Well, well, well, what do we have here? A divisive and somewhat controversial movie that’s bound to elicit some sort of reaction from a viewer? Oddly enough, those reactions appear to be quite strong despite their quality. If you hate the movie, you hate it with intensity and if you like it, you can’t stop talking about it. Moreover, even if you’re somewhere in the middle, where I am, you still feel the need to say it’s strikingly in the middle. As a fan of vampire movies and the original, I was anxious to check out Robert Eggers’s version of Nosferatu. I loved his first movie The Vvitch and The Lighthouse wasn’t too shabby. The Northman, on the other hand, is so bad that it’s good.
Nosferatu features delightfully Gothic horror visuals and atmosphere but also a dreadfully slow pacing and uninspired storytelling. I feel like Eggers wanted to recreate the original movie from more than a hundred years ago and focused too much on staying within that framework. The original movie from 1922 was made after the director could not get the rights to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. So, he worked around that. We will talk about this more but first, we have to get something out of the way. And that something is Bill Skarsgard’s accent as Count Orlok which sounds like Count Dracula from Sesame Street. I think that most people will find this hilarious and therefore lose any sense of dread or fear.
I have to admit I felt the same way for the first few minutes. However, as time went on, I got what he was trying to do. First of all, Billy worked incredibly hard on that accent, practicing for months with a vocal coach. He would also do these repetitive exercises on set to get it just right. The accent itself is inspired by Milan Fras, lead singer of Laibach, a relatively obscure Slovenian band that also inspired Rammstein and many other artists. In Nosferatu, Count Orlok’s deliberate and prolonged style of pronunciation symbolizes his ancient age, immense power, and iron-clad determination. You really have to immerse yourself in the character in order to “get it”.
Imagine living for centuries in this castle and possessing all these supernatural powers. How would you interact with mortals, I’m sorry, with snacks? This brings us back to the main theme of the movie and that’s authenticity. Robert Eggers went to great lengths to recreate the vibe of the original. He even used a banned technique from more than 80 years ago instead of CGI to generate snow. I’m talking about frozen potato flakes which are then dispersed using huge fans. The castle you see in Nosferatu is an actual Transylvanian castle called Hunedoara Castle, also known as Corvin Castle, located in the north of Romania while the interior scenes were filmed in Pernstejn Castle, Czech Republic.
Finally, I also want to mention the fact that those are all real rats you see on the set. There were about 5000 of them and apparently, they were quite timid. I guess they didn’t bite anyone or something like that but you should know rats are dangerous. You can say that Nosferatu is his passion project and not a commercially viable movie although it was marketed as such. If they were honest and said that this is not a classic horror movie, no one would’ve seen it. As such, I think that, as time goes on, it will gain more and more recognition.
Still, you should know it was hugely successful at the box office, making almost $200 million on a $50 million budget. Oh yeah, the story, almost forgot about that one but for a good reason too. If you’re familiar with the myth of Dracula or any of the film adaptations, the same thing happens here. Nosferatu falls in love with a girl, her husband goes to his castle to sell him a house and things escalate from there. The story is not taking place in England but in Germany while all the familiar characters are here. So, we will get to know both Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz AKA Van Helsing, and Herr Knock AKA Renfield. Just a reminder that this character got his own movie also starring Nicholas Hoult, simply titled Renfield.
You could say that Nosferatu is a discount version of Dracula but I think that wouldn’t be accurate. Especially when you account for everything, most of all the visuals and time distance. The cast did a terrific job despite the stereotypical characters and boring script. This is the first time I saw Lily-Rose Depp, Johnny and Vanessa’s daughter, and she was great as was Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe, and Ralph Ineson. We already talked about how committed Bill Skarsgard was, so I want to bring your attention to Simon McBurney who plays Knock AKA Renfield. He looks really good for a 67-year-old and his performance was nothing short of stunning.
To sum things up, Nosferatu is a good movie but you should be aware it’s not a classic horror movie. Be ready for all those things I’ve mentioned and you should be fine. I think those who have an artistic side will surely know to appreciate all the costumes, sets, and visually impressive scenes. You can pause the movie and paint these images and they would look absolutely stunning. Especially the ones with Lily-Rose as they feel like a music video. In fact, you can edit them all together to make that happen. Finally, if you’re looking for movies that are more “classic horror” than Nosferatu, do check out our Subversive Rabbit selection of Vampire Movies worth watching.
Director: Robert Eggers
Writers: Robert Eggers, Henrik Galeen, Bram Stoker
Cast: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson
Fun Facts: Harry Styles and Anya Taylor-Joy were the leads before dropping out to pursue other projects. Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp stepped in and did a terrific job instead. However, I’m still curious about how Nosferatu would feel like with Anya in the lead role.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5040012/
