Nosferatu
Robert Eggers’ handsome remake of the 1922 classic highlights the absurdities of the original.
Shadow play: Lily-Rose Depp (on the right)
Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
In 1922, F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu was something quite extraordinary. Restored and released on Blu-Ray in 2022 to celebrate its centenary, it still exerted an uncommon power, in spite of a tendency of its actors to rather overdo the ham. But unlike Murnau’s previous films – all of which have been lost – Nosferatu lived on to exert an influence down the ages. But since then the cinema has moved on, and tastes have changed. And there have been countless revisions of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, of which Nosferatu is verifiably the first (although the names were changed to avoid copyright infringement). A passion project for the writer-director Robet Eggers, the remake attempts to remain loyal to the original silent while dispensing with many of the vampiric tropes that have sprung up around the genre over the last century. If nothing else, Eggers is a supreme visualist and stylist and his vision of 19th century Germany is stunning. But it is still Dracula, albeit in a different cloak.
Only two years ago, Nicholas Hoult played a lawyer in Renfield, who was hoping to broker a land deal with Count Dracula. Here, he plays Thomas Hutter, an estate agent who is hoping to broker a deal with Count Orlok, but has to travel six days to Orlok’s castle in Transylvania to exchange contracts. Recently married to the lovely Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), who has been suffering from melancholy, Thomas only reluctantly makes the journey in spite of his wife’s warnings that something ominous is afoot. He promises to write her every day and sets off into the unknown…
One cannot deny the powerful visual aesthetic of Eggers’ remake, the striking Czech locations, cinematography and production design, but to the service of what? Once the screaming starts and the actors begin to roll their eyes, we begin to appreciate the advances in thespian sophistication over the last hundred years. Bill Skarsgård, who has carved a lucrative career emoting behind layers of make-up (It, It Chapter Two, The Crow) is unrecognisable as the growling, asthmatic Count who, for much of the time, is in shadow anyway. In Shadow of the Vampire (2000), Willem Dafoe played Max Schrek, the actor who portrayed the 1922 Nosferatu and who pops up here in the Peter Cushing role, chewing on such dialogue as, “there is a dread storm rising…” To be polite, the actors do give it their all, particularly Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen, who is required to gurn, writhe and scream at regular intervals. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin have less to do, and one wonders why they bothered to turn up, while Simon McBurney draws on his experience with the theatre group Complicité as the seriously demented Herr Knock (played by Alexander Granach in the original), orgasmically chewing the heads off live pigeons. It’s all so over-the-top and Grand Guignol, that its effect feels unintentionally comic and prompted much giggling at the screening I attended. Yet, while nowhere near as visually imposing, Mel Brooks’ Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) was actually much funnier.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney, Adéla Hesová, Milena Konstantinova, Stacy Thunes, Jordan Haj.
Dir Robert Eggers, Pro Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Chris Columbus, Eleanor Columbus and Robert Eggers, Screenplay Robert Eggers, Ph Jarin Blaschke, Pro Des Craig Lathrop, Ed Louise Ford, Music Robin Carolan, Costumes Linda Muirf, Sound Michael Fentum and Damian Volpe, Dialect coach William Conacher.
Maiden Voyage Pictures/Studio 8/Birch Hill Road Entertainment-Universal Pictures.
132 mins. USA/UK/Hungary. 2024. US Rel: 25 December 2024. UK Rel: 1 January 2025. Cert. 15.
