Nosferatu is (in this case) a remake of the classic 1922 silent film, directed by Robert Eggers and starring Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bill Skarsgård, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe, and Simon McBurney.
It's the story of Dracula, more or less (which was also true of Murnau's version in 1922). A young man named Thomas Hutter (Hoult) gets sent to a faraway land to sign the ownership papers for a new home for the strange Count Orlock (Skarsgård), while his new bride Ellen (Depp) waits feverishly for his return. However, Ellen has had "fits" since she was young, and after Thomas leaves they get worse. She stays with Thomas' rich friend Harding (Taylor-Johnson) and his wife Anna (Corrin), but winds up having to be tied to the bed as she dreams every night of something horrible.
Meanwhile, Thomas' boss Herr Knock (McBurney) goes absolutely jangle-pants crazy (he's in the Renfield role here). Orlock imprisons Thomas and leaves him for dead, but he escapes and makes his way back to London Wisburg, just in time to see a "blood plague" arrive and start killing citizens. Harding's friend Doctor Sievers (Ralph Ineson) enlists the help of one Dr. von Franz (Dafoe), a brilliant physician and occultist, and eventually they all figure out that the only one who can stop Orlock is Ellen...by sacrificing her blood, body, and life to keep him busy until dawn.
So, plot-wise, it's not beat-for-beat Dracula but it's close enough. It is, however, so different than any version of Dracula I've ever seen or read. Orlock is not a suave, sophisticated gentleman like Bela Lugosi or a romantic, tortured figure like Gary Oldman (or a full-stop hottie like Frank Langella, for that matter). He's a fucking walking corpse. You very rarely see him directly, mostly it's his silhouette or shadow and that loud, awful, wheezing breathing as he growls and slurps his dialog. When we do see him, his flesh is pocked and rotted, and when he's in his coffin he has maggots on him.
But even beyond being obviously walking dead, this vampire is probably the scariest I've seen in a movie because his power isn't portrayed the way it usually is. Vampires in movies are often portrayed as physical monsters - they're strong, fast, violent, maybe fangs and claws, maybe shapeshifting, maybe hypnosis or mind control, but they have to be in the room with you to harm you, at least. Orlock is an unliving curse on everything around him. Coming to Wisburg means a load of plague rats arrives with him. His threats are delivered as ultimatums, and his whole vibe is "you are all beneath me and I tolerate you exactly as much as I must" (except Ellen). His best and most terrifying line in the movie sums him up: "I am an appetite. Nothing more."
The rest of the cast lives up to the melodrama, going from terrified to grief-stricken to righteously angry, but what I find compelling is how they all seem to know they're fucked. Even as Taylor-Johnson's Harding insists that this disease that killed his wife and children is a natural but horrific plague, you can tell he knows better. Likewise, Thomas goes after Orlock hoping to kill him in his coffin, but realizes pretty quickly on that the only way this ends is if Ellen gives her life. And she does, seducing him and keeping him busy sucking her chest (yeah, this vampire bites chests as often as necks, and omg the sucking sounds) until the sun rises. And we don't even get the satisfaction of seeing him burn. He just...dies, spitting up blood and rotting splayed out on her body.
Eggers' movies are beautiful and horrifying, and holy shit does the man know how to frame a shot (actually, props for that probably also should go to Jarin Blaschke, his cinematographer). The use of color, light, shadows, and sound (THE SLURPING) in this movie are amazing. It takes a lot to disturb me in a movie, but even on a second watch Nosferatu is more disquieting than actually scary.
It's interesting to me that a movie that is essentially a double-remake manages to be one of the more innovative and original takes on vampire-in-cinema that I've seen.
My Grade: A
Rewatch value: Low (THE SLURPING)
Next up: The Running Man
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