Nosferatu

[Dicktar2023]

I can't remember a movie I've had more conflicting feelings about. This movie lost me, got me back, and then lost me again more times than I can count. It's 50% campy period melodrama (dialogue is shrieked, moaned, shouted, whispered, and wept, never spoken), 50% genuinely creepy horror. The quality and the dreck are randomly distributed, but a rule of thumb: any scene featuring Orlock is great, any scene with Willem DaFoe is terrible. Depp's scenes are a whole lot of both. (that said, I would not be disappointed if she got an Oscar nomination for this...she's nothing if not committed.)

I would warn that the first hour is just the same Dracula story we've seen told a million times. It's only in the second half that Eggers lets us in on his particular twist on the material.

Spoiler

(The vampire here is a metaphor for childhood sexual trauma--the bubonic plague of our times.)

I wish he'd spared us the fealty to the source material and gotten his big ideas started a little earlier. Also, that he cut out some of the shrieking.

And why set this movie in Germany, if you're just going to have the cast speak with English accents? Maybe that's a small thing, but it contributes to an uneasy feeling of silliness that haunts the movie. I guess the only reason is to underscore that this is Nosferatu and not Dracula, but that's a stupid reason. At least throw in a few CG shots of the Black Forest (Speaking of which, the CGI backgrounds look a LOT better on the screen than they did in the terrible trailer.)

[MikoTython]

It left me deaf. I found the confounding racket to be a huge wall against any engagement or suspense. The melodrama fell flat. All that said, I'm not the right demographic for whatever this thing is or is intended to be. My daughter didn't dig it either.

Whatever it was, it had all the subtlety of a meat cleaver.

[DJ Davis]

I just saw that Ronnie’s and the audio definitely was too low. It seemed like it was just the speakers behind the screen, and none of the speakers in the theater were working.

It had promise at the beginning. The earlier scene in the castle was superb in terms of cinematography. It really had the feel of a 1920s film at that point.

But as it went on, the plot, just kind of dragged. I think they could’ve cut 30 minutes out of it and it still would’ve been a good length.

I’m always a fan of Willem Dafoe. He was great as usual.

Spoiler

I probably don’t need a spoiler for this, but I’ll use it. The Nosferatu death scene well executed in terms of VFX. It’s one of the more horrifying things I’ve seen on the screen in a long time, at least in terms of how it looked visually

[GelatinousEndive]

Wait…did someone say Dafoe was not great in this, a VAMPIRE film?

Yoinks.

Here is where I have to tell y’all that a few years ago, my last trip to Europe, we spent driving around Transylvania. I love that place.

[Dicktar2023]

Wait…did someone say Dafoe was not great in this, a VAMPIRE film?

Yoinks.

Here is where I have to tell y’all that a few years ago, my last trip to Europe, we spent driving around Transylvania. I love that place.

His performance is fine. The character he plays (this version's "Van Helsing," even though the original Murnau film had no such figure) is ridiculous.

[Ronnie Dobbs]

I did not plan on watching this. I thought it would be dumb, but I gotta say, I really liked it. I thought it was really fun, especially when Orlock is around. Was listening to a podcast the other day and they were doing the Orlock voice and it was hilarious. I also thought DaFoe was great as well. It got a bit slow at times, but I thought it was really good and fun.

Plus, Orlock hangs dong.

[Ronnie Dobbs]

Oh, and it got me to watch the original. I'm about halfway through, but I'm loving it. I'm not a "movie guy," but there's something about it.

[3dender]

Oh, and it got me to watch the original. I'm about halfway through, but I'm loving it. I'm not a "movie guy," but there's something about it.

The original is a masterpiece. Love the iconic stairway shot with his shadow on the wall.

The 70s Werner Herzog remake with an insane Klaus Kinski is also worth seeing (as long as you don't have a rat phobia like my wife).