2.5 out of 5
Vampires have always had a way of lurking in the shadows of cinema, and Nosferatu has remained one of the most iconic vampire stories in cinema since the original silent film debuted in 1922. Here we are, 100 years later, and Nosferatu is back because vampires really never die.
Now, let’s sink our teeth into it! … because you knew a vampire pun was coming!
Directed by Robert Eggers (who brought us another divisive film, The Lighthouse), Nosferatu is set in the Victorian era in the fictional town of Wisborg, Germany. The film follows newlyweds Ellen and Thomas Hutter — an estate agent tasked with closing a property deal with the mysterious Count Orlok who lives in a remote region of the Romanian countryside. Hoping to secure extra money to start their marriage, Thomas takes a six-week journey to Orlok’s isolated estate.
Left behind, Ellen stays with family friends, but we quickly learn she’s been haunted by nightmares of a demon for most of her life — visions that had disappeared after her marriage. However, these visions weren’t just bad dreams; they were signs of a demonic attachment, one that Count Orlok wants to reclaim through manipulation, seduction, and psychological torment.
The structure of Nosferatu follows the general outline of Dracula, with some unique deviations, but the essence of vampire drama is basically the same. In fact, it’s so similar that back when the original film was first released in 1922, Bram Stoker’s widow sued the producers and won, ensuring that Bram Stoker is credited as one of the writers on the film — which should be a lesson for everyone to not mess with the granddaddy of vampires.
Overall, the casting for Nosferatu was well done, but something just didn’t feel right with the film itself. Ellen Hutter, played by Lily-Rose Depp, delivering a decent performance that took turns between overly serious to comical, primarily due to some of her close-up camera angles. Her husband Thomas, played by Nicholas Hoult, emerges as one of the strongest performances in the film, capturing his confused descent into madness and fear while under Count Orlok’s influence. He was compelling, and you genuinely feel his disorientation and dread as he navigates the Count’s grim estate.
Willem Dafoe, is strangely spectacular in his role of Professor von Franz, but his mad, campy energy made it feel like he was actually in a different film from everyone else. It felt like he “got” what this movie should have been while the rest of the cast took on their roles with grim seriousness, which I’ll get to in a moment.
Count Orlok, played by Bill Skarsgard, isn’t at all what I imagined for this part, but he did a great job, bringing a no-nonsense menace to the role. For most of the film, he’s obscured in shadows or seen at unsettling angles, which builds the suspense effectively. When he’s finally revealed, his physical appearance doesn’t quite match the iconic imagery from the original Nosferatu, despite the marketing heavily relying on that classic look. Instead, the design choices for the vampire lean into the grotesque, but they did preserve the look and atmospheric feel of his hands and their interplay with the light and shadow on the wall.
The film is visually impressive. Shot in (almost) black and white on 35mm film, it captures the haunting, grainy, decay of the Victorian world. Shadows and light play a critical role, becoming characters in their own right and creating a sense of unease in almost every frame. The cinematography in each scene also echoes the style of early cinema, leaning into negative space and claustrophobic framing that heightens the film’s oppressive atmosphere. It feel that this was why the film was made, so that they could remake the original, but with modern technology that made it look like … the original. I actually wish they had changed things up like adding a hint of sepia tone or muted color grading to the visuals to add more visual depth to the storytelling. Some of the story was filmed using the large backscreen technology we've seen in recent mini-series such as The Mandalorian or Kenobi on Disney+.
The dialog feels like it was ripped straight from the Victorian era with no updating. This just made it come off as disconnected and like the actors either didn’t understand what they were saying, or they knew what they were saying and couldn’t figure out how to say it in a way that didn’t sound awkward and ridiculous. As a result, there were so many points during a serious scene when the audience in the screening I was in would just start awkwardly laughing. If it had just happened once or twice, it might have been a mistake, but it happened routinely, which made it feel more like a directorial choice that the cast (other than Willem Dafoe) just didn’t get and couldn’t deliver. It would have been far more effective if they had slightly modernized the text to roll off the actors’ tongues more fluidly and wouldn’t ring so false in the audience’s ears.
At well over two hours, Nosferatu overstays its welcome and I was wishing that Buffy Summers would time travel and universe just to put me out of my misery toward the end of the film. The pacing was inconsistent, with long stretches of lingering shots, scenes that didn’t need to exist, and repetitive sequences that sapped the energy from the narrative. However, there are certain scenes that are beautifully executed, but they are drawn out unnecessarily, like the ones showing Ellen’s connection to Orlok through symbolic gestures associated with the locket of her hair.
The film’s prologue also felt unnecessary. With the opening scenes revealing too much about Orlok’s connection to Ellen, diluting the suspense and mystery that should have built gradually over the film, in order to add instant shock value in the opening credits. It would have been far more effective to slowly uncover Orlok’s shadow and influence, rather than letting the prologue rob the later scenes of their impact.
Having said all that, Nosferatu is an ambitious film with moments of brilliance, especially in its artistic style and direction, but it struggles to balance its serious gothic horror roots with an inconsistent campy tone and staggered pacing within the story. Its stunning cinematography, eerie atmosphere, and standout performances by Nicholas Hoult and Willem Dafoe keep it moving, but bloated runtime and clunky dialogue really weigh it down.
If you’re a fan of slow-burn horror and gothic storytelling, there’s plenty to enjoy, especially if you appreciate atmospheric visuals and thematic depth. However, if you’re expecting a tightly paced thriller or a compelling update of the original, you might leave feeling underwhelmed or, as with my wife who came to view it with me, you might be bored.
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