When I first heard that Robert Eggers was going to film a remake of Nosferatu, I was beyond jazzed. I honestly can’t think of a modern director better suited to shoot Nosferatu than Eggers (director of The Witch and The Northman), and yet, for all the technical prowess on display, and it brings me no pleasure to say it, Nosferatu 2024 doth not sing.
Murnau and Herzog
Eggers’ Nosferatu comes 102 years after F.W. Murnau’s landmark silent film starring Max Schreck as a “vampyr” named Count Orlok (a riff on Bram Stoker’s Dracula) who haunts a young woman from afar and tortures her husband up close. The great Werner Herzog made the first version of the tale with sound in 1979 with his “best fiend” Klaus Kinski as the hideous Count (this time billed as Dracula). I watched Herzog’s version less than a year ago (which is somehow rated PG), and to say that it holds up is to traffic in understatement. Herzog’s nightmarish vision had not only the best leading man (Kinski) in terms of appearance and genuine madness you could ask for but also boasted European legends Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker (the object of vampyric desire) and Bruno Ganz as her husband, Jonathan.
Made on a slim budget of just 2.5 million dollars ($11 million when adjusted for inflation), Herzog’s film appears to lack for nothing. The sets and costumes are impressive, the cinematography is as rugged as the plague the film depicts, and superbly directed by the great German filmmaker. Whatever Herzog lacked in cash, he more than made up for with the stoic efficiency his country is known for. As for the actors, Kinski faced up to Shreck perfectly, Adjani is luminous even when terrified (which is often), and Ganz is as sturdy an actor who has ever walked the earth. Against all odds, Herzog’s Nosferatu stood just as tall as Murnau’s classic.
Eggers
Without a doubt, Eggers had big shoes to fill with his 2024 version. Eggers is a master of gothic horror. The Witch and The Northman are among my favorite films of this century. I wasn’t quite as high on The Lighthouse as others, but I certainly respected it. Let’s just say I was there to be had. To a degree, I was, but not to the degree I expected.
Despite my misgivings about the film (which I’ll get to in a moment), it’s worth celebrating what does work because Nosferatu 2024 is in no way a bad film. The technical prowess on display is pretty extraordinary. Much of the film is lit in such a way that it looks like it was shot in black and white, even though it clearly wasn’t. It’s as if Eggers wanted to drain the film of color the way Orlok drains his victims of their blood. Eggers isn’t bashful about leaning into the gothic horror of it all, the plague-bearing rat count is on par with Herzog’s alarming colony, and the cast puts their back into the Capital D Dramatic dialogue (co-written by Eggers and Henrik Galeen).
Lily Rose-Depp is so good as Ellen (Lucy by another name) that I forgot she was in the execrable HBO series The Idol over the film’s two hours and twenty-one minutes. Let me tell you, that is no small feat. The Idol could have been a career-killer, but to Depp’s credit, she’s a full-force gale in this new version of Nosferatu. Depp has a freakout scene worthy of The Exorcist late in the movie that I’m going to need some time to get over. Actually, she has a lot of freakout scenes (hey, she’s being haunted, and eventually worse, by a very ugly vampyr), but Depp’s final moment of possession made my eyes all but burst. The way her eyes roll back in her thrown-back head and as her seemingly too-large tongue slides out of her mouth is the stuff of cinematic nightmares. While some of those aspects are surely special effects, Depp’s relentless and fearless performance is the real special effect.
As her husband Thomas, Nicholas Hoult is fine here but not particularly commanding. Hoult has been excellent in several films but never seems to fit into the film’s 19th-century backdrop. Not every actor translates well to period pieces, and I’m afraid Hoult comes up just a bit short despite what feels like a complete commitment to the part. Eggers’ steady, Willem Dafoe, shows up mid-film as a professor/scientist/doctor who seeks to heal Ellen of her mania. Dafoe has a good time in the role, but on this incredibly rare occasion (Dafoe is one of my favorite actors), I found him taking too big of a bite of the scenery.
While the film’s cold beauty, Eggers’ assured direction, and Depp’s performance go a long way toward masking Hoult’s opacity and Dafoe’s ham, the more significant problem is Bill Skarsgård’s Orlok. Skarsgård is probably best known for his performances in It and It Chapter Two as the vicious clown Pennywise. Skarsgård is a very good actor, but he’s so covered in heavy makeup and given such an over-the-top voice of doom that it’s hard to find him in the performance. He’s so hidden, and his affectations are too one-note.
That’s not to say that the film doesn’t work at all. Eggers knows how to do creepy and foreboding better than any working director this side of Ari Aster. The film is a marvel to look at, and for all my criticisms of Hoult, Dafoe, and Skarsgård, I do believe they gave Eggers precisely what he asked for. And therein lies the rub: I don’t think Eggers asked for enough from his actors (Depp aside) or of himself.
If I had to put my finger on it, I would say that Eggers’ Nosferatu is too faithful to Herzog’s 45-year-old classic. This new Nosferatu is like a slick cover of Herzog’s film with better (more expensive) production, but what does it really add?
Again, I am not saying Nosferatu 2024 is a bad film. It’s not. It’s good, and at times very good. It’s just not all that necessary, and necessary matters. Then again, maybe Nosferatu simply plays better in the original German.
Nosferatu opens on December 25, only in theaters
