^{By: Amanda Guarragi}

In 1922, the original Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, directed by F.W. Murnau, was released and was loosely adapted from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There are many similarities between Dracula and Count Orlok, one being the love for a mortal woman they yearn for. 

Nosferatu symbolizes the plague of death on society given the period and that of a man who longs for companionship, a monster who seeks love and will somehow be healed. 

Gothic horror can sometimes be misunderstood because of its relationships with supernatural creatures. It’s hard to relate to immortality, even though Bram Stoker grounded his Dracula story in his humanity and used supernatural elements to reflect on his demons. 

To this day, Dracula has surpassed Count Orlock in story execution with many iterations of vampires. However, Robert Eggers has fused the lore from both to create his version of Nosferatu. Eggers has had one of the strongest four film runs of any new director because of his distinct morbid style, graphic violence, and unsettling imagery. He fuses the obscure with horror conventions to create this unpredictability. 

What Eggers does extremely well is create a haunting atmosphere for his characters. He sets the tone immediately within the opening moments by giving audiences a small look at the monster hiding in the shadows, waiting to be reunited with his dear Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). Ellen had been trapped under Count Orlok’s (Bill Skarsgärd) spell long ago, and when she found her betrothed, Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), she no longer felt the melancholic darkness clouding her. 

Thomas ventures to Count Orlok’s castle to secure real estate, in this case, Thomas parallels John Harker in Dracula. When Thomas first encounters Count Orlok, he assesses everything about him while being deeply terrified of the man before him. 

Eggers brilliantly chose to keep the camera on Nicholas Hoult while Count Orlok roamed around him. The fear in Hoult’s eyes and beads of sweat trickling down his temple built an unsettling feeling towards Count Orlok without even showing him. Eggers used character reactions to amplify the terror of the demon vampire plaguing society. 

It is a slow-moving film, but once Thomas returns to Ellen and Count Orlok has a link to her, it becomes a frenzy of terror, possession and lust. It is the second half of the film where Lily-Rose Depp has an out-of-body experience with her physicality during the scenes with Count Orlok possessing her. 

She contorts her body and uses rigid movements to show that he has taken over her mind. She transforms herself in each scene as her body contorts, and her eyes are masked with death as she has a dazed look only at night when he enters her mind. On-screen possessions rarely seem believable and grounded, so for Depp to make it look natural is an accomplishment. She delivered one of the best performances this year. 

The score by Robin Carolan complements the film by aiding the eerie atmosphere with a hint of hopefulness that Count Orlok will return to Ellen. The dynamic between the two, especially in the final scene, is riveting because of the make-up on Skarsgärd and his physicality for Count Orlok. His voice work only elevates his presence in the shadows and creates a haunting persona. 

Nosferatu is Robert Eggers at his best, with a well-rounded script and stellar performances from everyone in the cast. He adapted the original film quite well and fused elements of Bram Stoker’s Dracula to make a rather intriguing gothic horror with a splash of questionable romance. Eggers has created the perfect film to encapsulate who he is as a director, even if the vampire eroticism was a bit more tame than expected.