Nosferatu

            When you look at the career of director Robert Eggers, it should come as no surprise that he would want to re-imagine Nosferatu. The subject matter is certainly in his wheelhouse. From the folk horror of The Witch, to the claustrophobic nightmare of The Lighthouse. But what he brings to his ghoulishly brilliant interpretation of Nosferatu is that he does not forget it is a tale of horror. And even though the film has all the gothic trappings of a Hammer film- there is this paralyzing sense of menace that bleeds from every frame.

            There is the familiar set up- Nicholas Hoult plays the recently married Thomas, forced by his real estate boss (Simon McBurney) to travel deep into the Carpathian Mountains to meet a reclusive eccentric- Count Orlac (Bill Skarsgard)- in order to sign the deed to a London ruin. Along the way, the gypsies beg him not to go to the castle. And they are right. The Count is a monstrous vampiric entity and he has a psychic connection to Thomas’ wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) from the past.

            Meanwhile, Ellen suffers somnambulistic nights and has dark visions of something evil “coming,” Before long a ship crashes ashore with no crew member left alive and overflowing with rats. A plague seizes the city and a strange scholar of the occult (Willem Dafoe– just terrific) is brought in to uncover what is possessing Ellen. And how to combat the evil that has descended on the city.

            The cinematography by Jarin Blaschke is nightmarishly atmospheric. The production design by Craig Lathrop is phenomenal. The score by Robert Carolan is deliciously creepy. And the rest of the cast- Aaron-Taylor Johnson, Emma Corrin and Ralph Ineson– are perfection. 

            The original 1922 silent version of Nosferatu by F. W. Murnau was visually hypnotic, and had a memorably chilling Max Schreck in the lead. The 1979 Werner Herzog interpretation- Nosferatu, the Vampire– had the magnetic madness of Klaus Kinski. But What Eggers (and Skarsgard) capture so frightfully is the ancient creature’s towering malevolence. There’s something terrifying about him- the rumble of his voice- the shadow creeping across the wall- everything drips with deadly fury. Bill Skarsgard’s Count Orlac is no cape-wearing, sensual blood-sucker. He is a foul, rotting beast and in director Robert Egger’s gothic horror masterpiece you are never allowed to forget that.