NOSFERATU

Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin

F.W. Murnau’s classic 1922 film Nosferatu set the standard for vampire movies. Writer/director Robert Eggers brings his artistic eye to the material with the latest iteration of Nosferatu. Eggers uses a short prologue to immediately set the stage for the haunting and gothic tale that follows. It finds Lily-Rose Depp’s character, Ellen Hunter plagued with nightmares and sleepwalking. Robin Carolan’s score uses sharp violins set against Eggers use of black and white to showcase Depp’s performance. The story cuts to years later in 1838 Germany as Ellen’s husband, Thomas (Hoult), is working as a real estate agent and is asked to travel to the Carpathian Alps to assist a very old count named Orlok who wants to move to Germany. Bill Skarsgård transforms entirely playing the mysterious Orlok. Thomas knows he must secure this account and make a successful transfer. The road to Orlok’s castle is dangerous, and he’s warned repeatedly from the locals to stay away. When Thomas arrives, it’s a scene of great horror once he meets Orlok. Meanwhile back home, Ellen’s condition is getting worse and worse as her friends the Hardings (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin) and Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz help her survive. Willem Dafoe plays the Professor and previously starred in the movie Shadow of the Vampire, which was a dramatized look at the making of the 1922 film.  In theaters December 25

Here’s my review