Nosferatu - Der Untote

Lushly beautiful with fine period costumes, lovely cinematography, and a hard-working Lily-Rose Depp in thrall to the vampire, this adaptation of Nosferatu ultimately falls flat by too many hypnotized fits by Depp, too much exposition, and a villain that grows less interesting with every appearance until he finally appears looking like an undead Ringo Starr on a stretch-rack. Nicholas Hoult is commanding in the Jonathan Harker role and it's clever to cast Willem Dafoe in the Van Helsing role since he played Count Orlock in 1999's much better Shadow of The Vampire, but this ultimately lacks bite.

I was very excited to see this movie and finally went to see it. And it is....... Fine.

I've read other reviews saying it was beautiful and emotional but I honestly didn't feel very connected to these characters.

It also wasn't very scary. Very creepy! But not very scary.

The monster is constantly seen. He doesn't give me the creeps that the old Nosferatu still gives me appearance wise.

The actors are good but overall the majority of the film feels pointless.

The shaking of the characters particularly the lead is incredible and they do seem to show genuine dread. But again it felt like it was building and nothing happens. Also the ending is kind of just whatever. I think if the characters meant more to me by the end it would've been a good ending but also I kind of didn't care about the characters as they tell you intimate details about the characters which is why you should care but do nothing to build the characters so that you do care.

It is boring. The acting is way too much and ridiculous overacting. The crying, the terrified faces and behaviour all felt so overplayed and unnecessary. The scenes, images and costumes are very impressive but that's about it. I didn't like any of the characters, Lily Rose Depp and her husband are not my definition of beautiful or handsome. The count's "breathing" is very annoying too.

The scenes as individual images were really well-made. I like historical settings in movies but overall, the film felt pretentious and self-indulgent, trying too hard to impress without delivering real meaning or a real story.

F. W. Murnau's (illegally adapted) 1922 film Nosferatu presented the vampire as a sickly, batlike elf. In the new 'Nosferatu,' Robert Eggers introduces an off-putting new look for Count Orlok, but Nosferatu (2024) is an unnecessary retelling of Murnau's original film wrapped in mediocrity. It reflects a trend of nostalgia and reboots. Innovation takes a backseat to reverence in the foreground. This is an exercise in indulgence that only the MMXXV Generation will enjoy. Visually, the film is overblown in its impressionistic palette. Coppola's Dracula was visually more imposing, combining opulent gothic imagery with operatic intensity. Herzog's Nosferatu (1979) had more haunting, austere beauty. And Carl Dreyer's Vampyr (1932) was more dreamlike.

It wouldn't make much sense to compare this efx heavy remake to the black and white original (an unauthorized rip-off of Dracula). But I couldn't help comparing this to Herzog's 1979 version and would recommend any fan of this movie who hasn't already seen that one to check it out. Here's why:

Unlike Lily Depp, Isabelle Adjani projected a vulnerability that made her sacrifice all the more brave.

Eggers' screenplay basically just dresses up the original with some long-winded dialog, particularly dragging the last half out to annoying lengths. His biggest changes were the addition of shock efx imagery inserted at critical moments to amp up the horror. For me, they had the opposite effect - distracting reminders that we were watching an "artsy" film.

The CGI enhancements add some stunning visuals in places, but by lessening the authenticity they lower the horror aspect. For example, in Herzog's version, seeing thousands of real rats flooding the dock (a marvel of animal wrangling) evokes the utter horror of the moment while the rats in the new version just look like background rats in a video game.

Eggers' biggest strength is his eye for detail. The costumes are gorgeous. The settings as well. The film comes alive when Hoult arrives in Eastern Europe. The gypsy and peasant scenes are the best in the movie.

Ralph Ineson is excellent. The rest of the cast is good. I found Depp too cold and unlikeable from the start. I gave up trying to catch all her whispery dialog, ditto for the garbled rumblings of Nosferatu in a few scenes.

This film will no doubt be more enjoyable to those who haven't previously seen Herzog's, as it will seem more original and the drawn-out scenes less laborious.

I should add I'm a huge fan of The Witch and I appreciated much that was good in this film. It just wasn't a grand slam for me.