Remaking a film that is 100 years old is a unique task. The original silent film captured my 12 YO imagination with its shadows and portrayal of the vampire, I looked into the history and making of the original movie and became even more impressed. Every vampire movie I've seen since then hasn't had the 'pull' the 1920s movie had. Until now....
It took Robert Eggers to remind me what kind of horror I truly love. I loved "The Witch." That film brought me to a really creepy place, in place of teenagers running around-it gave me a sense of impending doom and gruesome images and thoughts.
When I heard he was remaking "Nosferatu", I really couldn't think of a better filmmaker for the task. His attention to detail, his patient plotting and camera work all work perfectly in this gothic tale.
This film improves upon many elements of "The Witch" I now see. I still really like "The Witch." I will still watch it every October, but Eggers' new film takes all the elements I loved in that and makes everything bigger and more complex and more scary.
This film isn't a jump scare movie, this isn't a movie that jokes with its audience. Nothing in this is cheesy. This isn't a handsome vampire. This movie is about evil. Like "The Witch", it revels in bleakness and despair.
It's more like reading a really creepy horror novel. Sure, you get the gore and the creeps, but you also see what is going on internally with the main characters. You get long dialogue scenes akin to a really well acted play that really transport you to the time period and give a true sense of realism.
Nothing in this is 'fast paced'. Actually, a few teens in the audience were left disappointed during my screening. And I understand why from there POV. They maybe didn't know who Eggers was and what type of 'horror' he brings. I don't begrudge people for disliking this style of course, but I myself love it. It's patient and deliberate. It has moments of blood and screaming and it's quite jolting and VERY effective. But about half of this movie is talk of 'the dread is coming' and 'facing the evil' and seeing what Count Orlock has done to the lives of Hutter and his wife.
The acting is amazing, with Bill Skarsgård as the Count and Lily-Rose Depp as Hutter's long suffering wife completely stealing every single scene. Truly, they were both magnetic.
This is truly an amazing vampire tale everyone who's a fan of the genre should watch.
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