Nosferatu is Robert Eggers’ fourth – and best – full-length film. And it almost wasn’t if its over-familiarity kept getting in my way. I mean, it’s just Bram Stoker’s Dracula as filtered through the original 1929 silent film and a healthy lawsuit. What I’d give to see this story for the first time without knowing the book or the countless adaptations.

In case you don’t know, the film is set in Germany and involved a real estate agent (not-Harker) who has to travel to Not-Dracula’s castle to meet Count Orlock so he can sign some papers. And the real tragedy of these Dracula/Orlock stories is that the Count never gets a housewarming party… but he also never pays property taxes…
so maybe a net win? Anyhow, Not-Mina is in danger and a Professor Not-Van-Helsing is called in to drive off the vampire.

It’s probably the second best retelling of Dracula and definitely the best Nosferatu… but only because the 1929 silent film can’t hold a candle to the visual, acting, and shadow tricks Eggers deploys. If it’s a little long at times, I blame Eggers for never trimming back on his ACTING and his clever, sweet atmospheric camera tricks.

The film is atmospheric – dark and dreary in all the best ways – with dialog you could describe as heightened. But that’s ok, because the actors are acting to the back of the house… while somehow playing it straight. Call it emoting, call it melodramatic… but it doesn’t go over the line into camp. It’s loud and ambitious and tears at its own bodice and breastbone.

One thing I wasn’t sold on, however, is a biggie. Count Orlock and his Darth Vader levels of asthma were one too many acting choices too many for me. You could cut his accents – and his rolled R’s – in half and still have too much. But eventually I got on the wavelength with his first dramatic encounter with Lily-Rose Depp.

And finally, I wanted to love the ending but it heeded too close to the original. And I shouldn’t judge a 1929 silent film, but it had its limits. It’s pretty anti-climactic by modern standards and I wish Eggers had the ambition to think up something more thrilling or scary. He does make a motivational change that gifts a character more agency at least.

But, hey, otherwise this is probably Eggers’ most mainstream film after his arthouse efforts and The Northman. I just hope its ending doesn’t underwhelm the masses. It’s otherwise a good, effective horror film that suffers just a little bit here and there.

Score: 92