Nosferatu brings real fear with an updated classic tale

I’m a big Robert Eggers fan, having absolutely loved The Northman and The Lighthouse. This guy just knows how to make movies, and his latest, Noferatu, is no exception. A remake of an obscure German silent film from 1922, it shows that Eggers may just be the best there is at creating and holding a mood within a film. This picture is about as dark as it gets, and while I can recall only one “jump scare” in the whole film, it is still frighteningly nightmarish throughout.

The film begins in the early 19th century in Germany, where a teenage girl named Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) prays for solace from hard moments in her life. Her prayers are answered, but not by God. An evil spirit hears and comes calling, getting her to pledge her soul to him. Several years later, Ellen is newly married to Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) and she seems to have all-but-forgotten those frightening moments in her past. Thomas is tasked by his boss to deliver the deed to an old house in town to a reclusive Count in Transylvania. Ellen, with evil portents in her mind, begs him not to go, but the opportunity is too good to pass up for Thomas. As he nears the castle, he encounters gypsies and superstitious countryfolk who try to warm him off. At the castle, Thomas meets Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård, doing his typical fiendish thing), who oozes menace with every syllable. Thomas is there for a couple days, and his dreams at night are the stuff of nightmares. When he wakes every morning, he notices fresh bite marks in his chest.

While Thomas is away, Ellen’s nightmares of her past return, and she starts sensing Orlok’s need for her. Ellen starts having seizures at night, but doctors are stumped, until one thinks that maybe her symptoms are spiritual in nature rather than physical, that she is perhaps possessed by a demon. He’s pretty close, because Orlok is on the way, and when he arrives to town, he brings a ship-full of plague-carrying rats. As pestilence and death spreads rampant throughout the city, Orlok visits Ellen and promises that in 3 days, she will willingly submit to him. After healing from his ordeal in Transylvania, Thomas is racing home to try to stop whatever Orlok has planned. The ending is something you will not see coming, I can promise that.

For starters, this movie looks amazing. From the very opening scene, it oozes sinister vibes with its picture and sound, and it never lets up. You can almost feel the director putting thought into every (slow) camera movement, and not a moment goes by that doesn’t add to the feel of the film. I felt exhausted by the end, from sitting through 2+ hours of tension. Sounds like a bad thing, but it is anything but! Tremendous film. I think Eggers is going to keep building on this to be a really influential director for a long time to come. ★★★★★