March 1, 2025
Realtor Herr Knock (Simon McBurney) assigned his young agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) to go meet with Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) who wished to buy the old, dilapidated Gruunewald Manor in their town of Wisburg, Germany. However, since the count was too weak to travel, Thomas had to bring the documents for signing to his ancient expansive estate "isolated in the Carpathian Alps, in a small country east of Bohemia."
Thomas's new bride Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) had been suffering from very bad nightmares about a terrible creature in recent years. These bad dreams were only calmed when she married Thomas, so she was reluctant to let him go. However, as this job needed to be done, Thomas decided to endorse Ellen to his friend Friedrich (Aaron Taylor Johnson) and Anna (Emma Corrin) Harding before he headed off on his journey.
The original "Nosferatu" was a classic 1922 silent movie by German filmmaker F.W. Murnau. Because it was not sanctioned by Bram Stoker's estate, this film was an unofficial adaptation of Stoker's novel "Dracula," with all the characters names changed. The image of actor Max Schreck in the title role of Nosferatu, with his oversized head, bug eyes, tall thin frame and long sharp fingers, remains iconic to cinephiles to this day.
Of course, the silent film was limited by the cinematic technology of its day. This new film told basically the same story, but with writer-director Robert Eggers ("The Witch," "The Lighthouse") at the helm, the technical aspects of this update -- cinematography (with a color palette that teetered between barely colored to greyscale), rich ornate production design and costume design, hair and makeup (yes, Orlok with a mustache) -- were utterly impeccable.
In contrast with the Murnau original, Eggers added a past encounter of Ellen with the demon years before she wed Thomas. Eggers also made the atmosphere of his version very darkly sensual, with overtly uncomfortable sexual scenes. Instead of Dr. Bulwer (and his carnivorous plants) in the original, Egger introduced Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe right in his element), making him an expert in the occult, instead of pure sciences.
The role of Ellen Hutter was very much expanded and given more to do and decide in Egger's version. With this rich character, Lily-Rose Depp makes a star-making turn, truly emerging from the shadow of her famous surname. This was as much a very physical performance (with all the body distortions and catatonic seizures), as much as it was a deeply emotional one. She should have been one of the nominees for Best Actress at this Oscars. 9/10
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