Some lovers aren’t satisfied unless they can completely possess you.
So it is with Ellen Hutter and her count.
Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is an up-and-coming employee at Herr Knock’s (Simon McBurney) real estate brokerage. He is given the charge of delivering a sales contract to a Count Orlok, some six weeks travel from Hutter’s home in Visburg, Germany. That means leaving his unstable, psychic wife, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), whom he entrusts to the care of his friend Friedrick Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).
Hutter reaches Orlok, only to be imprisoned by him while Orlok, a nosferatu – a vampire – travels to Germany to consummate a spiritual bond he has had with Ellen since her childhood. He brings with him a horde of rats that spread a plague over the city.
Hutter survives his imprisonment and returns to fight the vampire with the aid of Dr. Sievers (Ralph Ineson) and Professor von Franz (Willem Dafoe).
There is no question this film sets out to make us very uneasy, if not terrified. Director/writer Robert Eggers (“The Northman”) has chosen to re-imagine the 1922 unauthorized version of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” written by Henril Galeen () rather than the original novel, which has been adapted hundreds of times. The settings he presents to us are sumptuous and memorable.
However, there is a coldness to it all: the stilted dialogue, the muted colors, the lack of character development. There is no one we can identify with in this story – very much like Eggers previous outing, “The Lighthouse,” or his first film, “The Witch.” In interviews, Eggers stated he had considered a modern day telling of the story, and that might have made for a more relatable fable of good and evil, but we will never know.
This is the third filming of “Nosferatu.” The first, directed by legendary F. W. Murnau, featured Max Schreck as Count Orlok, and he appeared as a silent, souless, ratlike monster with long, clawed fingers. The second, also directed by a legend: Werner Harzog, gave us Klaus Kinski in makeup much like the original, but with the opportunity to act.
And now Eggers presents Bill Skarsgard, who appears as an unrecognizable superannuated Romanian corpse in heavy, filthy furs; speaking in a gasping, barely intelligible gutteral; and mostly hidden in shadow or out of the plane of focus. When we do get a clear look at him, his appearance is much like that of Krampus in the 2015 film of the same name – but without the horns.
Note: There are Eggers veterans in this feature: Ralph Ineson appeared in “The Witch.” Willem Dafoe was in both “The Lighthouse” and “The Northman.” And while Bill Skarsgard is new to Eggers, his older brother Alexander starred in “The Northman.”
Additional note: There are two other lessor Nosferatu versions: an Italian one from 1981 that also featured Kinski; and a dreadful 2023 low-quality one featuring monster star Doug Jones as the count. Perhaps Jones, with more competent direction could have given Skarsgard a run for his blood.
Runtime: Two hours, 12 minutes
Availability: In theaters, VOD on Peacock Premium or purchase/rental on several sites
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