(10) ROBERT EGGERS –

NOSFERATU (2024)

 

“He is coming”

My wildcard tenth place entry in my Top 10 Films as best film of 2024.

Yes, I know that I should technically include it in one of my genre film top ten lists – specifically my Top 10 Horror Films (although I will certainly add it to my special mention for vampire horror films) – but I’m substituting it for my previous Eggers entry in this top ten, The Northman.

Although come to think of it, there’s something of a running theme for horror or at least dark fantasy elements in all four of the films Eggers has directed so far – The Northman had arguably the fewest such elements, but Nosferatu follows on from the atmospheric horror of his first film The Witch, aptly enough as Nosferatu has been a passion project Eggers has had bubbling since then and he intended it to be his second film.

If there’s one thing for which Eggers is known, it’s for making mythic worlds – films that utterly and viscerally immerse their audience into the world of their stories, characteristically with “their central elements of mythology and folklore”, down to the finest detail.

He did it with The Witch, he did it with The Northman, and he did it here in his Gothic horror passion project. Indeed, I’d argue that he did it best here – for one thing he has the dark fantasy elements to play with from vampire folklore and for another he improves upon the more ponderous pacing that is arguably a side effect of his world-immersion to make his best paced film yet.

If you know Dracula – particularly the book – you know the central plot of this film. Nosferatu is a remake of the 1922 German silent film of the same name (also remade by Werner Herzog as the 1979 German film Nosferatu the Vampire which is the version I saw). That film in turn was based on the book Dracula, transferred to Germany (instead of England) with the names of characters changed to avoid copyright, most notably the titular vampire renamed to Count Orlok.

Forget the more suave depictions of Dracula or indeed any vampire – Count Orlok as he appeared in the original film (and the 1979 remake) was a distinctively grotesque figure, albeit perhaps unintentionally comic at times.

However, forget that unintentionally comic appearance at times here – as played by Bill Skarsgard (upping the ante on his previous eldritch horror depiction of Pennywise), Orlok is still grotesque but also a towering and terrifying figure of apocalyptic plague, literal and metaphorical. And that’s not just by sight but also by sound – with his reverberating, sepulchral voice.

He’s also gloriously moustachioed, evoking the appearance of Dracula in the book – in turn drawn from the original Dracula, Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler. You certainly get the impression of a literally larger than life Romanian nobleman, that has torn himself through centuries and swum through oceans of blood, both when alive and undead, by sheer size and force of will. And again that’s not just by sight but also by sound – with his accent and speaking what I have read to be a reconstructed form of the ancient Dacian language of pre-Roman Romania. That’s how far back the Orlok of Eggers’ film goes…

As usual, Eggers excels in the atmospheric and visual nature of his films – with the use of darkness so palpable here that it is virtually a character in its own right (and indeed usually is as part of Orlok). Much of the film has a dream-like quality, or rather a quality of nightmare – not coincidentally as Orlok has the power to invade the dreams or minds of his victims, being as much like a lich as he is a vampire.

That’s helped by the dark blue-tinted scenes at night resembling the black and white of the original film but also by the frequent firelit smoky scenes. Even in daylight, the scenes seemed to have a sepia tone.

The only drawback is the naked virgin on horseback – I would have liked to see much more of her, or even a whole film about her as naked virgin vampire hunter. Apparently she was played by a Czech model Katerina Bila – you’re welcome.

Although that also did prompt me to missing an appearance by Eggers alumni Anya Taylor-Joy – she (or her body double) always likes to get naked in his films. Don’t get me wrong – while I have thing for Taylor-Joy with those fey eyes of hers and it would have been interesting to see what she did with the central role of Ellen, Lily Rose-Depp succeeds in bringing an ethereal, otherworldly nature to the role.

 

FANTASY & SF

 

And how! The most dark fantasy elements of any of his films except for The Witch – and writ more large even than that film.

 

COMEDY

 

Eggers…isn’t big on comedic elements. So, no – or few and far between.

 

RATING: 4 STARS****

X-TIER (WILD TIER)