Note from the Author: This article contains slight spoilers for “Nosferatu” (2024)
The original “Nosferatu” (1922) film was very popular, with Rotten Tomatoes ranking it a 97%. In comparison, the recent remake directed by Robert Eggers led to a downfall in the gothic horror genre.
The film is loosely based on Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” The plot is set around Thomas Hutter, who gets sent to work with an isolated man named Count Orlok for a real estate transaction. As the plot progresses, Orlok is revealed to be a vampire who is obsessed with his wife, Ellen, and has been possessing her for years. This leads to a blood plague that Orlok spreads to the town, causing terror to the people living there.
“Nosferatu” has become a huge phenomenon in the recent year. That does NOT mean the remake of the film has hit a mark for accurate Gothicism.
For starters, Eggers was known for also directing films such as “The Witch” (2015) and “The Lighthouse” (2019).
The video editing throughout the film made the pacing feel slow; at first, I believed it was intentional until they got to the scene introducing the blood plague.
It was an attempt to make the climax of the plot feel chaotic, like an action movie that essentially did not have a thorough execution.
The characters were interesting to learn about; however, they were nowhere similar to the original, but instead just variants from his past films. This was especially irritating to discover when the children of Friedrich Hutting were introduced. What made it unoriginal was how the two little girls, Clara and Louise, were an exact depiction of the twin siblings in his other film, “The Witch” (2015), Mercy and Jones.
Clara and Louise both had the same personality, bratty and extremely whiny. It is almost as if Eggers directed them to have identical voices as well. This was an extremely cheap way of trying to use his directing skills as a signature style for his movies. Like other directors such as Wes Anderson and Greta Gerwig, every director has a signature style in every element that makes a film. Eggers attempts to make this film a signature “artsy” film the same way A24 studios would have. In light of this, it made the film very sad to watch.
This is only a terrible attempt given that “Nosferatu” is an original from back in 1922, making it a silent film. Ellen Hutter is known in the film for being possessed by Count Orlok. The constant groaning and moaning she does in the film seems to be sexualized given how the original is known for being silent (it’s giving Dan Schneider if you ask me).
On top of that, Eggers uses multiple shots that he attempts to make into his style such as the beginning of the film when he is seen sucking the blood of Ellen’s husband, Thomas, who is meant to be working for him in his mansion. The shot used for this was a full shot to see Nosferatu’s entire body shaking while sucking Thomas’ blood.
If it was a close-up shot instead, it would’ve been less humorous to see Nosferatu shaking his butt while doing his vampire deeds. Next to Ellen’s scene where she is sticking out her tongue as she is being possessed in front of her husband, the film seemed more humorous than scary or horrific.
With that being said, Eggers’ films are known for being produced by A24, a film studio that scouts for films with a certain style or aesthetic, most famous for “Euphoria” (2019) and “Everything Everywhere All At Once” (2022). The unfortunate case for audiences to understand is that A24, in fact, did not work for this film. This understanding made me realize how his focus on making Nosferatu a signature A24 style made him lose the focus on making a well-developed remake of the original, especially for the horror film. The perfect example of this is another recent film, “Joker 2” (2024). There are certain films that have a much greater need to adhere to a certain plot and other forms of action. A director should not, for example, turn a superhero film into a musical, or a vampire film into what is essentially an adult pornography film.
The remake of “Nosferatu” lacks a more accurate depiction of the narrative from the original, especially with the characters’ depth. Instead, the narrative was undeveloped, rushing just to get to the ending. The ending of “Nosferatu” is the only real thing I can fully remember, given how it was the only time they made an attempt at showing the real essence of the original film and how it could have looked if it was properly remade today.
Even though this film has already been nominated for an Oscar, I will not change my opinion on how I see “Nosferatu.” Even Count Orlok will always be a fan fiction’s attempt at representing Count Dracula (literally, as Movie Web explains it). This is the one film that I truly hope down the line can be remade once again.
Dalila Benmakhlouf is a junior majoring in English literature with a minor in classical studies.
Featured image courtesy of Pexels.com.
