User reviews

I usually love Robert Eggers' work - his films have this unique ability to pull you into eerie, unsettling worlds that linger with you long after the movie has finished. But his take on Nosferatu just didn't land for me.

The pacing was painfully slow, to the point where it felt like it was dragging for the sake of atmosphere rather than tension. And while I can appreciate deliberate storytelling, this just felt uninspiring, like it was going through the motions without that signature spark Eggers usually brings to his projects.

To make matters worse, I couldn't stop seeing Dr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog every time Nosferatu was on screen. It's probably not fair to the film, but the resemblance was so distracting that I found myself more amused than unsettled.

Ultimately, Nosferatu lacked the sharp, visceral energy that made Eggers' previous work so compelling. Instead of feeling haunted, I left the theater feeling underwhelmed.

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.

Robert Eggers made a significant impression with his 2015 directorial debut "The Witch", and has continued to impress me since. A reimagining of "Nosferatu" at his helm seemed like a dream come true, and after many years, it finally came to fruition with somewhat mixed results.

As with the original 1922 film and Werner Herzog's surreal 1979 remake, Eggers mostly honors the source material here. The original film itself was a blatant derivative of "Dracula," so anyone who knows the bones of that classic story will more or less already have the lay of the land in terms of what happens in "Nosferatu".

Firstly, the attention to detail here is impeccable; the period costumes and sets are dazzling, and the cinematography is top-notch, with repeated uses of muted grey nighttime sequences that border on black-and-white (intentional I'm sure, as an ode to the Murnau original). In the latter act, as rats and plague take over the streets, there is a palpable sense of rot that is highly effective. Given that Eggers has proven his excellence in these departments with his previous films, it is no surprise that the finer details and visuals are uniformly stunning.

As far as performances are concerned, we have a strong cast here. Lily-Rose Depp (whom I'd never seen in anything prior to this) gave a formidable performance as the haunted Ellen Hutter, who is pursued by Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard), a malevolent vampire whose connection to her is emboldened when her husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) is assigned to handle estate matters for the Count. Willem Dafoe is as spunky as ever here as an occult expert who attempts to help the Hutters, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin give effective performances as the Hardings, friends of the Hutters who oversee the troubled Ellen while Thomas travels to Orlok.

All of these aforementioned elements give the film a real leg up, and approximately the first half of it (largely consisting of Thomas's travels into Transylvania and first encounter with Orlok) are engrossing and beautifully contrasted with Ellen's "melancholic" (and eventually possession-like) episodes back in urban Germany. However, once the story returns its focus to the city, the film seems to stall its momentum. One of the notable differences in this reimagining is that the focus revolves more around the Ellen character (aptly named "Lucy Harker" in Herzog's version) and the Hardings, but the unfortunate thing is that it never feels like the audience gets to know them any better for it. This is especially so in the case of Ellen, whose character has a slightly different spin in Eggers's screenplay, specifically in terms of her relationship to Orlok. The result feels like something of a missed opportunity, and the proverbial stake is driven in even further when one considers the film's running time, which is considerably longer than both the 1922 and 1979 versions, and yet those films often feel more involved. There is a strange amorphousness about the 2024 version's latter half that left it feeling enervated, especially against the ominous and suspenseful first hour.

The film's conclusion will hold no surprises for those who already know the previous films, but Eggers's staging of it is nonetheless spectacular and visually effective--and this is a fact that remains true about the film as a whole. Unfortunately, it does stumble a bit in the latter half as it seems to attempt to expand the material without ever fully reaching a satisfactory fever pitch. All that being said, the film is a gothic visual marvel in its own right, upheld by stunning cinematography and uniformly solid performances. It is imperfect, but it is a showstopper in more ways than one. 7/10.

The movie doesn't quite live up to the hype it has built over time. While the cinematography, costumes, and sound design are impressive, the film falls short where it matters most-delivering real horror. Lily shows promise as an actress, but her tendency to over-exaggerate certain scenes takes away from the immersion. The slow pacing and lack of genuine scares make you double-check if you're even watching a horror movie. Despite a few good moments, it ends up feeling underwhelming and forgettable. Nosferatu felt less of a creepy vampire but more of a old man with a deep and weird voice. Not the worst, but definitely not memorable.

Nosferatu is a vampire movie that takes itself seriously. It doesn't shy away from the grotesque and uncomfortable. It's dark, disturbing, and disgusting at times. But it's also obviously erotic in the way that gothic romance should be.

This is definitely not a genre for everyone, which is where I think a lot of the mixed reviews come in. However, one thing most people can agree on is the cinematography is STUNNING.

If you are a gothic horror or a gothic romance fan, don't be discouraged by the less than stellar reviews. To over simplify: this is a freaky movie with freaky people doing freaky things.

I initially found Nosferatu to be an acceptable, if underwhelming watch the first time I saw it. I think when you love a director's work, it's good to rewatch a film, unburdened by expectations, and see how you really feel.

I will say, I found myself liking Nosferatu a lot more the second time around. It's eerie, dreamlike nature is unsettling and really wraps you in. The larger-than-life power of the titular vampire feels like an omnipresent curse upon our characters and the town of Wisburg. Also, if you're a sucker for winter movies, this one does tickle that fancy quite well.

Speaking of which, this film, as expected, looks absolutely phenomenal from beginning to end. Not only is it wonderfully shot, but the costumes and sets just look fantastic. There are little nuances in how the characters act as well that are accurate to the time that I really appreciated as well. How, Nicholas Hault's Thomas Hutter, when confronted with his wife Ellen's (Lily Rose Depp) ravings, his immediate reaction is to ask her not to say these things again, rather than seek help. It's reflective of the repressive, image conscious times, and like many an Eggers film, reflects how deeply he cares about depicting the period accurately.

A lot of this works because of the tremendous performances by the cast, who really sell their period flair. Hoult is fantastic as usual, but naturally, it's Depp's incredibly physical and demanding performance that is the highlight. She is remarkable in this film and dispels any notion that her success comes (entirely) from her parentage.

As much as I loved Depp's performance, I honestly wish we learned more about her character. The depth of her loneliness is never explained outside of one scene, and how she even managed to contact Orlock is a bit confusing as well. I felt like this relationship could've been expanded upon, which would've been legitimately interesting.

Bill Skarsgard truly melts away under unbelievable make up and costuming as Count Orlock. I found him even less recognizable here than as Pennywise. And you have heavy hitters like Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, Emma Corrin, and a surprisingly great turn from Aaron Taylor Johnson as well.

Yet, I still found Nosferatu somewhat hard to connect to. Skarsgard's incredible performance aside, I just found the talk of Orlock being this mythical, terrifying presence a bit hard to square with the somewhat goofy character he ends up being.

I'd honestly rather him have less lines and be seen less. Some horror movies are scarier when the villain isn't present, and some are just better when they are. (I'd argue a Nightmare on Elm Street or Terrifier are examples of the latter). This movie tries to have it both ways, and Orlock is just not scary. It's the moustache for me. And his death is even funnier, when you really think about it. It's such an anticlimactic end to this force that's portrayed as beyond our comprehension for so much of the film.

As it stands, I do have a higher opinion of Nosferatu than I initially did, but I still think it's easily Robert Egger's weakest film. I kind of wish he went weirder and more surreal with it. It's a studio film, I get it, but consequently, it lacks that sense of depicting a world where the belief systems and worldviews were so different from our own.

Beautiful is not a word that I enjoy using for a film with such a muted color pallet. However, for Robert Eggers' Nosferatu, after viewing it in it's entirety, it is the only word that comes to mind.

Eggers has constructed this film meticulously, with a precision seen in very few directors these days. Heck, more so than any previous effort he's put to screen. You can tell he enjoys working with a bigger budget and he know what to do with it as well. Lavish, gothic set design and costumes across the board. Wonderful special FX, both CG and practical makeup. The cinematography was insane. Sweeping camera shots and uncomfortable closeups, all framed in a 35mm letterbox format. It was a spectacle worth the wait, especially on the IMAX screen I saw it on.

The acting was phenomenonal. Lily Rose-Depp should win awards for her all out performance. Both horrific and touching all at the same time. Willem Dafoe provided some much needed spice for the second half. Without his character, the film would've slipped a star as the story starts getting a little long winded towards the end. My only gripe with the cast was Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok. I felt he could've played into the character's sensitivity a bit more. He was cold hearted, yes, but he did still have love in his heart.

The story, adapted from both Dracula and Nosferatu... but mostly Nosferatu, was very well written. With dialog that felt natural and authentic to the time period, another one of Eggers specialty, the film flowed rather nicely and almost transports you to that time and place. Impressively, when the film does eventually start gettint bogged down a bit, Eggers makes sure to pick things right back up again to never keep the audience bored, and with a film like this that could've happened easily.

Overall, a pretty great adaptation of a classic story. Equal parts horror and mystery, and a bittersweet ending that almost made me cry. I loved it, and a nice addition to Robert Eggers' growing filmography.

4 coffins out of 5.

"Nosferatu" (2024) is a masterpiece of darkness and beauty.

The atmosphere feels almost tangible - every frame breathes with gothic elegance and quiet dread. The story unfolds like a tragic poem, and Skarsgård's performance is simply hypnotic - he is Nosferatu.

I honestly didn't expect much from Lily-Rose Depp, even worried she might lack the dramatic depth such a film demands, but she surprised me completely - graceful, fragile, and hauntingly real.

It's a joy to see gothic classics returning in a new, refined form. This film feels like a long-awaited resurrection of cinematic magic.

This movie is very well made, many of the set pieces look absolutely gorgeous, the costumes are beautiful, and the whole vibe of the film captures the early 19th century amazingly well.

And despite how good some of the acting is in this film, it failed completely to connect with me on an emotional level. I cared about none of these characters, and the only one I enjoyed having on my screen was Willem Dafoe.

If this movie had spent more time building up relationships and making stakes matter, I would've rated this way higher. But visuals can carry a movie only for so long until boredom sets in. And this is what I ended up feeling after about halfway through it's runtime.

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.

Short and quick review. It's well acted and well written despite what others say. If you're looking for an action packed thrillride, this isn't the movie for you. The horror is not in an action fashion, it's in a suspense of looming evil. In my opinion, true evil lies in wait and not in senseless violence. So if that doesn't turn you on in the least than you will absolutely hate this movie. Watch Underworld, you'll be far more entertained. This is a slow paced masterpiece in my opinion and like I said in the title, NOT FOR EVERYONE.

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 recently saw the original Nosferatu for the first time. I don't think it would be possible for a modern remake to come closer to capturing that film's sense of dread than Eggers' remake. Eggers has obviously made a dedicated study of the original and was determined to do justice to its legacy. He masterfully manipulates the shot and the sound to construct a world where it is always night. I have not felt so immersed in a movie for a long time, to the point where I felt almost like I myself was hypnotized by the vampire's spell. It's a kind of wordless terror which very, very few horror movies manage to elicit. The closest parallel is the Weimar classics. I think all of the negative reviews I've read were made by people who simply don't understand horror.

For the past twenty or so years, there's been an influx of teen series featuring the sexy vampire trope and a lead female character who accepts abuse, coercion and constant threats of being killed. After a while, I found them to be in poor taste, as they seem to normalise abusive and controlling relationships. Worse, some were targeted at young teens.

In this film, the idea of a vampire sucking on you is portrayed as something utterly horrific, ugly, nasty and downright terrifying. As it originally intended.

It's about how one woman's cry to end her loneliness triggers an awaking of a horrifically menacing Nosferatu Count Orlok, which brings about terrible consequences for all those around her. Which also could be applied to anyone seeking comfort in the wrong places, and leads to opening a huge can of worms. Or this case, rats. Lots of them.

Orlok is genuinely one of the most scary movie monsters I've seen in recent years. Not just because of the prosthetics and Bill Skarsgard's brilliant performance, but because he is allowed to simply be evil incarnate with no redeeming features. And for a horror or thriller to work, you need a good, terryfing villain to scare the birdsong out of you.

Don't get me wrong the film is sumptuous and filmically stunning. But that I am afraid that for all this the film is simply dull.

The protagonist Orlok looks like Jim Carrey in Lemony Snickets, with a moustache. He just doesn't fill the film with menace.

The acting is hammy and trying far too hard to be a work of art rather than a slice of entertainment.

Miss Depp however died come out of it with some credit and is definitely one to watch for the future.

Willem Defoe is simply Willem Defoe mar as a box of frogs but always madly watchable.

So as a New Year commences I am hoping that the other films I am waiting for don't disappoint like Nosferatu today.

Greetings again from the darkness. My first exposure to Count Orlok was in a film class at the University of Texas. We were shown a portion of director FW Murneau's 1922 silent film, NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR. I was mesmerized with the look of the film and especially with Max Schreck as Orlok. While growing up, I fawned over other vampire movies - Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr, Christopher Lee, and even Frank Langella - but I never again saw anything like Schreck's Orlock. And yes, over the years, vampires have become frequent subjects of movies and even TV shows, and "Nosferatu", based on the original Bram Stoker story from 1897 spawned NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (1979, directed by Werner Herzog, starring Klaus Kinski) and NOSFERATU (2023, directed by David Lee Fisher, starring Doug Jones). My anticipation soared when it was announced that the extraordinarily creative filmmaker Robert Eggers (THE WITCH, 2015; THE LIGHTHOUSE, 2109; THE NORTHMAN, 2022) would be basing his version on Henrik Galeen's script from the 1922 original.

At its core, the story is a gothic tale of a woman haunted by the terrifying vampire obsessed with her. The "her" is Ellen Hutter played by Lily-Rose Depp (WOLF, 2021, and yes she's Johnny Depp's daughter). Ellen's husband is Thomas Hutter played by Nicholas Hoult (familiar with the look of this genre via WARM BODIES, 2013, and RENFIELD, 2023). When Thomas' job takes him out of town, friends Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Anna Harding (Emma Corrin, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, 2024) invite Ellen to stay with them. It turns out the work Thomas is assigned is a real estate transaction with a mysterious recluse named Count Orlok. You may have experienced a bad real estate deal in your life, but it's nothing like this one.

When it becomes apparent that Ellen's trauma is not merely nerves, but rather an evil spiritual presence, the expertise of Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz is sought in an attempt to gain some control. The professor is played by Willem Dafoe, who once portrayed the aforementioned Max Schreck in SHADOW OF A VAMPIRE (2000). Playing Count Orlok this time is Bill Skarsgard, who you likely recall was superb as Pennywise the Dancing Clown in IT (2017) and IT CHAPTER TWO (2019). Skarsgard's actual features are undetectable here, and especially jarring is his voice that truly sounds from another world (supposedly months of training). His Orlok is a true and memorable presence.

Eggers' film looks stunning and gorgeous and creepy. The opening sequence is fascinating and everything one could ask for in how a vampire horror movie appears on screen. He surrounded himself with previous collaborators: Director of Photography Jarin Blaschke, Production Designer Craig Lathrop, Costume Designer Linda Muir, Film Editor Louis Ford, and Composer Robin Carolan. It's an excellent team and one that excels at every step. My only issue with the film comes down to the cast. Lily-Rose Depp has the perfect look for the character, yet her torment never quite works. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and (the usually stellar) Willem Dafoe both seem to be showboating as if attempting to stand out in a movie dominated by a fearsome creature. It pains me to say that the cast (other than Skarsgard) simply take away some of the impact that the film should have had. Despite this, the film is lyrical, mystifying, and absolutely glorious in its look.

Opens in theaters on December 25, 2024.

The cinematography is non pareil. A total feast for the eyes. But then, so are all of Eggers movies.

But the cinematogrphy doesn't justify the boooooring verbosity and poor plot of this turkey.

Bill Skarsgard's makeup and acting are fine. Willem Dafoe's acting is .....yawn.

Simon McBurney as Knock is great. I would never have thought to cast him as such. Well done Mr. Casting Director.

But you'll want to leave halfway through this dud turdkey. Depp's daughter has a great wardrobe but just not compelling as an actress.

There's nothing compelling about this flick other than the cinematography.

I love Robert Eggers but this was just too boring - and I HATE when people use this adjective to describe movies but this one earned it. As for Eggers, I have a feeling the more mainstream he gets, the less interesting his movies become.

It's visually very pleasing though (expectedly); production design is top notch, shadows-heavy almost monochromatic color-grading works great for these gothic period pieces, costumes were on point, make-up also outstanding - especially that last scene, good job 👍🏻.

The performances were mostly good - Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe (and that actor from The VVitch) all great. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily-Rose Depp however... hmm, I just didn't feel it tbh, they both tried so damn hard and I had a feeling they just couldn't find the right balance between being appropriately theatrical and naturalistic at the same time - my audience reacted with (unintentional) laughter during one particular scene with Lily in 3rd act.

Story focused this time more on the female character, Ellen, a tragic victim of the darkest passion, obsessions / possessions, allowing her hidden and purest animalistic desires to take the spotlight during this narrative, hoping to give her arc the moment of ambiguity, but all that didn't have any significant effect on the main plot, her relationship with the husband or her own journey and conclusion, at least not in any interesting ways whatsoever.

The biggest problem for me personally tho was the pacing. This film is so painfully slow and it holds this tempo from start to finish. At some point you think it will pick up considering how story slowly becomes urgent but even then, nothing changes; sense of progression is almost nonexistent even in parts where we don't need to build tension anymore, where all cards are open and the story is ready for that final act and climax. Without any interesting moments happening in-between (besides fancy visuals), I just stopped carrying and simply wanted it to end.