What better way to celebrate Christmas than watching an ancient demon unleash a plague on an idyllic Victorian town in Germany?
Think of a Vampire.
I bet you thought of one that was brooding, handsome, and seemingly youthful, right?
Modern vampires have made us comfortable with the humanity and sexuality of this particular breed of monster. However, in doing so, vampire movies and television have generally strayed far away from their grittier and far less sparkly roots.
This is not the case for Nosferatu.
Nosferatu, an adaptation of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror from 1922, which was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in its day, follows Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), an opportunistic banking agent, as he travels from Wisborg, Germany to Transylvania to ink a deal with Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard), a reclusive individual with several particular requests.
Count Orlok hopes to purchase a decaying manor and the property upon which it rests to relocate his life to Wisborg. Hutter is promised the trip will help him attain the financial status necessary for the lifestyle he so desperately seeks.
To embark on this journey, Thomas leaves behind his new wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), a beautiful young woman caught in the throes of a mental peril that has plagued her since she was a lonely child, despite her protests. And as fate would have it, the demon haunting Ellen’s nightmares is the very man her husband ventures to meet.
When Thomas spends a night in a primitive inn in a Carpathian village at the foot of Orlok’s castle, he encounters strange rituals and villagers who refuse to speak the Count's name, stoking doubt over what exactly he is up against…
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- Photo Credit: Focus Features
While stylistically and visually stunning, demonstrating Director Robert Eggers’ (The VVitch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman) keen ability to render a period piece, this new adaptation strays little from its source material. This is a smart—albeit safe—choice when considering the 1922 version is hailed as one of the founding pillars of the horror genre.
However, Eggars makes updates by introducing new themes on top of those already present in the original such as otherness, occultism, and commentary on World War I.
This time around, Eggers, by casting the categorically handsome Skarsgard and transforming him into perhaps the most grotesque vampire to ever grace the silver screen, forces audiences to reconcile their inherent attractions to darkness.
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- Photo Credit: Focus Features
Throughout the film, we watch Ellen as she is distantly tormented by the Count, all of it against her will, while in the care of her best friend Anna Harding (Emma Corrin) and her husband, Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). She is gripped by night terrors that make her both sleepwalk and present as though she is demonically possessed.
Meanwhile, after discovering the true nature of Orlok and unknowingly signing his wife away to him, Thomas races home to return to Ellen before the Count can get her first.
Nicholas Hoult plays an endearing Thomas, and Ellen’s love for him is palpable. All along Ellen craves er husband's return because his presence is the only thing that has been able to quell her mental anguish in the past.
Depp’s Ellen is sweet and likable despite the turmoil that ostracizes her from her aggressively normal (by the standards of the times) best friend.
By all accounts, we should root for the Hutters, and yet, it is inevitable to anticipate the climactic moment in which Ellen finally meets the Count outside of her dreams.
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Despite the devastating plague he brings with him, in which thousands of rats descend upon Wisborg, we are eager for Count Orlok to arrive.
Count Orlok is physically repulsive—the absolute antithesis to the Edward Cullens and Salvatore Brothers of the world—and yet he is still seductive, insane (perhaps unnecessary) mustache and all.
What he does have in common with more modern depictions of vampires, though, is that there is something strangely attractive about his obvious pain. As the film’s tagline states plainly, Orlok tempts Ellen to succumb to the darkness, both his and that within herself.
And with the way that Ellen is labeled as a hysteric by Frederich Harding, and by extension, his wife and her best friend, we want Ellen to succumb to it, too—if for nothing more than the escape it offers her from such a sad provincial life preoccupied with the meaningless wealth her husband so desperately seeks.
Now, of course, there is an added benefit of Ellen offering herself over to Orlok. With the help of Professor von Franz (Willem Dafoe), the doctor tasked with Ellen’s care while she stays with the Harding family, we learn of a prophecy in which the Ellen is the key to ending the plague that has arrived in Wisborg alongside the Count.
As we watch the city burn bodies in the street and the hospital begin to overflow, as Ellen’s best friend Anna Harding wakes up in the night to find herself being gnawed alive by infectious rats, it is easy to blame this for our desires for Ellen to offer herself to the Count.
But to do so is cheap.
As messed up as it is, Ellen and Orlok are fated, and Orlok’s seduction of the audience—despite his grotesqueness—reminds us all of the true power of vampires.
Of all monsters, really. Monsters exist to reflect back the monstrosities within ourselves. Vampires aren’t the good guys, and sometimes neither are we.
Though, we often lose this when we wrap them up in teenage love stories.
Overall, Nosferatu is as much as could be hoped for. There are moments when it stretches perhaps a little longer than necessary and times when the Hardings come across as cold and insincere.
However, the acting by Depp, Hoult, and Skarsgard is solid, and Eggers once again shines in his ability to generate mood and atmosphere. What it lacks in jump scares, it makes up tenfold in dread.
And just as the one that came before, this new Nosferatu will surely stand the test of time.
