Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.

The Garden Cinema View:

The steady production of film and TV adaptations of Dracula have turned Bram Stoker’s novel into something of a gothic urtext. For this passion project, Robert Eggers credits the book along with Henrik Galeen’s screenplay for the 1922 version as sources, and visually references the Murnau and Herzog Nosferatus, along with Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. This is an immense piece of cinematic world-building of its own however, with all aspects of production and art design, as well as the cinematography, contributing to an immersive and gripping viewing experience.

As with his previous films, Eggers draws upon a range of literary research to construct a juicy, strange, and very funny lexicon, spoken by relish by his actors. Amongst a cast including several of Eggers’ regular players, the standouts are two very physical performances. Bill Skarsgård plays Count Orlok like a black hole, sucking all light and even his own body within himself. Lily-Rose Depp conjures a furrowed brow (much like Winona Ryder’s take on Mina Harker), before throwing herself into an extraordinary sequence of fits and contortions supposedly inspired by the Japanese avant-garde ‘dance of utter darkness’, Butoh.  

Eggers’ über-Freudian displays of lust-in-abjection might feel a little old-fashioned, but also make for a refreshing turn away from the romantic vampires of the past 30 years, and perhaps call back to his previous take-down of puritan attitudes to female sexuality in The VVitch. A film that lingers in the imagination, in the long nights that follow the trip to the cinema.      

Cast:
Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe, Simon McBurney, Ralph Ineson