Nosferatu (2024)
A gift (or perhaps curse) of mine is that I can usually see both sides of every argument. A lot of critics are claiming the 2024 remake of Nosferatu as a real piece of art, while some articles were reporting a 25% walkout rate. I just finished watching the film and… well, I can see both sides.
If you’ve seen the original, silent version of Nosferatu you already know the plot and even if you haven’t, you essentially know the story from watching Dracula. The plot is streamlined and simple: Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is asked by his real estate employer to travel to the Carpathian Mountains and escort rich but eccentric client Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) back to England. Hoult’s wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) has been having nightmares about the trip and begs her husband not to go, but the money’s too good to refuse and so he goes. The trip is difficult but Thomas eventually meets with Count Orlok and escorts him back; little does he know, Orlok has his creepy eyes set on Helen whom, if he can convince her to give herself willing to him, his curse will be broken. I think. In the middle of all this, Prof. Albin Everhart von Franz (Willem Dafoe) is busy trying to figure out what is causing people to become seemingly possessed, while the rest of us are trying to figure out why his name isn’t Van Helsing.
To the people who loved it, I get it. To me this felt almost like an old Hammer film, made in 2024. It’s super stylized — maybe as a nod to the old “colored gel” versions of Nosferatu I’ve seen, 2/3 of the movie is done in blues while the other 1/3 is done in oranges (sunset and sunrise?). The costumes are great and the sets are astounding. Everyone speaks like it’s the 1800s London so accents are thick but true. Count Orlok sounds and looks creepy. The whole thing is super gothy.
To those that walked out… I kind of get that, too. I can’t imagine a single person under the age of 20 or maybe even 30 having the patience to sit through this film. It’s slow. Sometimes, there are subtitles. It’s moody. Nobody turns into a bat. There aren’t really any action scenes, save for a couple of stakes being driven into appropriate chest chambers. It’s such a atmospheric film that I could see the experience being ruined by a single cell phone going off.
When I was a kid and someone mentioned “vampire” I guess I thought of Dracula first and the Lost Boys second, and I’m not sure what a kid’s point of reference is today. In this film, Count Orlok isn’t just creepy like he appears in the original — he’s literally rotten, covered in open sores and ugly and also has a silly moustache. He’s also one of the most powerful vampire I’ve seen. This guy isn’t tricking people eating rice into thinking they’re maggots — he’s sending people into violent seizures hundreds of miles away and infecting everyone’s dreams — no need to stare into this guy’s eyes to get hypnotized.
Overall I enjoyed the film, but you gotta know what you’re walking into. It’s an over-the-top gothfest that takes itself maybe a little too seriously. It’s a slow burn vampire film with more stylistic cuts to black and back than I could “Count”. Film students are going to love it but I’m not sure horror fans will be rewatching it too many times.