By NathanEdwardPriem
I love that Eggman so much!
Nosferatu (2024) is the latest film by one of my favorite directors, the visionary Robert Eggers.
It’s obviously a remake of the 1922 classic “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” and also takes ques from Werner Herzog’s remake 1979 “Nosferatu the Vampyre“.
This film along with Neil Breen’s Cade: The Tortured Crossing was my answer to the question “What movies are you most looking forward to in 2024?”
I embarrassingly haven’t seen “The Northman” yet so I’m behind on my Egger’s filmography (but it’s high on my watch list.) but his film The Vvitch (2015) is a masterpiece not just of horror but of cinema in general. (I wouldn’t call it one of my favorite movies however because it’s so cruel.)
Thus this film had a very high bar to meet for me going in since I’m a huge fan of Robert Egger’s previous work, the Dracula story, and gothic horror in general.
I’m pleased to say it largely met that hurdle.
The cinematography is of course fantastic and the acting first rate.
Lily-Rose Depp is fantastic in a role originally meant for frequent Eggers collaborator Anya Taylor-Joy and I think I prefer her in the role since Anya Taylor-Joy has too much “strength” to me.
Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen has the right mix of courageous protagonist and helpless victim that a horror movie needs.
Bill Skarsgård is unrecognizable as Count Orlok and gives a gruff performance that feels both real and otherworldly. (If The Substance wasn’t nominated this film would have won The Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling easy.)
Another frequent Eggers collabarator Willem Dafoe is eccentric and great of course and the rest of the cast is good with no one sticking out like a sore thumb and embarrassing themselves.
The downside is that the Dracula story has been adapted so many times there really isn’t much you can explore.
But Eggers interpreted the relationship between Orlok and Mina in a psychosexual way which was really interesting.
I also liked the exploration of Scientism in the face of the unknown and how the modern or post-modern world in our case is so quick to dismiss things outside of it.
Two scenes in particular stood out to me in particular.
Orlok stretching out his hand over the city brought to mind another film by F. W. Murnau, Faust (1926).
The scenes with Jonathan Harker (I know Nosferatu changes the name but I’m too tired to look it up.) traveling to Dracula/Orlok’s castle is probably the definitive version of the sequence brought to film and creates a high bar that the film unfortunately struggles to meet afterwards.
Unfortunately the ending fell a bit flat since as a remake (possibly a remake of a remake or a remake of a remake of a story that was stolen anyway.) it is bound by the ending of the original.
But Ellen’s resolution and Orlok’s defeat at the end is neverless hauntingly beautiful and a A+ execution of the original ending for modern audiences.
My Score-
80/100
Overall Nosferatu (2024) is a masterclass in Cinema that more than warrants a recommendation though it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Egger’s original works.
I know Robert Eggers is making Werwulf next and I’m super hyped for it as I am with the rumored “Christmas Carol” (Another one of my favorite stories.) film he is attached to direct.
Here’s hoping for more Kino!
Until then I’m Nathan Edward Priem and that…was something else.