In Robert Eggers‘ deeply Gothic melodrama, Nosferatu, Ellen Hutter, in a husky voice, utters, “Come to me, hear my call.” She’s not talking with her husband, Thomas (played by Nicholas Hoult), who is a young estate agent travelling to the rugged and stormy Carpathians on a professional trip, but seems to be addressing to her seemingly undead client Bill Skarsgard. Wisborg, Northern Germany To her heart and soul, the Count Orlok’s (skeleton) evil powers burn his signature as boldly as he writes his signature on the deed papers of a new house.
Come to me. This is similar to the call that Eggers is answering. Eggers has adored F.W. Murnau’s movie Nosferatu, A Symphony Of Horror since he first set his eyes on the VHS at 9 years old and in high-school he put together The Witch theatre play, he’s been meaning to shoot a film version ever since 2015. It is, you might say, the film he was born to (re)make as in three of his first period pieces: The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman there are the talon-prints of Murnau’s spectral fright show.
Writer/director’s fascination with baroque and archaic language also present in Nosferatu, which is slightly more verbose than desired with its RP-Hammer-Horror English accent – may not be exactly ideal for a silent movie but, Eggers’ sense of uncanny and the worlds of Murnau are present in his atmosphere, which he describes well. It is not only the case in Murnau’s scribe, Henrik Galeen, plagiarized from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and then told in a form of a discussion, but also in the scanning camera that translates the seer’s ideas into strikingly pale color as though it was monochrome light through a moon.
Almost in all aspects Nosferatu sets itself Hoyem the task of liberating the vampire tradition from its glittery tween phase to restore the figure to the lineage of folklore.
In Herzog’s sad 1979 version of the movie, Nosferatu The modern vampire, or as one could say that after taking him closer to contemporary times is able to better understand the dynamics of his novel, which was set in modern times. Ellen is Put in the limelight undoubtedly. The character of Lucy in the 1979 bleak remake of Herzog’s ‘Nosferatu the Vampyre‘ was given greater prominence, however Ellen’s character is afforded greater psychological complexity as compared to Lucy.
While Hubby Thomas is fulfilling the customary part of ‘Damsel in Distress’ and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Friedrich Harding and Willem Dafoe as Professor Albin Eberhart simply turns out to be ineffective, it is for Ellen to. ‘Regain’ control if you will, is the crucial word, is what Orlok’s love for her fuels him, and while he certainly travelled across time to seek her, there are nothing romantic in the sense of Gary Oldman’s and Winona Ryder’s Mina in Bram stoker’s Dracula (1992) directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
The actor Skarsgård gives a good performance for the character in the title. With the record he holds for a range of horror movie characters, dominantly for It portraying as Pennywise the dancing clown, he has here accentuated his vocal range, losing both weight and tone. I never realized the actor appeared this frighteningly when dressed up with a distracting moustache. Even with his skeletal frame complemented with a bent gait, the monster looks completely invincible to me. His POV nods towards the Murnau movie scene presence, yet the Shrek figure is never emulated as was expected.
Just as with Jarin Blaschke, Eggars also evokes great shadow play on the walls of the picture’s best sets alongside avoiding imitating frames from the first film. In this respect, it becomes clear what is the main purpose of the film: to return the vampire to the folklore of rotten corpses should have been dug up and burned in order to take away their power, depriving them of the glimmering twilight. Yes, it is done brilliantly.
Perfectly in line with the theme, Eggers has skillfully choreographed the spread of decay and corruption in the movie. The most disturbing part is that both these movies were made soon after a plague of their own with the Spanish indicating signs of COVID-19. The greater question remains whether the Nosferatu movie will follow suite and survive the test of time. But for now, feel free to enjoy all there is to it.
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