Written And Directed by Robert Eggers
Ellen: "Come to me. Come to me. A guardian angel. A spirit of comfort. Spirit of any celestial sphere. Anything. Hear my call. Come to me."
Count Orlok: "You. You awakened me from an eternity of darkness. You... You... You are not for the living. You are not for human kind."
I've been anticipating this movie for quite a while. Like many, I'm a fan of Robert Eggers as a director and I was definitely curious to see how he would adapt the 1922 classic for a modern audience. It turns out, spectacularly.
Making it even creepier and darker than the original, Nosferatu (Bill Skarsgard) himself would be the result of a lonely Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) summoning him when she was younger and essentially an outcast within her own family. It's an interesting development already.
Of course finding true love with Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) would remove the need for Nosferatu but the latter only became enraged by her relationship with Thomas and sought to destroy it. Nosferatu had Hutter's boss, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney) bring the latter to him while he invaded Ellen's dreams.
Ellen had a friend in Anna Harding (Emma Corrin) who was mostly sympathetic to her plight but the latter's husband, Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) wasn't as gracious to Ellen. In fact, he wasted no time abandoning both Ellen and Thomas when they needed help the most and upon Anna's death, it was Ellen he blamed out of everyone.
As for Ellen and Thomas, their love really was tested throughout this adaptation with the former confessing the origins of her connection to Nosferatu and the latter not taking it so well. Of course there are least two allies in their corner to help battle Nosferatu.
The allies being the compassionate Dr. Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson). Sievers was more modern thinking as a doctor and genuinely wanted to help both Ellen and Thomas as did Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe). Ultimately to defeat Nosferatu, a sacrifice needed to be made.
The sacrifice being Ellen herself. It made sense for this adaptation and it certainly gave this movie one hell of a poignant ending as Ellen was the one to bring the end of Nosferatu's reign of terror. The last shot in particular was rather evocative.
- Originally this was going to be Robert Eggers second film after the success of his debut, The VVitch.
- The character or Count Orlok aka Nosferatu was inspired by Vlad the Impaler as was Dracula himself. Bill Skarsgard did audition for Thomas Hutter before getting the title character.
- Had things been different, it could've been Anya Taylor-Joy and Harry Styles in this movie.
- Chronology: 1838, Germany and Transylvania.
Nosferatu was an absolute triumph. Robert Eggers struck gold with this adaptation and the performances from the likes of Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgard and Willem Dafoe alone are utterly sublime. It's genuinely horrifying, atmospheric, a little bit sexy and downright creepy in parts. Beautiful.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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