If there is one word to describe Nosferatu it would be weird. Good weird, but weird nonetheless. At the end of seeing this film, my friend and I looked at each other and questioned what we had just watched. It had been hyped so much that I wondered if we had been disillusioned into what to expect. Hence, similar to my recent Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review, I have taken quite a bit of time to digest Nosferatu as a viewing experience. With that, let’s dive into Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu.

For those who don’t know, Nosferatu is a horror film that takes place in early 19th-century Germany. In a town that seems to be in the Prussian region, based off some of the uniforms the soldiers were wearing, there lives Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) and Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Holt), a couple who are just starting to date. When Thomas is sent off by his company to handle business with a mysterious Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), Ellen begins to suffer ailments that started in her earlier years when her cries for comfort awakened a being known as Nosferatu. What follows is a twisted path of pain, loss, and redemption that culminates in one of the most unique vampire tales.

One of the first things that I have to give Nosferatu credit for is the cinematography. The first half of this film is filled to the brim with hauntingly beautiful shots. Many of these perfectly illustrate the hopeless path that our main characters are being forced to walk down as they spiral into the grasp of Nosferatu. The second half of the film doesn’t do too many fantastical shots, mostly doing traditional horror movie shots with occasional bait and switches.

When I was first thinking about the film, I found it to be quite disappointing that we didn’t get more of a fresh stylistic approach during the second half. However, I believe that this is done on purpose to show that the Hutters are slowly getting their grasp back on reality and what they must do to break the curse they are stuck in the center of. 

The music and sound effects in this film are absolutely top-notch. There are a few jump scares that they dramatically score to, but most of the time everything is set perfectly. There are even certain scenes where there is very little audio and the visuals speak for itself. Then there are other times when the film tones down the visuals and leans into the sound design to truly let your mind paint the rest of the picture. These scenes tend to be the most gruesome, but I greatly appreciate Robert Eggers deciding to do this because some of those scenes would be hard to watch even once.

In terms of casting, there are some stand-out performances. Lily-Rose Depp shines in this film as she has to do some absolutely crazy things to show the depths of Ellen’s suffering. She also has to balance that with a hidden strength that has kept Ellen alive for all these years despite the world’s perception of what is happening to her. Nicholas Holt does a fabulous job playing a dutiful husband who will stop at nothing to protect his marriage while navigating many horrors. Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Ralph Ineson both play their roles as men viewing the plot through an ordinary lens and eventually seeing the errors of their perception, allowing the audience to more easily buy into the fantastical plot. As expected, Willem Dafoe thrives in the role of Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz who brilliantly introduces us to the world of the occult and shows that sometimes the world is madder than we are.

While I am not going to give any spoilers away about the plot, I will say that some aspects of it feel unanswered. There are quite a few times where the movie seems to be gearing up for something to happen only for an unexpected event to occur that throws a wrinkle into the original plan. There is also a lot of fluff in the plot that doesn’t feel necessary and could probably be cut. Additionally, one character exists in the film rather prominently at the end of the beginning and the end of the middle which serves as a necessary bridge for some of our characters.

However, this character is almost entirely wasted in the final act and is left in the sidelines in a way that seems like a missed opportunity. There is also a time when something occurs that is somewhat familiar to an event earlier in the film, but the characters proceed anyway without there being an acknowledgment of it in the context of current events.

Overall, I found that Nosferatu was a unique experience. It doesn’t quite crack the top ten films of the year for me as it has for so many others, but it does at least sit at number eleven or twelve. This is a film that every horror fan should watch even though I believe that not every horror fan will enjoy it. I hope that we see more modern gothic horror films given the success that Nosferatu seems to be achieving at the box office. If you are looking for more spine-chilling content, consider checking out Taylor Bauer’s reporting of a recently released new horror game right here.

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Nosferatu

0.00

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Wonderful Cinematography
• Great Sound Design
• Lily-Rose Depp Stuns

Cons

• Some Design Choices Felt Off
• Some Story Ideas Not Completed