Universal Pictures
The 2024 movie twelvemonth ended on a eminent note . Sonic the Hedgehog 3andMufasabrought in the kids while adults sampled more matured fare likeA Complete UnknownandBabygirl . Almost every movie overperformed at the box office , but there was one motion picture out of them all that storm everyone : Nosferatu . Robert Eggers ’ dark take on the classic Dracula story is n’t your typical Christmas fare , but it appealed to enough lapse goths and cinema geeks to makeover $ 50 million ( and counting ) .
It assist that the movie obtain acclamation from critics and interview likewise . But amid all the praise for the film , there are a few people who did n’t wish it so much . I ’m one of those citizenry . As a longtime rooter of the lamia repugnance subgenre , I was looking forrader to Nosferatu and thought Eggers was the right director to update it for 2024 . But as the credits rolled , I was left feeling underwhelmed . Nosferatucould’ve been bully , but it had one big defect that ruined it for me : Nosferatu himself , Count Orlok .
Universal Pictures
monition : This article contains spoilers for the 2024 version ofNosferatu .
What worked before can work again
Let me explain by taking a abbreviated stumble back to the past times — 1922 , to be precise . That was when the originalNosferatupremiered in the Netherlands and soon became a film classic . SubtitledA Symphony of Horror , F.W. Murnau ’s unauthorized take on Bram Stoker ’s novel Dracula introduced the world to Count Orlok ( Max Schreck ) , a rodent - like vampiric tool who contribute chaos and demise to a tiny German village .
The movie ’s signature image is of Orlok feeding off a young woman ’s neck and looking up , his regard finally resting on the movie audience who is ascertain him . In his thirstiness for blood , he realize he ’s been fox by his victim ; the sun is rising , and he is about to die . It ’s a arresting visual and look that ’s inexorably attach to the moving picture , and helped make it one of the few understood movies to leave a live on picture on a mass audience .
flaunt forward to 1979 , and German auteur and occasional Star Wars doer Werner Herzog madeNosferatu the Vampyre , a masterful remakethat added color , strait , and a presentiment sense of dread that made it vastly different from Murnau ’s original . This time around , full does n’t triumph over evil in the end ; instead , it merely mutates into a different form without anyone agnise it .
Herzog had the clump to switch things up to fit the flick finish of the late 1970s , which privilege downbeat conclusion and a willingness to show more violence and gore than before . But the one thing hedidn’tchange was the look of Orlok . Now encounter by Klaus Kinski , Orlok look middling much the same : bald promontory , foresighted nails and tooth , and wan , hairless hide .
Like the diseased vermin he brings with him everywhere he goes , he ’s a rat who preys on what ’s good and innocent , which is embody in the photographic film ’s heroine , Ellen . Orlok ’s look is what makesNosferatuNosferatu ; otherwise , he ’s just another Dracula ripoff , one who is less threatening , less imposing , and less memorable than all the others . Herzog knew what worked before could influence again ; what he changed alternatively was the plot , which had gotten moldy , and the visual language of the account , which postulate a modern update .
Eggers’s vampire lacks bite
So why on earth did eggar vary the one thing that setsNosferatuapart from other films ? In aninterview with Variety , he revealed that he did extensive research into vampire folklore to get his Orlok as close to reality as possible .
“ The question then became , ‘ What does a dead Transylvanian nobleman look like ? ’ That means this complex Hungarian costume with very long sleeve , strange high - heeled shoes and a furred hat . It also imply a moustache . No matter what , there ’s no manner this guy cable ca n’t have a mustache . attempt to obtain a Transylvanian mortal who ’s of age who can produce a moustache that does n’t have a moustache . It ’s part of the polish . If you do n’t want to bother Googling , think of Vlad the Impaler . Even Bram Stoker had the gumption to give Dracula a moustache in the book . ”
OK , that ’s heavy , but the Orlok the director ofThe Witch , The Lighthouse , andThe Northmanultimately delivers is n’t nearly as scary as what Murnau and Herzog came up with ; in fact , he ’s not scary at all . It ’s a big problem in a vampire picture when your primary baddie is n’t intimidating so much as he ’s disappointing . Saddled with a ridiculous handlebar mustache straight out of a 1970s coke - fuel disco party and milky blue eyes that make him look like a White Walker fromGame of Thrones , this Orlok feels anonymous and toothless . He could beanymovie monster , and that have away from what makesNosferatuso peculiar .
The execution of this update expression also leaves a draw to be desired . Orlok ’s worker , Bill Skarsgård , is unrecognizable under all the layer of makeup and prosthetics . Why hire him if you ca n’t tell who he is or , more importantly , take into account him to show us what he ’s capable of ? After all , Skarsgård has experience creating a supernatural monster while fag plentifulness of composition . His Pennywise in the It moving picture was in effect creepy-crawly and vicious ; his Orcinus orca buffoon was different from Tim Curry ’s iconic version in the 1990 ABC miniseries , yet still keep back the same minacious life .
That ’s not the instance with his Orlok , though . When he ’s not cloaked in shadow or smoke from nearby lamp chimney fire , he number across less as a lineament who actually be and more like a exceptional effect that ’s been clumsily put together . That ’s especially true in the film ’s terminal image , which has Orlok , now fully exposed and stagnant due to the morning sun , dwell on top of a dying Ellen . Eggers at last shows us Orlok in all of his molder stiff glory , but the issue is dull because you get the sense that what you ’re look at is n’t a animal at all . Instead , it ’s just a pile of makeup , rubber , and other materials , lie on top of an actress who just gave a full - bodied , deeply unsettling performance .
What was mean to be a poetic image of two foe lock in in an interminable embrace instead becomes a visual that shows off the movie ’s special effects budget . I doubt that ’s what Eggers intended , but that ’s what I left with as the movie cease .
If ain’t broke, don’t mess with it
reckon , I ’m not advocating that Eggers , or any filmmaker for that matter , should n’t convert it up when remaking classic stories or movies . But change is only safe when it ’s for the better , not to simply do it because no else has done it before , and the director ’s young take on Orlok ’s appearing just does n’t act . It robsNosferatuof its opposer ’s distinctness , it ’s commove iconography that ’s echoed throughout the horror musical style for most a one C , and supplant it with a mustached villain who never really comes alive ( excuse the paronomasia ) as a unfeignedly ominous lamia .
Will Eggers ’s Orlok replace the versions that arrive before it ? I do n’t reckon so , and that ’s why the pic just does n’t reach the heights of its predecessors or any of the other heavy lamia motion-picture show like Tod Browning’sDracula , the Hammer edition with Christopher Lee , or 1992’sBram Stoker ’s Dracula .
When I excogitate on2024’sNosferatu , I recall of Francis Ford Coppola ’s frenzied , profuse , and erotic take on Dracula , and I ca n’t help but liken the two . Both movies used material lamia traditional knowledge to inform and update their vampiric great badness , emphasise the sexual tinge present in their heroine ’ enchantment with their undead adversaries , and utilized elaborate costumes and elaborated makeup to put their own unequalled stamp on their villains .
The deviation between them is that Coppola never lose sight of what made Dracula so scary and , in the end , so pitiable . In his seeking for realism , and want to severalize himself from previous versions ofNosferatu , Eggers failed to keep the one matter that made Orlok so memorable all those yr ago and so terrifying even today .
Nosferatuis playing in theaters across the country .
