“Nosferatu” (2024) was weird to say the least. As a horror movie fan, I was thoroughly excited to see a revival of the classic film. The new “Nosferatu,” released this December, was an attempt to remake the (at the time) groundbreaking original released from 1922. The original is cited as the first ever vampire movie and was well received for its experimental and influential visual style known as chiaroscuro. First used in renaissance portraiture, chiaroscuro is the use of dramatic, angled lighting, usually to emphasize certain features.
The original film, by today’s standards, is hardly scary. The namesake “Nosferatu”, is a “plasticy,” malformed vampire with a ginormous unibrow. To a modern viewer “Nosferatu” (1922) is almost a black and white comedy. However, in 1922 it was so scary as to be banned in some countries for up to 50 years. The 2024 remake attempted to revive this film as a true horror, living up to the modern fear standards of such movies as “The Exorcist”. “Nosferatu” came out less “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and more “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” that is to say, hardly scary at all. The visual effects, like gore and overall grossness, excelled. Lily-Rose Depp, the lead actress, wonderfully elicited discomfort as she acted possessed or deranged. Similarly, Bill Skarsgård did excellently as the immortal and rotting Count Orlok.
Due in no part to the acting, the dialogue was a little blank. Count Orlok had very few lines, which erased a significant aspect of the original movie. The original film was almost poetic with such evocative lines as: “Time is an abyss, profound as a thousand nights. Centuries come and go…”, whereas I am hard put to find a notable line from the new version. “Nosferatu” (2024) lost a lot of its original character.
I found that, while not scary, the film was very uncomfortable. The entire two hour and twelve minute film is interrupted by visceral and (in my opinion) unnecessary sexual scenes. This was the main attribute of fear in the film. Much of its horror came from these genuinely disgusting audio and visual moments. It bears mentioning that this film is rated R, and rated that way for a reason.
Robert Eggers, the director, said the film explored themes of female agency, social oppression and the destructive powers of capitalism. As a personal opinion, I didn’t see many of these themes come through at all. The most obvious motif was female agency but it was explored using the overdone trope of “female sacrifice” both literally and sexually. This kind of trope is seen to be anti-feminist, due to its over-use in predominantly male directed movies.
In this aspect, “Nosferatu” is a bit of a failure for me; the original was a commentary on social norms and an expression of German fear of invasion after WW1. However, it was hard to find a clear social theme in Nosferatu 2024. (Sidebar: While not all films need social commentary, Nosferatu is entrenched in political undertones and is historically relevant as media.)
