Starring: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgaard, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe
Distributor: Universal
Runtime: 133 mins. Reviewed in Jan 2025
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.
Nosferatu was the title of the early film version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The 1922 movie from Germany featured vivid black-and-white photography, and was Expressionist in its angles and framing. The title was also used in 1979 for Werner Hertzog’s version of the story and tribute to the 1922 film. Now, a 2024 version and once again a tribute to the 1922 film. And not only a tribute but incorporating many of its visual aspects. Eggers may only have a few films so far in his career – The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman – but they have in common an atmospheric ascetic.
Since the 1920s, there have been Dracula and vampire films every decade, some serious, many British, some parodies, even the recent Renfield, this time featuring Nosferatu’s Hoult as the eponymous Renfield and Nicolas Cage as Dracula.
For this Nosferatu, we are in Germany, 1838. There is a very strong supporting British cast including Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson and Simon McBurney. There is also a lot of strong dialogue throughout, the point of view of the rationalist who does not believe in the supernatural contrasting with those who do believe and those who are pragmatic faced with unexplained phenomena.
The question can be raised, why another Dracula film in 2024? And will it contribute to an appreciation of the Dracula and vampire legends?
The first attempt at an answer is to consider this film as a drama apart from the horror. The focus is on a young woman, Ellen (Depp) in a striking and physically and emotionally demanding performance. She dreams, has mystical experiences, is in love, makes a pact – which, in fact, will be a diabolical pact. But, she has the possibility of living a normal life, marrying Thomas (Hoult), hoping that he will support and save her. But he is commissioned by his manager to travel to Romania to negotiate with a mysterious Count Orlok who wants to buy a castle in the German town. Ellen is fearful as Thomas leaves, and rightly so . . .
There is mysterious drama with Thomas finding himself in a strange village with its superstitious inhabitants, and then his encounter with the count.
And the second attempt at an answer is to consider the film as horror. The atmosphere at the castle is more than eerie, the suggestions of the malevolent presence of the count, his face, his behaviour and cruelty, his threats, diabolical consequences. Skarsgaard’s count is monstrous. There are some direct horror scenes but it is the ever-present sense of menace that resonates. And, when Thomas returns home, there are psychological disturbances in Ellen and her erratic behaviour. Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz (Dafoe) is the expert tasked with explaining vampire behaviour.
And so, we can ask what are the comparisons with other versions of the story, how well these variations work as drama and horror, and how are we immersed in a world of evil destroying hope and love?
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