Nosferatu
As with everything I’ve seen by Robert Eggers, Nosferatu is stunning and it really lets the dark have it’s own life.
A wonderful cast brings this to the screen in such a creepy rendition of the Nosferatu story, it was great to see Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) as Thomas, Simon McBurney as Knock was mindblowingly gross and threw himself into the role with so much gusto, always nice to see Willem Dafoe in these films of twisting morality and sanity as he fits the piece so well.
but as everyone has said the central roles of Count Orlok and Ellen Hutter, played so completely by Bill Skarsgård and Lily-Rose Depp respectively, stole the show.
The possession scenes are so visceral and physical, Lily-Rose really threw herself into this part with emotional and physical weight, it was all so believable and harrowing.
Bill Skarsgård made this part more than the make-up as he did with Pennywise, it would have been so easy to be the caricature that the make-up projected but again the animal nature of the demon inside the Count was so feral and all devouring throughout the film.
A dark fairy tale of desire and decay, coercion and agency, life and death. This symphony of darkness was supported with beautiful cinematography from Jarin Blaschke once more who really get the idea of light and darkness both having depth, having life, and used both to great effect. You are constantly waiting, peering into the shadows waiting for the inevitable, and when it comes it is so effective.
There is also a terrific score from Robin Carolan which not so much accompanies the film as insinuates itself into the darkness to become one with the story.
I have seen things in this world that would make Isaac Newton crawl back into his mother’s womb!
Though it doesn’t feel as connected for me as The Lighthouse or The Witch, it has this beautiful atmosphere and so many entrancing tableaux that stop you at every turn with wonder and horror. In the end though it felt as though there was something slightly lacking, something just didn’t quite click completely for me, even though I loved it as a whole.
Definitely needs to be seen on as big a screen as you can get to though.
7.6
