2024 - NOSFERTAU, 3rd remake of this vampire story

A passion project for the writer/director Robert Eggers.  Apparently as a kid he was impressed with the 1922 F. W. Murnau film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.  This is actually the third remake for this story.  Besides the Murnau version Werner Herzog filmed his version Nosferatu the Vampyre, in 1979 with madman actor Klaus Kinski as the title character.

I saw this version at an IMAX theater and in 35 mm no less which made for a rather intense viewing experience.  The film was shot in a lot of medium sized screen shots which on the giant IMAX screen really jumped out at me.   I probably should have sat farther back as at times I felt a little overwhelmed.

Some of the acting was a little hard to take particularly Lily-Rose Depp as the victim of the vampire Count Orlok.  Depp plays a character called Ellen Hutter who apparently has some kind of psychic connection with the Count.  Depp's performance is shall we say rather hysterical and at times she seems to be channeling a possessed character like in one of those Exorcist films.  Regardless of what I may think of her performance it's certainly a step up from that mess of a TV series The Idol which she started in.  Probably the best performance in the film is from Willem Dafoe as Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz although the character is usually called Professor Van Helsing, confused yet?

 

Nosferatu is extremely well made you can't argue with that.  The photography, set design, makeup and special effects are at a high level.  Naturally since this is a film released in 2024 and not 1922 there is the expected blood, nudity and sex but that's the way it goes. A well done horror film although I didn't find it particularly scary.  I'm still not sure the world needed another version of Nosferatu but here it is.

The film's running time is 132 minutes.