Nosferatu is a decent update of a 1922 silent film and is written and directed by Robert Eggers. Although I found it to be a bit over the top at times, the set design and cinematography is gorgeous.
Bill Skarsgård plays the mysterious and bloodthirsty Count Orlok from Transylvania. Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Emma Corrin are included in the cast.
Nosferatu was first made in 1922 and was directed by F.W. Murnau. This is a pretty well-known silent film, and it probably wasn’t really crying out for a remake, especially since it’s a retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Now that it’s out there, what’s my verdict? The scenery and set design do make up for a lot. Skarsgård is pretty well made up and seems to be developing quite a resume playing demonic characters such as Pennywise the Clown in the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s It. He delivers a solid performance even though the spooky voice he puts on was little overdone.
The story takes place in early nineteenth century Germany, although most of the characters all seem British, which really doesn’t get explained all that well.
Anyway, Hoult plays a real estate broker who is sent by his employer to Transylvania to close a sale on an estate to Count Orlok. He does not realize that the Count has cursed his wife and intends to travel to Germany to claim her as well as his new property. Madness seems to be erupting everywhere in the German town. Lily-Rose Depp’s’ character seems to be having inexplicable fits that deviled her as a child. The occult expert, played by Dafoe, is brought in to discover the answers to these strange disruptions. The Count is on his way to Germany and has a gruesome thirst to satisfy.
I know that people from that time period were a little more formal in their speech than we are today, but somehow, I had some trouble buying the dialogue. “Restrain your protestations!” seems a bit more of a questionable choice of realistic exclamations than “Be silent!” or “Shut up!” even for that era. I can appreciate the effort to avoid anachronistic colloquialisms, but the dialogue didn’t always sound credible.
Anyway, the film is still pretty good, and I think most horror film aficionados will enjoy it. It isn’t for the faint-hearted because it gets pretty gory and sexually explicit.
Even in spite of its occasional lapses into campiness and cliché, Eggers doesn’t fail to provide some expected chills and jumps.
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