The shadow-laden, melancholic darkness surrounding the ghostly town of Transylvania is presented once again in the modern Nosferatu by Robert Eggers. The gothic magnificence of the draconian world comes alive in this adaptation starring Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgard, Nicholas Hoult, and William Dafoe.
The Gothic genre is incomplete without Dracula, the menacing, horrific, and damned creature that hunts humans for their blood. Nosferatu showcases the romanticized figure as how it was originally imagined and designated, a wretched, grizzly, and macabre creature meant to be feared and disgusted.
The movie lands its job in horrifying the audience in its portrayal of vampire legend yet what accompanies the film throughout and is carried down to the audience is the unsettling dread.
The helplessness of being misunderstood grips Ellen and the ghastly voice and gloom that foreshadows Orlok creates uneasiness, a classic gothic trait.
Nosferatu follows the same storyline as of 1922, where the vampire preys on the wife of his estate agent and brings plague to his town. The estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), already in debt and driven by the love for his wife and to provide her with good fortune embarks on a journey from Wilsburg to Transylvania after receiving orders from his skeptical boss Herr Knock.
Meanwhile, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) stays with Anna Harding (Emma Corrin) and her blunt, no-nonsense husband, Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The dreams that consume Allen earn her the reputation of a mad woman who is sedated and bound until Doctor Albin (Willem Dafoe) recognizes her possession.
The 1922 Nosferatu mounts on the German expressionism movement, displaying high contrast and trickery of shadows. Robert Eggers provides an exaggerated detail of the classic. The transitions in the movie are as striking as the musical score by Robin Carolan which exemplifies the haunting scenery.
The dull colors as if drained like the victims of Orlok suit the film’s atmosphere. A few particular scenes like the one where Herr Knock, the prospective employer of Thomas, tears the flesh of a servant keeping an eye on him upon the arrival of Count Orlok or the plague’s depiction of rats flooding the town streets is repulsive.
The adaptation conjures a tale that doesn’t provide horror in a usual bowl of jump scares but provides prolonged uneasiness and obscurity.
Nosferatu deserves appreciation for its cinematography, performances, musical score, and successful refurbishment of the classic tale.
