Lily-Rose Depp
“NOSFERATU” My rating: B(In theaters)
133 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Vampire movies are so ubiquitous that we’ve become inured to them.
When was the last time a film about a bloodsucker actually scared you?
(For me it was seeing Bela Lugosi’s “Dracula” when I was 11. It happened again when I first viewed F.W. Murnau’s silent “Nosferatu” in my early 20s. Since then it’s been mostly downhill.)
So how should we approach the new “Nosferatu” brought to us by writer/director Robert Eggers (“The Witch,” “The Lighthouse,” “The Northman”)?
It’s the third “Nosferatu,” after the 1922 silent German Expressionist classic and Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake. Though an obvious ripoff of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel (Murnau renamed the characters in a vain attempt to avoid being sued for copyright infringement), “Nosferatu” introduced some interesting visual ideas which were picked up by Herzog and are now reamplified by Eggers.
Indeed, this “Nosferatu” works far better visually than it does dramatically.
Much of the dialogue (the screenplay is by Eggers) has a flowery late Victorian melodramatic feel that borders on the laughable. And the characters aren’t particularly compelling.
But the look of the piece is simply fantastic. Eggars and cinematographer Karin Blaschke slide effortlessly between blue-tinged black and white and a pastel pallette not unlike an old-fashioned hand-colored postcard.
There are a couple of extended tracking shots that are mind boggling.
And Craig Lathrop’s production design — especially the fantastically rugged Carpathian mountains and forests and the vampire’s crumbling castle — is little short of spectacular.
Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
The plot closely follows the original. Estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is sent to Romania on business, leaving behind his recent bride Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp…yes, Johnny’s daughter), who has long been plagued by “melancholia” and horrific dreams.
Thomas eventually finds himself in the weird castle of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard), who is…well, you know. He barely survives the encounter, then sets off in pursuit of Orlok, who is headed to Germany, drawn by an almost spiritual bond with the terrified/visionary Ellen.
Meanwhile Ellen’s mania is throwing into turmoil the household of friends Friedrich and Anna (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corbin). Their family physician (Ralph Ineson) suggests bringing in his old professor (Willem Dafoe) who has been thrown out of the university for his occult obsessions. This eccentric suspects that evil is on its way.
Well, duh.
In terms of plotting, then, this is standard-issue stuff. But Eggers and company toss in some nifty variations.
For instance, there’s the look of Orlok. The filmmakers have rigorously avoided letting any image of Skarsgard in costume reach the Internet…although they’ve posted some early makeup designs that were abandoned.
The Orkok of Murnau and Herzog was almost rat-like. But this Orlok feels more, well, human. His bald head shows some patches of decay, and his face is dominated by a hooked nose and a droopy mustache. Skarsgard delivers his lines in a sort of growl.
What’s surprising is the aura of inevitability as the vampire makes his way to his rendezvous with Ellen. The Count may be a monster, but he’s a surprisingly romantic monster, driven by forces even he cannot understand.
Depp’s performance is dominated by wide-eyed dread. But she has a couple of scenes of demonic possession that are “Exorcist”-level freaky.
And I haven’t even mentioned Simon McBurney as Knock, Thomas’ boss and this version’s equivalent of Renfield. It’s a kick-out-the-jams performance highlighted by the character’s devouring of a live pigeon.
There’s some grotesque blood-letting and brief nudity, and viewers with a rodent phobia are warned that there’s a supporting cast of several thousand rats.
At its best this “Nosferatu” suggests more than it shows. Particularly effective are scenes in which the Count appears only as a shadow.
Now that’s creepy.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 