Robert Eggers's Nosferatu remake

As I've muttered elsewhere, a side benefit of seeing the kinda choppy/strange Bikeriders this weekend is that the trailer for Nosferatu ran in front of it, as it's only running that way (officially) for this weekend. Unsurprisingly looked pretty great! So, might as well kick off a thread for it...

This might prove to have wide popular appeal, but I don't see how anyone anyone can improve on Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) and Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

I really loved The Witch and The Lighthouse, they are two of my all-time favorite films, but The Northman was a big disappointment to me, it was too comic-book bombastic.

This sounds like a good fit for him and maybe it will be great, but I'm now suspicious of the direction he's turning in

And here we go with the trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b59rxDB_JRg

i'm not hostile to sequels or remakes so the idea of it "improving upon" the other incarnations doesn't really factor in for me at all. this is probably gonna look and atmospherically feel so badass imo, perfect meeting of director and material/mise-en-scène

i loved the northman tho, impossible for me to resist hallucinatory dicks-out viking hamlet

i read a long new york profile of eggers that suggested the northman suffered from a lot of studio interference, not that i could necessarily see it in the final product. but it made me admire eggers' method all the more

yeah I know some here were sour on NOrthman but that shit was my wheelhouse.

looking forward to this and tricking mom into seeing this on Christmas

"It's about a savior who has arrived to release us all from our lives of misery."

"That sounds nice!"

also no one makes vampire movies anymore. i’ve been starving (for blood)

was actually surprised at the number of mainstream Dracula-affiliated films last year, regardless of the quality of them

i guess there was renfield (terrible) and last voyage of the demeter (boring, except for the dope winged and desiccated dracula design)

those were the two I was thinking of.

Abigail was middling vampire fare. Better than Renfield, anyway.

I loved Abigail

I want to see Abigail and Last Voyage of the Demeter, but I'm not sure about this movie given that we already have Nosferatu, Herzog's Nosferatu, and Shadow of the Vampire, all of which rule. Plus, I'm kind of lukewarm on Eggers in general: loved The VVitch, skipped The Lighthouse because I don't like Robert Pattinson, and thought The Northman was...not great. Right now this looks to me like, what if Coppola's Dracula was neither funny nor fun?

Your last point definitely comes to mind; this film feels a little more in conversation with that than the other Nosferatus.

The Murnau film is one of my forever favorites so I’m intrigued. Especially after poring over this trailer shot by shot. Dome cool stuff in there ( Harker surrounded by nuns(?), an ornate stone coffin…)
There’s the classic “Nosferatu in the castle hallway” shot but this time he’s got two wolves (!!) at his side. And another cool, quick shot of the vampire biting someone aboard the ship. Coppola feel is certainly there but I think this may be a fun take.

*Some cool shots

We don't see Orlok's dome clearly enough, unfortunately

Da-dome!

I like a lot about The Northman, especially the cinematography and the complex way that many of the scenes were filmed.

There are some classic vampire films, including Louis Feuillade's classic silent film serial Les Vampires (1915–16), which was remade into the comedy-drama Irma Vep by Olivier Assayas starring Maggie Cheung in 1996, and then into a great miniseries by him starring Alicia Vikander in 2022.

Also, Carl Theodore Dreyer’s Vampyr (1932) was an astonishing film

Hate ro be a pedant but there were no vampires in the Feuillade.

i feel like the things that didnt work for me about The Lighthouse (all vibes, no story) could be strengths in a Nosferatu remake, optimistic about this

Hate ro be a pedant but there were no vampires in the Feuillade.

― completely suited to the horny decadence (Capitaine Jay Vee), Tuesday, June 25, 2024 3:05 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Fine degrees of pedantry: Les Vampires are a gang of criminals, but they use vampire imagery to further scare the public.

For my part I wait to see if Eggers includes anything like the night Hutter arrives at Orlok's place (Orlok was totally hitting on him!).

Slightly disappointed that this is still basically Dracula, I always felt Orlok deserved his own stories.

Orlok and the Chamber of Secrets wait hold on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nulvWqYUM8k

lets fucking go :D

Also, Guillermo Del Toro wrapped shooting on his "Frankenstein." And Leigh Whannell has a "Wolf Man" coming out next year. The Dark Universe(tm) is alive!!!!

hell yes to all of that

trailer is pretty ambiguous, but I'm down to give it a shot

I emailed a radio 'year-end movie roundup' program about why The Northman didn't succeed despite its impeccable direction, and the critic opined that the weird/toxic dude energy of the film was maybe not reflecting the cultural moment of its release date

The trailer is giving very straight (non-epistolary) adaptation of the novel vibes. Also a few echoes of Coppola's.

Funny timing in that regard.

Murnau’s Nosferatu movie was also an unofficial adaptation of the novel iirc (so much so that Stoker’s wife sued!)

In related happy news, Alamo's 1979 screening series for September/October means I'll get a chance to see Herzog's version on a big screen in a couple of Saturdays.

The Dark Universe(tm) is alive!!!!

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, October 1, 2024 12:41 AM (seventeen hours ago)

I thought you were joking but I can only see the new Wolfman listed as a part of that. Frankenstein seems to be made for Netflix.

This whole dark universe thing sounds bad and I don't think the crossovers worked that well in the black and white era of Universal. Didn't Del Toro leave previous attempts to do things like this?

This whole dark universe thing sounds bad and I don't think the crossovers worked that well in the black and white era of Universal.

Well, of course it would be much better if we had a modern-day Abbott and Costello to "meet" these new monsters.

Harold & Kumar meet Frankenstein, Key & Peele meet Dracula, Tim & Eric meet Wolfman

Why not cgi Abbott & Costello?

20 years ago a Keenan & Kel Meet Dracula movie would have ruled.

Eric Andre meets the Creature from the Black Lagoon

Eric Andre *as* the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Eric Andre fucks the Creature from the Black Lagoon

…

RANCH IT UP

It's long.

hearing good things about this from people who are easily pleased

hearing good things about this from people who are easily pleased

There's a critic who seems to be personally a good dude, and who has been through some hardships in life which make me want to go easy on him, but he writes like he likes everything he reviews so much that frankly I think he should change his first name from Matt to Mark.

Tell that to Louis Jordan.

haha I meant "Jourdan".

Saw this yesterday, hungover from NYE in a very warm cinema (seriously, they had the heating cranked up to what felt like 30c). So while I enjoyed it, there was an additional sense of dread and claustrophobia going on which might have clouded my judgement.

You'd be hard pushed to argue with the overall atmospherics in this one. Absolute mastery, with some wonderful sections (I especially like Orlok's huge shadowy hand passing over the town - incredible).

But I also find it hard to argue with a lot of the criticisms here. Like the original book, for every thrilling moment there's an equally tedious or repetitive section which, were we not so precious about being so faithful to the preceding texts, could have been changed or switched up.

The Dracula tale has always felt incredibly front-loaded to me - I'm far more interested in Transylvanian escapades than sickly people lying around having fits and blood transfusions. I love hearing about the Count's indisiousness in keeping Harker/Thomas from leaving, and the dawning realisation of exactly the trouble he's in. For my money, Eggers skipped over this part fairly quickly in a "Yeah you get the idea, you know this part" way - but that's the thing, it's the BEST PART, and once we get back to England/Germany, the energy of the thing starts to bag and sag.

So with this, at least the third iteration of a knock off of the Dracula novel, so really and copy of a copy, I was hoping that Eggers would be staunch enough to stray a little further from the original text so as to liven it up and make it feel a little less repetitious.

Like someone said upthread, there were just one too many close ups of people heavy-breathing and having fits and visions and fever dreams and violent mood swings, and it wasn't anything we haven't already seen in othrr movies. Depp bodied these moments well, but they were happening constantly and after a while I was keen to press the "I get it, I've seen the Exorcist" button

Similarly, much as he was terrifying on first encounter, Orlok became less and less impressive each time he returned. I know Nosfera-tash is absolutely a thing in the book, but he reminded me of Tom Hardy in Bronson, weirdly muscular, like a portrayal of an American general in an anime movie. I don't know how I feel about a Count who looks like a wrestler really. To me, Dracula should either be tall, proud and regal, or sombre, ugly and diminutive. I don't mind them going for something new, but it took me out of it.

Overall it felt a bit muddled. And for all the slow-moving atmospherics, certain plot points were often explained in glossed-over exposition, with many of the supporting characters barely breaking out of their ornamental roles.

All told, I reckon I could watch this again, especially as I plan to watch the original and the Herzog versions for comparison's sake. As a mood piece, it definitely succeeds, and there are scenes I would love to revisit - I would love a whole film set in Transylvania, and I would have loved to see Eggers tackle Powers Of Darkness rather than revive this story yet again

This is all otm^^

I look forward to watching it again, too.
Journey to Transylvania, gypsies and everything up to the nuns was A+++ / loony Knock a fave / love all the dark magic, grimoire and magic circle stuff

Also agree with pretty much everything DL said. This did drag a fair bit for me - even though Id a coffee on hand in the cinema by the midpoint I was having trouble staying awake. SO MUCH talking in dimly lit rooms about science v the occult. Maybe too much familiarity with this story too. Im glad its doing well in the box office all the same but I thought this could have been much better.

Maybe too much familiarity with this story too.

Much as I love Eggers' work over all, and think The VVitch is one of the finest horror films of the century so far, he increasingly falls foul to "music video"-style filmmaking. It's not quite as egregious here as it was with the Northman, which I remember as being like an extended movie trailer, but it does happen on occasion in this film and it's something I'm not a fan of. The VVitch definitely didn't do this.

Tell you what though, as someone who's jumpy around dogs and barking, those wolves chasing Thomas through the castle FUCKING TERRIFYING MATE

lol tbh there were maybe two scenes in this one where I got, I dunno, Smashing Pumpkins video vibes.

I haven't seen The Northman yet, for no good reason, since I like Eggers. The Witch is the best of the three I've seen so far, with The Lighthouse and this one being more indulgent. But it's an indulgence I appreciate at least (looking at you, Ari Aster. Or not.)

I can imagine someone loving The Northman.

I landed in the B+ range for Nosferatu. When I got back from Spain early last week and was asked what I liked, I responded “I have seen things in this world that would make Isaac Newton crawl back into his mother’s womb!”

(I especially like Orlok's huge shadowy hand passing over the town - incredible).

I've definitely seen this shot in a movie before. Was it in the Herzog Nosferatu even?

There was something like it in Murnau's Faust I think?

I'll admit it reminded me of certain parts from the Castlevania Western anime (which fans of the Eggers' film might actually enjoy)

if I recall correctly, there is definitely a shadowy hand shot in the Coppola. And also the Simpsons, probably referencing the Coppola.

I was pretty underwhelmed by it, it was certainly nice looking and crafted with care but it certainly doesn't surpass (or really even add anything) to the other much more famous adaptations aside from

I have seen things in this world that would make Isaac Newton crawl back into his mother’s womb!

Which has already entered my personal lexicon...even though as much as pains me to say this cuz I do love him, that role might have worked better with someone other than Dafoe in it.

Also: for a psycho-sexual drama...I thought there would be more sex and psycho?

Murnau's film (and Herzog's as well) really hinges on the idea of the plague and who has the plague and who is sick and who isn't and who is the cause of it, which might have been more interesting given our shared recent history for Eggers to to do something with.

again this is the most metal one

lotta ppl pointing out tedious exposition that i didn't really notice. possession dream sequences are practically the food i eat and i thought they were all really beautifully executed here. psychosexual drama is mostly lurking in the backwaters of this thing because everyone is repressed or trying really hard to be repressed, and only ellen has this connection to the outer darkness beyond it because she has seen how much of a mask the repression is, meant to disguise what occurs in the shadows of the self, the unspoken things, and this includes what i think is a very thorny textual implication in this adaptation, which is that orlock raped ellen when she was younger. all of this only doubled the gothic enshadowed vibe of the images, a poisoned longing that is self-annihilating and against reason and sinks whatever room it enters into total delirium. still really enraptured with this, think it brings plenty to the table that no other adaptation of dracula does, idk! i kept thinking to myself "i can't believe i'm watching another adaptation of dracula and i'm totally hitched to the turns of this story that i already know so well!!!!"

if you're all tired of watching dracula i get it. but. dracula!!!

ivy otm

one could make a case that Dracula as a story was already getting played out by the time of the 1931 Lugosi film. That movie was basically a rehash of the 1924 stage play, which had simplified and cleaned up the gnarlier aspects of the novel and was such a big hit that it became the template for almost all subsequent vampire stories. Hammer, Herzog, Coppola et al. had their own strong visual styles and actors, but a Dracula movie is a Dracula movie, the story itself doesn't change much. Eggers' version is no exception but I like how dark he goes, how much farther he pushes the repression/attraction dynamic and how directly he associates sexual shame with death and decay. It's creepy!

The script is too on-the-nose in places ("I am an appetite," "I am blasphemy," "You are my shame," yeah thx we get it) and maybe that would be more distracting on a second viewing. Right now though this is easily a top five vampire movie for me.

Saw this today. Enjoyed it well enough. It does suffer a tiny bit from being an homage but idk I wasn't expecting a reinvention of the story or Nosferatu's childhood trauma origin story.

At times, despite how amazing it all looked, the story felt like I was watching Van Helsing or basically any horror blockbuster type movie, but that's a fairly big despite, as it was a beautiful film.

On a less serious note, really wanted Willem Dafoe to say "and that's the end of that chapter" at the end. Or to be sitting by a fire reading a book which he then closed. And burned.

really respect ivy's take on this one, and I know I came off a bit like a hater upthread, but I'm likely nitpicking because: The VVitch is one of my favourite movies in recentish memory, and also I was feeling very hot and nauseous throughout the film.

I should also say that I didn't fully appreciate The VVitch until I rewatched it. And I've seen it, like, four times now and there are small details that I catch on to each time.

Nosferatu, despite being langorous or ploddy depending on how you see it (and I believe any ploddiness is an inherent fault of the original text, not of the film maker), is a dense watch. There is a LOT going on, and a LOT of dialogue and a lot of ideas being examined.
Not sure I was able to latch onto everything this first time round, and I will be rewatching.
I might like to compare it to Lowery's The Green Knight in some ways - also a slowish film dense with atmosphere and thematics which asks you to work with it on its own terms and never really spoonfeeds you with answers

ivy otm, and I would like to point out I was otm upthread

everyone is repressed or trying really hard to be repressed, and only ellen has this connection to the outer darkness beyond it because she has seen how much of a mask the repression is

I mean, I'm not saying this wasn't in the film but this was not especially explicit to me when I watched it, I dunno. Thomas and his friend goofing around about acting like a ram in an early scene made out that they were pretty open about their sexual conquests, albeit in a crude way. I didn't really see where else sexual repression really got examined.

Loved the Isaac Newton line, but it felt incongruous in the context of a film that's otherwise free of light humour. They could have done more with Dafoe's character - perhaps playing up his eccentricities or making him more of a comic foil to Ineson* might have been a little too on the nose, but this one line in a sea of very serious dialogue stood out as coming from a different film

*who really I wouldn't have recognised were it not for his voice!

That line feels like Eggers watching Bram Stoker's Dracula for the nth time and thinking, "How do I write my own Anthony Hopkins line?"

I might like to compare it to Lowery's The Green Knight in some ways - also a slowish film dense with atmosphere and thematics which asks you to work with it on its own terms and never really spoonfeeds you with answers

Hmm, a very interesting comparison (speaking as a big fan of said film).

I liked

All the cats (one memorably cute kitten in the Murnau)
The tash (def a homage to the Jess Franco/ Christopher Lee Count Dracula of 1970 imho)
https://www.picturepalacemovieposters.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/christopher_lee_dracula_UKquad1.jpg

I didn't think there was too much sexual repression in this one either. Very early on it starts with her almost dragging Thomas back to bed, begging him for another newlywed round, but he has to leave and go to work. And then his brother is basically pumping out kids. Did they ever explicitly explain the connection between her and Orlok?

listen, folks... all heterosexuals are repressed

Did they ever explicitly explain the connection between her and Orlok?

Not in a "my name is Basil Exposition" way but yeah, it was clear.

Those cats were excellent actors, I will say. They stole a few scenes for me

listen, folks... all heterosexuals are repressed

― ivy.,

otm

If Dafoe had delivered that as a line, I'd give the film an immediate five stars

Update: I have now finally seen the Murnau Nosferatu

this letter in the murnau nosferatu is always very funny to me, orlok signs it with a skull & crossbones AND a snake!

https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_auto,q_lossless,ret_img,w_1106/https://horrorfilmhistory.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Nosferatu6.jpg

Don't really think there's any meaningful subtext in this film. Eggers has settled into making blockbusters that look good, barely anyone in the film had even a shred of character and it would be surprising if they had.

agreed

this movie looks amazing but it does not operate like a blockbuster in basically any way, bizarre, but i have accepted i saw a different movie than most ppl in this thread

it p much is a direct match for one of the seven basic film plots.

Doc, Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, Dopey, Sleepy and Orloky

it's dracula!!!!

is dracula one of the seven basic film plots

Meantime, mustaches etc. (I assume we all know about the mustache by now.)

https://variety.com/2025/artisans/news/bill-skarsgard-nosferatu-transformation-makeup-mustache-count-orlok-1236249285/

I liked this without loving it or ever feeling particularly involved in the story. It was fun to watch, especially if like me you have a weakness for the gothy. (I agree that it was very metal in look and vibe.) I thought the cast was pretty strong, was most impressed with Depp because I haven't seen her in much and didn't know what to expect. That's a demanding role and she handled all of its shifts well. It's deliberately paced, but I wasn't among the bored, I was happy to let it take its misty atmospheric time. otoh I do agree that Eggers doesn't really have anything much to say about this material, but apart from The VVitch I'm not sure any of his movies have a lot to say, they're more like experiences than theses.

And I'm totally cool with that.

And here's why that's okay

The Isaac Newton line was pithy but also try harder screenwriter, Newton was up to his eyeballs in the occult... alchemy, predicting the apocalypse by finding secret codes in the bible, the assumed supremacy of lost ancient wisdom. He would have been 100% onboard with the Professor and his caper!

Yeah that line felt a bit anachronistic. Did Germans in the 1830s attribute Newton as he who self-conciously heralded in the Enlightenment? Maybe, seems doubtful???

But on that note, really did like the Enlightenment vs. PRIMAL-THINGS thread of this film. The gypsies, mad-doctor, orthodox nuns and high-priestess Mrs. Hunter being the only ones who saw things for what they are. There's always something truthful in art when it challenges the hegemony of science. I take Egger's as sincere when he says there's something in all those "backwards customs"

I guess it’s not fair to say it has nothing to say, there is the interesting addition of the backstory with Ellen. Kinda Buffyish!

is dracula one of the seven basic film plots

I think the fact it's Nosferatu and a very respectful homage to a story already told serves as a kind of prison for the characters. It's a very plotty film, even as genre film goes. I enjoyed it on that basis but don't think it has the time or space to really do a lot within that very restrictive frame.

If the dial of plot is turned up the dial of character goes down, generally. In the case of this film, it was so visually stunning that it was still very enjoyable for me, but there were definitely some parts, particularly near the end, where people are just going to do a thing like in any mainstream film, like time to kill the bad guy.

I didn't really want to compare it to the Herzog film as I genuinely enjoyed it but idk, the best scene in that is three minutes with music and no dialogue featuring a man waltzing with a sheep.

On the other hand I can imagine seeing this aged 12 and thinking "cool" - in many ways this is now the good thing about Eggers.

I guess also I disagree it was plodding, to me the accelerator was p much down throughout.

Fwiw I don't really care if a major Hollywood film like this makes me think deeply about the issues it raises and in fact if anything it's prob a welcome thing that done don't yet still are nicely made, especially in a more classic tale like this one.

Just felt it was worth pointing out this wasn't that, imo.

that some don't*