Dir: Robert Eggers | US Horror 133′
The name ‘Robert Eggers’ used to have critics gagging with anticipation. His early offerings The Witch and The Lighthouse were well received , even The Northman had a certain gritty appeal, but once again this indie filmmaker may have sold his soul to the devil with a pale also-ran remake of Murnau’s 1922 original, and Werner Herzog’s 1979 outing based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula.
Remember how Tomas Alfredon’s Let the Right One In was killed stone dead by the US remake Let Me In.? Sadly the same is true here. A star-strewn cast of Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson and Willem Dafoe fails to set the night on fire and does nothing to lighten the load of this torpid period potboiler that splutters its way towards the finishing line growing shriller and more gory by the moment, and further sapping our enjoyment with a running time of over two painful hours.
True to the Gothic genre, the focus here is the sexual allure of the vampire, but although Corrin does a good job of moaning, Skarsgard’s Count Orlok just looks too ludicrous to seduce even the most susceptible victim so encumbered is he with the over wrought costume and make-up. Looking more like Freddy Kreuger while struggling, unsuccessfully, to pull off Gary Oldman’s eerie vocal delivery that won him best actor in Dracula (1992). All this stifles the supernatural mystery and sheer terror engendered by Kinski and Max Schreck.
Called simply Nosferatu this is at best an ertsatz piece of horror that sucks elements from previous outings offering an over-laboured melodrama that starts off promisingly with Jarin Blaschke’s visual wizardry and shadow-play and an evocative original score from Robin Carolan, but soon sinks under the sheer weight of it own bloodlust.
Eggers’ version fails to add anything of its own except for lashings of gore and sensationalism: the 2024 update lacks both the subtle resonance and beauty of Werner Herzog’s visionary Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) or the sheer terror of Murnau’s 1922 ethereal shocker A Symphony of Horror. It may well excite avid horror fans or those new to the ‘Nosferatu’ stable, but Eggers over eggs the omelette with his lurid treatment: a more subtle approach would have delivered another welcome addition to the canon. @Meredith Taylor
IN CINEMAS FROM THE 1ST JANUARY 2025