Writer/director/producer Robert (The Witch) Eggers' Nosferatu, a new (35 mm) version of the famous variant of Bram Stoker's Dracula, reminds me of an old, quality, Halloween costume dusted off and fixed with a few, clever bells and whistles (i.e. a few extra, plot pieces), and in the case of Nosferatu, it's not the first time a refurbishing has been (re)done.
Prior to this 2024 release, we were served the 1979, Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski Nosferatu, the Vampyre/Phantom of the Night, which has become as much as cinematic classic as the 1922, F.W. Murnau/Henrick Galeen/Max Shreck/Symphony of Horror (and some will feel inclined to connect Nosferatu/Vampire in Venice to it, since it works as the remake's unofficial sequel). Then there's Tobe Hooper's 1979 and Gary Dauberman's 2024 versions of Stephen King's Salem's Lot, which use the emaciated-rodent look for Barlow, in addition to Andre Ovedral/Javier Botet's adventurous take for The Demeter, as well as E. Elias Merhiage/Willem Dafoe's Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional, making-of Nosferatu, which falls in line with Douglas Schulze's play-based re-enactment, Mimesis Nosferatu, and lest we forget the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Space Vampire," which modifies the Shreck design or Richard Brake's spot-on spoof in Rob Zombie's The Munsters, and oh, yeah, I must acknowledge the Orlak-ian, ethereal silhouettes of Francis Ford Coppola/Gary Oldman's Dracula, which seep straight from Murnau's foundation. (BTW: There's still the David Lee Fisher/Doug Jones' 2023 completion that's creeping through the cracks. I'll being doing a post on it soon, since I've discovered where to access it, albeit for an online toll.)
With all of this said and acknowledged, how could Egger's Nosferatu be at all groundbreaking? It's at best and most just ageless decay dusted off, with a Lurch-like, entitled entity at its hub, now sporting a mustache and a tuft of hair high upon his crown. (To some, the fuzziness might be considered blasphemous, even if Vlad Tepes-based, when compared to the iconic, Shreck look.)
This blaring deviation aside, Nosferatu 2024 is still engrossing for what it offers, parenthesized with the obligatory, extending claws, enshrouding mustiness (this time enclosed in a wintery mix), and in this instance, helmed by genre favorite, Bill Skargard (It/The Crow/Barbarian) as the eponymous creature, aka Count Dracula, but called Count Orlak to commemorate the 1922's relabeling. Skarsgard is creepy and conniving, and downright chilling in his raspy enunciations, even though kept in the shadows a large part of the time.
The complementing cast supports his plagued presence with identifiable urgency, with a couple members having appeared in prior Nosferatu/Dracula incarnations: Nicholas (Renfield) Hoult as the jolted and jarred Thomas Hutter (Jonathan Harker); Lily (Silent Night) Rose-Depp as pale, frail and possessed Ellen (Hutter's wife and a Mina Murray surrogate); the wry Willem (Shadow of the Vampire) Dafoe as the in-tune Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Professor Abraham Van Helsing, with a little Father Merrin tacked on); Ralph (The First Omen) Inesen as the open-minded Dr. Wilhem Sievers (Dr. John Seward); Simon (The Conjuring 2) McBurney as the puppeteered Herr Knock (R.M. Renfield); Aaron (Kraven the Hunter/Kick-Ass) Taylor-Johnson as the incredulous Friedrich Harding; and Emma (Deadpool & Wolverine) Corrin as amicable but desperate Anna (Friedrich's spouse and Lucy Westenra surrogate).
For the most part, the principles play the Stoker fable as one might expect, matching those of the 1922 and 1979 versions, creating an excursion that's nightmarish (thanks in no small part to Jarin Blaschke's icy photography and Robin Coralan's nail-biting score), so that in the end (and this goes with the underlying vibe of any Nosferatu), the movie is still Dracula at its hateful heart and decrepit heart. Again, that is to say the movie is contradictorily nothing new and yet at the same time new, indeed, as it's forged by new artists. To repeat, it's a tried-and-true, variant-costume, embellished and paraded (now worn by someone else), whether it need be or not.
Regardless of the superfluous niche, I'm willing to accept this bloodsucking addition, just as I tend to welcome any adaptation of Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, Color Out of Space, Fall of the House of Usher, Murders in the Rue Morgue, A Christmas Carol and so on. This sort of dark, gloomy storytelling is my kind of thing, and for anyone who digs Gothic horror, Nosferatu 2024 is a must-see, not because it oozes any sure-fire freshness through its rot (or that it's truly Nosferatu in all manners of shape and form), but rather that it revels in the perennial, Stoker brand.
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