“I have seen things in this world that would make Isaac Newton crawl back into his mother’s womb! We are not so enlightened as we are blinded by the gaseous light of science. I have wrestled with the Devil as Jacob wrestled the Angel in Penuel, and I tell you that if we are to tame darkness, we must first face that it exists!”
In 1922 during the final decade of the Silent Era director F.W. Murnau conspired with screenwriter Henrik Galeen to do a film based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. The problem was that the work was copyrighted and a protected work. They decided to change the name of the vampire to Count Orlok and do the film anyway as Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror. The case ended up in court when the Stoker estate sued the filmmakers for copyright infringement. The court agreed and ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed. Of course, everyone complied, and no one ever saw or heard about the film today. Yeah, well … not exactly. Eventually copies of the film turned up, and film historians managed to piece the film back together. The only issue was that various translations of the original title cards were missing. An East German collector finally discovered the copy most of us have seen today. From a picture ordered destroyed, it has become one of the most important horror films in the history of the industry. By strange coincidence, the actor who played the wonderfully designed vampire creature was named Max Schreck. He wasn’t terribly known, and that last name translates to terror. All kinds of myths and urban myths have floated around since then, some claiming Murnau found an actual vampire to play the role. Shadow Of The Vampire was released in 2000 with none other than Willem Defoe as the actor/vampire. It treated the myth as if it were true. It’s a wonderful film, and there have been literally hundreds of films remade from Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror since then. There was even a Nosferatu remake made as recently as 2023, with Doug Jones playing Count Orlok. Dracula has long since entered public domain, and anyone is free to interpret the material today. So it’s kind of nice that filmmakers are still doing the Nosferatu version of a film that isn’t supposed to exist at all. Isn’t life strange?
It’s Christmas Day 2024, and a new Nosferatu film was released. It appears odd to release something that steeped in horror on Christmas without some kind of an evil Santa or Krampus theme. Unfortunately, it wasn’t able to pull in the notice it might have deserved. Most of us critics were so deep in “For Your Consideration” discs and award screenings that I never got close to seeing the film on the big screen. Now Universal has released the film on digital and all physical disc formats. Unfortunately we were given the Blu-ray instead of the UHD 4K, and I’ll talk about why that’s important later. Let’s get to the film itself.
Thomas Hutter (Hoult) has been tasked with traveling a long distance to meet Count Orlok (Skarsgard) because he wishes to buy land and move. Hutter is obviously the Jonathan Harker character and Orlok Count Dracula. Hutter’s wife Ellen (Depp) has been having haunted dreams and begs her husband not to leave her for this business transaction. She’s been known to have visions. Of course, he goes and ends up making it possible for Orlok to come to town and spread his plague of death in this new land. The story does divert from the original films in that it’s also a bit of an exorcism film as well. Ellen goes through some wild gyrations that would make Linda Blair seasick.
There is far more drama played out here than with the vampire himself. Obviously, he is obsessed with Ellen and wants her to be his eternal mate, but it manifests in an almost demon-like procession than the usual vampire trope. I like the changes, and it allows for plenty of new surprises for someone like myself who knows the material pretty much by heart. The film is moody and filled with atmosphere. Here is where I wish I could report to you from the UHD version of the film. In HD I don’t feel like the film’s true atmosphere gets the attention it deserves. I imagine this film looks great, but, alas, I can’t tell you that for sure. I hope that is the case.
The locations and sets contain this awesome level of detail, and the performances are quite compelling. Willem Defoe returns to the Nosferatu story this time not as the vampire but rather the vampire hunter named Professor Von Franz. This is, of course, the Van Helsing character. Defoe is a bit of a rabbit’s foot for director Robert Eggers, and he’s a pretty good one to have around. Honestly, he’s underused here. Johnny Depp’s daughter Lily-Rose Depp delivers a somewhat complicated and rather operatic performance that works most of the time but often goes over the top and can be distracting. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Friedrich Harding, the best friend of Hutter, along with his wife Anna Harding, played by Emma Corrin. Taylor-Johnson kind of steals every scene he’s in. I almost would have liked to see these actors swap roles. For a secondary character, Taylor-Johnson demands your attention.
It’s obvious that Eggers knows the material. There are moments he brings out the shadows that were the trademark of the early German Expressionist films of which Nosferatu was a prime example. There’s a nice recall moment as Orlok is heading to Ellen’s room, and it’s wonderfully done. The film keeps the ending of the 1922 film intact and it’s a grand moment…except for just one little thing. OK. It’s a really big thing.
Finally I have to talk about the one thing that keeps this from being a much greater film. I think Bill Skarsgard was a great choice to play Orlok. He captures some truly creepy movements, and his voice is absolutely chilling. He did better than can be expected with the absolute horrid creature design. Eggers drops the ball here, and it’s a big mistake. No one is afraid of a creepy vampire with a HUGE bushy mustache. It’s arguably comical in its absurdity. The design was such a distraction from what was truly a wonderful performance, but this guy looks like Bluto from the Popeye cartoons. Who in God’s name thought this was a good creature design? It’s sad, because the Nosferatu look has always been closer to the Stoker creature than the suave character that started with Bela Lugosi. This was Eggers’ chance to scare the pants off his audience, and instead of a frightening nightmare, I get a cartoon villain. I mean … what the heck, man?
The disc comes with deleted scenes, a multi-part 40-minute making-of feature, and a nice commentary by Robert Eggers. Hint: He loves the creature design. I get it. I should restrain my complaints. I protest too much, and I’m sure Eggers would beseech me to “refrain from protestations”.
