Nosferatu 2024 Movie Review
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When you hear a filmmaker claim that he's "wanted to make this movie his whole life," it often feels like promotional hyperbole. But in Robert Eggers' case, this is demonstrably true. The story has clearly garnered a lot of attention throughout much of his professional life, having even directed a play about Nosferatu in high school, and it's clear that the director poured his heart and soul into this gothic, sprawling horror epic. Enjoy this movie on Afdah stream.
very shot feels carefully composed, resulting in a film that's faithful to the original yet clearly his own creation, with archaic dialogue and disorienting visuals. The result is exactly what you'd expect from Eggers' Nosferatu: unpredictable, daring, and entirely unique.
Dracula is one of the horror genre's most overused and parodied stories. Real estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) travels to the Carpathian Mountains to meet his client, the bloodthirsty Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), but his interest soon turns to Hutter's wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), a woman who has long had trouble communicating with the Devil.
Eggers says that F.W. Murnau's groundbreaking work was a major influence on the film, but Nosferatu draws inspiration from a wide range of sources. These include Werner Herzog's other Nosferatu films, Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, Shadow of the Vampire, and even The Last Voyage of Demeter. Despite these influences, Egger's version develops its own identity, focusing on mood, atmosphere and unrelenting horror.
Director Eggers emulates the expressionistic cinematography of Murnau's films, but injects his own brand of disturbing nightmare imagery into this tried-and-true tale, giving the film a distinctive look. Without the flashiness of Coppola's films, the compositions are beautifully eerie and deliberate. The director's introduction, in which he dances around in full view of Orlok, is wonderfully disorienting, and Ellen's numerous dream sequences are the stuff of nightmares.
One of the reasons this adaptation works so well is its emphasis on Ellen as the protagonist. Make no mistake, she is the protagonist. In a year filled with female actresses delivering intense, physically demanding performances in genre films, Lily-Rose Depp is perhaps the most impressive and powerful. Depp is the film's centerpiece, giving a physically intense and emotionally gripping performance that transforms Ellen into a full, complex character. Her possession scenes are particularly astonishing, contorting her face and body in ways that are both fascinating and terrifying.
I still find it strange that so little was mentioned about Werner Herzog's adaptation in the run-up to this release, especially since the Dracula/Orlok to whom Skarsgård most resembles is Klaus Kinski from the 1979 version. He's a grotesque, clearly monstrous creation, perhaps the most terrifying portrayal of Dracula ever. Like Kinski, he plays incredibly wild. While both portrayals are very different, both clearly inhuman, they lack the pathos and longing that emanates from Kinski's sad eyes. Skarsgård's Orlok is pure malevolence, instantly bringing a sense of decay and doom to the film. His rotting flesh, disordered eating habits, and animalistic ferocity make him a truly loathsome figure, and Eggers accentuates this by creating a physicality and menace that strips away the romantic features of his appearance, leaving only an insatiable predator.
However, despite Skarsgård's vivid portrayal, the design of Orlok himself comes across as somewhat disappointing. His highly stylized appearance, including his oversized moustache, obscures much of the actor's facial expressions, making it difficult to understand or fully appreciate his performance. Furthermore, Eggers' decision to delay revealing Orlok's full story feels like a misstep that has direct consequences for the character.
What I really like about this version isn't so much Orlok's characterization, but the attention it gives to characters who are often sidelined in animated adaptations. Simon McBurney's Mr Knock, Renfield's film version, is a highlight. Usually a source of humour and pathos, this version gives him a more important and frightening role than usual, while also being an absurd and disturbing character.
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