Years ago, Ellen Hutter (Depp) was a lonely child. After seeking a bond of any kind, Count Orlok answers her call. She is haunted by his presence for years.
That is until she meets her husband, Thomas. His presence puts an end to her nightmares for the time being. He is hoping to secure a job at a real estate firm. So, they send him on a journey to Transylvania to sell a property to Count Orlok.
Meanwhile, his wife is home, and her fits start again. She is staying with her best friend and her husband, Anna (Emma Corrin) and Fredrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) Harding.
Nosferatu focuses more on the relationship between Ellen and Count Orlok than the 1922 movie. To the best of my recollection, it primarily follows the journey to his castle before he heads to the town.
For better or worse, the Nosferatu remake ups the ante with its supernatural elements. It makes for a great performance from Depp, who deserves appreciation for her dedication to the part. In the same breath, Eggers relies on cheap jump scares more often than he has in the past.
One way to wash away the stain of The Idol is to give a performance like Depp’s in Nosferatu. Hoult may be the lead, but Depp is the standout and gives her all to the part. (I have to imagine it feels silly to act possessed as she does, and yet, it works.)
In some ways, the role is only a stone’s throw away from her work in Wolf. But she steps up her game enough to distance herself from that performance. Depp packs a punch with her vigorous performance, even stealing the show from Skarsgåard.
Subtlety is key, and that is why The Witch and The Lighthouse work so well. They build up to the crescendo. Imagine if Willem Dafoe — who ironically played Schreck in a movie about the making of Nosferatu, Shadow of the Vampire — and Robert Pattinson went bonkers from the start. It would completely ruin the film.
None of Eggers’ earlier projects relied so heavily on jump scares. I wonder if having the Nosferatu IP behind it added pressure to make it “scary.” And yet, The Witch was terrifying not for its jump scares but its ambiance. What was implied was scarier than what was shown.
Bill Skarsgåard disappoints as Count Orlok
Nosferatu, on the other hand, is quick to show you Count Orlok. The original movie shows some restraint when holding Count Orlok back for the big reveal.
Surprisingly, Eggers’ movie shows him within the first hour. The Nosferatu remake is so eager to rush through the most memorable parts of the 1922 movie.
It’d be one thing if Skarsgåard’s version of Count Orlok was so undeniable it had to be seen. But the design was sadly disappointing. I’ll spare you the details, but most of it was questionable at best.
Skarsgåard is no stranger to playing creepy supernatural beings, but Count Orlok isn’t Pennywise. He makes some choices with his performance, like rolling his Rs, but he’s not remotely unsettling, unfortunately. There was something scary about Schreck’s performance (perhaps it was just the fact that it was a 1922 silent horror movie) that Skarsgåard lacked.
What works in Skarsgåard’s favor is the below-the-line work. The sound design of Nosferatu goes a long way in creating some kind of eeriness. Every creak in the floor of his castle can be heard, as can the crinkling of fires.
The usual Eggers-isms are present in Nosferatu. Like Wes Anderson, he loves a perfectly symmetrical shot. The wide shots of the different landscapes, which were done by DP Jann Blaschke, are something any aspiring filmmaker should study. Blaschke also does a great job blocking the tracking shot early in the movie in Wisborg.
Should you watch Nosferatu?
Nosferatu is a different kind of remake from Robert Eggers. It’s not a cheap regurgitation of a previous movie like any of Disney’s live-action remakes. Nosferatu expands the story and gives its actors more of a showcase than previous iterations.
Eggers effectively creates a gothic world that feels big. Even Wicked, a movie with probably triple the budget of Nosferatu, failed to have this level of scope.
But it still falls into familiar genre tropes, relying on jump scares instead of the creepy atmosphere it created. It is disappointing since the original was scarier without the tricks and technology we have 102 years later.
And over the course of 132 minutes, it grows tired when you can see the next jump scare coming from a mile away. Nosferatu may be one of the most well-made and aesthetically pleasing movies of the year, but like Count Orlok during the day, it’s mostly a sleeper.
Grade: C
Nosferatu was released on December 25.
Over a century ago, F. W. Murnau brought Nosferatu, an unlicensed movie adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to the big screen. Now, Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Northman) brings a new iteration to the table with his Nosferatu remake.
