Richard and I went to see Nosferatu on its last day at the Triplex. I am a big fan of Dracula, the original silent film is amazing, Robert Eggers' reputation precedes him, so this was a no-brainer. I don't watch modern horror movies as a rule - the modern Saw era of torture horror is a no-go.
I haven't seen any of Eggers's previous movies, so I was hopeful this would be a gateway to enjoying horror movies again. While I liked Nosferatu perfectly well, Eggers is not some next-level filmmaking visionary. The slow-moving or static shots of menacing figures were scary, and the use of music and sfx ramped up the tension, but Eggers repeatedly sticks in jump cuts. Suddenly, when you think the tension cannot be torqued up any higher, an image of a bloody face in extreme closeup, or the beast glaring, would pop onscreen for a split second, with a musical jab.
These moments are unearned scares. They feel cheap, like either Eggers doesn't have faith in the rest of the scene to creep us out, or he simply doesn't have better tools in his cinematic toolbox. Too many times a character would see something awful, followed by a jump cut, then a jump cut to them popping awake. Like, literally, half a dozen times.
I have read that Eggers has made a big deal over the absence of CGI effects. That appears to be true. But I find it disingenuous to say that when you also slather on surreal sound effects over seemingly inhuman contortions of the actors. Yes, what we're seeing really happened on set, but none of what we're hearing did. It's not a sin - the sound design was amazing, I especially loved Orlok's voice and his breathing. Skarsgård moves so little, and is so buried under prosthetics, 99% of his performance is his effects-enhanced dialog.
Lily-Rose Depp acquitted herself well as the doomed bride. This screenplay gives her Ellen more agency over her cursed fate than the traditional virginal bride of the vampire, even if her performance arc goes from "I'm cursed and like it" to "I'm cursed and want to be saved" to "I'm cursed and I accept it".
Hot Take: I don't like Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I first saw him as John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, and he was good in that, but he's somehow in everything and I don't know why: Avengers, Godzilla, Tenet, Bullet Train, Fall Guy, Kraven - what am I missing?
Two hours 12 mins. When you're adapting a story that we all know so well (the original silent Nosferatu was a barely-veiled ripoff of Bram Stoker's Dracula) I feel it pays to move the story along briskly. The time between Orlok's 'plague' ship arriving, and Orlok confronting Ellen, gets bogged down. The "Van Helsing" character cracking the puzzle of how to kill Nosferatu is boring when the audience knew that sunlight will kill him before they entered the theater. Plus, the "the city is getting sick" events that we just don't need. A movie should always pick up pace in the second half, and NOT linger on unnecessary fat!
I appreciated that one of the trademark visuals of vampire movies is NOT included. We never see Nosferatu's teeth/fangs. I guess Eggers decided the "baring the fangs" moment was just too overdone by 2024. For most of the two hours, I was wondering "if there's no CGI, how is Eggers going to film Nosferatu's inevitable death at the end of this movie?" I am pleased with the results. The whole movie is worth seeing, I was just expecting a more inventive filmmaker behind it.