atmosphere and set design (meant in the most complimentary way). Everything seems turned up to eleven except the camera gain, meaning scary and scared figures shift in and out of shadows all around Thomas and Friends as they attempt to halt Orlok’s excursion into Germany. Eggers also does his usual in concerns to camera work and his style fits the tone he seems to be reaching for (vaguely old-school, mildly self-aware without bringing attention to it, and perfectly happy to replay old material). Perhaps this is why marketing for the movie has been so po-faced. The Northman is over the top in places but overall kept things very straight-faced, and the humorous elements from The Lighthouse seem to have been forgotten amongst the madness. But this seriousness is as misplaced as this movie’s finale.
Where serious questions have to be asked is in the depiction of sex in Nosferatu. It’s no surprise sex plays a big part, as sexuality or at the very least musky brooding consistently features in anything vampire-related, but here there’s confusion over metaphor and fantastical. Ellen is first confronted by Orlok when very young, and it’s insinuated that he forced himself on her (even if Eggers is at pains to show that, technically, Ellen agreed to what is happening). This is fine for the story — Orlok the vampire forces himself on people to ‘feed’ as a metaphor for rape.
It gets confusing when Ellen saves the day by spending the night with Orlok. The metaphorical rape and fantastical self-sacrifice never really coalesce. An excuse could be made relating to when the film is set (at one point, a fully-qualified and respected doctor uses ether on Ellen, before suggesting she is tied up lest she disturb anyone’s sleep; later she is shut down simply because she is speaking rudely to a man). But this seems like a cop-out. What are we supposed to feel when Ellen steps forward as the hero, but feels forced to sleep with her rapist? A movie that’s been fun and campy for two hours suddenly veers into deep regret and sadness, and despite its beauty and quality elsewhere Nosferatu suffers for it.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or enjoy the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.
