Thoughts on Nosferatu (2024)

 Yesterday I went to see Robert Eggers’ remake of Nosferatu with my friend Chris at the Alamo Drafthouse in Lower Manhattan, and really liked it a lot. It’s moody, atmospheric Victorian Gothic horror, with the psychosexual stuff is more text than subtext, and while I was mixed on Lily-Rose Depp’s performance, picturing Olivia Cooke in her place for a better actor, I still liked how the film was about her childhood trauma being haunted by the vampire, both being repulsed by it while not wanting to admit that a small part of her craves his demon touch. It’s more interesting to play it that way, and I liked how the film could get macabre with squishy gore effects (anyone who saw Robert Eggers’ other films can know what to expect with use of animals as harbingers of doom), while being darkly funny with Willem Dafoe’s occultist character Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz, based on Abraham van Helsing.

    I had seen the silent film as a teen, and would make comparisons with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the Coppola film version from 1992, like with the Renfield character (renamed Herr Knock, portrayed by Simon McBurney) or Thomas and Ellen as the Jonathan and Mina Harker characters.

    I just saw the film, so it hasn’t marinated in my brain for too long to make a better review, but I did like it as a spooky and layered film, and it was fun seeing Chris and catching up as fellow film nerds.