Nosferatu: An Intoxicating Victorian Nightmare

I know it's a cliche for a critic to say you've never seen anything quite like _____. And because Robert Eggers's Nosferatu is an interpretation of a classic vampire story that is remarkably faithful to its source material, you might even be skeptical to hear me say something like that. But I'm going to say it anyway because it's true. You've truly never seen anything quite like Eggers's take on Nosferatu. It's an assured, moody, seductive, and surprisingly faithful take on the classic story of Count Orlok, which is itself an unauthorized adaptation of the story of Dracula. After digging a shallow rabbit hole on the subject, I discovered that apparently, a few copies of the story of Nosferatu survived a court order that mandated their destruction following a ruling in favor of the creators of Dracula back in the 1920s, and so I guess things just worked out so that we'd be able to see this movie today. It's a funny thing, how history works out sometimes. Alright, my little history lesson out of the way, I liked Nosferatu, and I'm a little surprised to say that because I wasn't even planning on going to see this movie in the first place. And now that I have seen it, I'm probably never going to see it again because, on the one hand, I have other things I can go watch, and on the other, a lot of the stuff in this movie just made me plain uncomfortable, and I have plenty of misgivings about it. Nevertheless, the film does have an incredibly seductive side to it, and this is probably just another reason for me not to watch it again, but I do have to commend it for being so magnetic. Nosferatu is an intoxicating watch, and it's one I might warn you away from because, on the one hand, it'll likely make you very uncomfortable if you're bringing some kind of moral standard into the theater with you, and on the other hand, you just simply won't be able to look away. This film grips you tighter than Orlok's grip on the mind of Ellen, the main protagonist of the story, and it doesn't let you go for a second. It's equal parts oppressively dark and irresistibly attractive, absurdly repulsive but undeniably tempting. And in addition, it's also a well-written and confident movie made by a director who's operating at the very top of his game here. I can't imagine that everyone will be too comfortable with a lot of the excesses on display in Nosferatu, so I'm just going to put that disclaimer right up front before you find out for yourself that, for better or for worse, when this movie grabs you, it doesn't let you go.

Nosferatu, set in 1830s Germany, follows a young woman named Ellen who develops an eerie bond with a reclusive vampire named Count Orlok, a bond that takes a toll on Ellen and her relationships with everyone around her, particularly her husband Thomas.

In the vein of production quality and cinematography, Nosferatu is hard to beat. The world of this film is incredibly creepy and possesses an otherworldly yet recognizable quality, digging deep into Victorian roots with its visuals and then corrupting them in unspeakably effective ways. The world is a beautiful mix of Gothic and classic architecture with a pervasively dark and almost organic feel to it, at times feeling evocative of Resident Evil: Village, as strange and as arbitrary a comparison as that might seem to some of you. I noted that the wardrobe team is also at the top of their game, and it's the smaller things like these that just put the cherry on top of the aesthetic aspects of the story. On a more narrative level, Nosferatu is strong but temporarily imperfect. The film's focus can be uneven at times, and I observed that the film would have benefited from switching the focus of some parts of its plot to other areas of the world that would have better served the story, as it devoted a lot of time in the first act to focusing on a character who would have been better off not being the primary focus of this portion of the plot, only for the film to switch gears and abruptly start narrating the main storyline in admittedly effective ways that made me realize how redundant a lot of the previous twenty minutes of the movie had been. But even if Nosferatu takes its merry time to start telling the story it wants to tell, once the pieces begin to fall into place, I'll be a monkey's uncle if this film isn't effective. As for the Count himself, he's more felt than he is seen in this movie, and let me tell you, is he ever felt. His presence touches and corrupts every single corner and crevice of Nosferatu, and it makes for a truly striking effect. As for his opposite, Lily-Rose Depp's performance as Ellen is just phenomenal, possibly the most committed portrayal of any character I've seen in a movie this year. Depp really sells Ellen for me with an acting job that occasionally made my fingernails dig into my palms a little bit, in a good way. Willem Dafoe also brings his A-game, giving Professor Albin Everhart Von Franz a simultaneous touch of madness and gentleness, occasionally granting the film a surprising warmth.

Moving back to the idea of the plot, I couldn't escape that this film's pacing can be stunted at points. Nosferatu has a strong sense of escalation, and the main plot line builds effectively on each progressive challenge and revelation in ways that make the film feel like it's working towards something rather than just spinning its wheels, but the way it moves from scene to scene is, at points, very stop-and-start, and occasionally even stunted. But all of that said, the film contains significantly more positives than negatives for me in this area, even if it may lose some points more or less exclusively because of some shortcomings with its pacing. It's a competently made piece that should keep your eyes glued to the screen from start to finish.

To end this review, I say this with as much grace as possible, but are people who use the audience review feature on Google stupid? I understand that under 400 total reviews have been posted to that feature as of the writing of this article, and if you're a part of that demographic, power to you, my friend. Feel free to drag this particular review through the mud on your preferred social media after you finish reading it. But let's be real for a second. A rating of 2.9 stars out of 5 atrociously undersells the quality of Nosferatu in ways that feel straight-up insulting and might drive people who would get a lot out of this movie away. I might just feel this way because I'm growing out of touch with audience members around the globe, but as someone who passionately studies film, I hope scores as low as this one don't drive people away from seeing movies like Nosferatu, movies with a legitimate vision. I hope that as more audience reviews trickle in, the average will come to more accurately reflect the actual quality of the film. It's ironic, really. As a collective culture, we complain that no one makes anything other than franchise films anymore, and then when a director decides to make a movie with a legitimately fresh vision, even if it is an adaptation, we tend to reject it. It's the pop cultural equivalent of demanding that the government reform itself, and then deeming a political outsider who promises reform too different, too extreme. And so, because we're ultimately uncomfortable with change but too bored not to complain about our current situation, we go back to wondering why we don't get more variety of cinema whilst simultaneously rejecting anything that acts remotely different from a Marvel movie. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and every day it becomes more and more apparent to me how insane our society really is. OK, rant aside, I want to say that Nosferatu is a really good movie and that you're just going to have to trust me on this one. It might be the most Eggers Eggers movie ever made, and digs really deep into its dark, oppressive atmosphere. It features fantastic performances all across the board. Its horror is intoxicating. Its uncommonly intense character-centrism is refreshing. But despite everything good to say about this film, I ultimately can't give it my seal of approval, because Nosferatu simply made me feel bad. The film is extremely dark, occasionally alludes to some satanism, and features some surprisingly front-and-center nudity and sexual content. I have some standards, and I know I went a little bit beyond them by going to watch Nosferatu. But at the end of the day, I watched it, so I may as well review it. It's more content for my site, and maybe some of you will be less averse to the film than I was.

I assure you, you've never seen anything quite like Nosferatu. There. I did it again. But this time, it's true.

Nosferatu - 8/10

1 John 1:5-7