|
|
|
|
|
More than 100 years after its release, the 1922 vampire movie Nosferatu is still considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made. Through the years, it’s been reworked and remade numerous times—and now The Witch director Robert Eggers offers his own take on the classic film.
Nosferatu travels to a distant land with young estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult). Though his new bride, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), begs him not to leave, he knows that the trip will put him in a solid position at his firm—and allow him to provide for his wife and their future children. But when he arrives at the castle of the mysterious Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), he faces all kinds of horrors—while, back home, his wife and friends are overtaken by a terrible curse that begins to plague their village.
While many of today’s horror films rely on cheap scares—and others keep viewers hanging on through a slow burn to a quick, haunting conclusion—Eggers holds nothing back in his version of this vampire classic. From the beginning, it’s loaded with scares—from dark dreams to sinister rituals to terrifying madness and gruesome vampire attacks. And the atmosphere alone is just generally eerie, with its muted tones and dark shadows. There’s no slow burn here—just a constant build of one horror on top of another for these characters, who are all victims of a terrifying monster and his dark obsessions.
Though the iconic images of Max Schreck from the original Nosferatu can still cause a chill to run down your spine, Bill Skarsgård gives evil a terrifying new face in the remake. He may spend most of the time in the shadows, but those shadowy images are more than enough to haunt viewers for days. It’s a chilling performance—and it’s boosted by a strong ensemble cast. Everything about these cast members just works with the film’s Gothic style—from Nicholas Hoult’s refined, responsible manner to Lily-Rose Depp’s hysteria to Willem Dafoe’s occult obsessions. Together, they’ve created a dark and horrifying new take on the century-old vampire classic.
It may not be the typical Christmas movie, but if you’re a horror fan, you couldn’t ask for a much better gift than Nosferatu. Just be warned that this terrifying old-style horror movie might just ruin you for the cheap tricks of modern-day horror for a while.
You can pay Count Orlok a visit when Nosferatu arrives in theaters on December 25, 2024.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
|
|
|
|
