Nosferatu Strikes Again: Does Robert Eggers Deliver a Chilling Masterpiece?
You've never seen Count Orlok like this.
Nosferatu is based on the cult movie of the same name by Friedrich Murnau. The character of Count Orlok was created because the German director tried to avoid a conflict over the copyright of the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker by slightly changing the original story and the names of the characters.
Count Dracula is a glamorous vampire, he can turn into a bat, and the sun's rays do not kill him easily. Count Orlok is a slightly rotten creature who comes with rats and the plague.
In creating the movie, Robert Eggers largely relied on Murnau's Nosferatu, but to make the story more complete, he often turned to Bram Stoker's original source.
What Is Nosferatu About?
England, 18th century. Ellen often sleepwalks and in this state comes into contact with a sleeping evil she calls Death. After the woman marries Thomas, her nocturnal adventures become less frequent.
One day, Thomas receives a mission: to travel to Romania to the mysterious Count Orlok to sell him an abandoned castle. The deal promises to make the family a fortune. Thomas obeys his boss, but Ellen despairs.
She does not want to leave her husband because he does not pay enough attention to her. After her husband leaves, Ellen falls into melancholy, suffers epileptic seizures, and begins to sleepwalk again.
All because Count Orlok is Death: he wants to separate Thomas and Ellen and finally reunite with his beloved.
Nosferatu Was Robert Eggers' Dream Project
We've been waiting a little over a year for Nosferatu to premiere, but Robert Eggers has wanted to make a movie since he was a teenager. After a successful debut with the folk horror The Witch, the director began planning his dream project, but the industry was not yet ready to trust a newcomer with big budgets.
First Eggers brought the world The Lighthouse, then he left A24 and made The Northman. That movie barely made back the $90 million invested in it, but Universal was finally able to give Eggers all the resources he needed to make Nosferatu.
Nosferatu Is a Respectful Adaptation of the Classic
Nosferatu did not seem to have the goal of scaring the viewer, but rather to give the gory story the form it deserved, immersing the viewer in a foggy world of lust, fear, and approaching death.
If there's one thing you can expect from Robert Eggers, it's dedication to his vision, which he meticulously reproduces on screen.
To recreate 18th-century England and Romania, the director worked with a team of historians and production designers to ensure the authenticity of every detail, from the location of the Romanian gypsy settlement to the attributes of the churches.
Count Orlok was rebranded and returned to his Romanian roots, abandoning his recognizable and even iconic bald head and rat ears. He now wears a fur coat and an impressive moustache, as befits a Romanian count of the time.
Nosferatu is a triumph of visual art that reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place.