ZABIN TAZRIN NASHITA

The release of Robert Eggers’ remake of the 1922 film Nosferatu might not have been the most anticipated event of the year, but it goes without saying that a certain portion of movie watchers (read: horror enjoyers) was rather psyched about it. And it certainly doesn’t need any mention that I belong to the aforementioned group.

Nosferatu might or might not be your thing, but there’s no way around admitting that it’s visually stunning. The film is akin to a looking glass, allowing viewers to peer into a nocturnal world, where even daytime scenes appear moonlit, as is befitting of a gothic horror.

The film boasts an incredible cast, with Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, Emma Corrin, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the main roles. Depp’s depiction of Ellen Hutter, the newlywed bride of real estate agent Thomas Hutter, played by Hoult, is despondent and often convulsive, yet never unconvincing. The duo delivers an incredible performance as their lives and marriage are catapulted into a perilous trial under the looming threat of a powerful supernatural being from Ellen’s past. Bill Skarsgård’s appearance as Count Orlok or the Nosferatu is mesmerisingly grotesque, and his phenomenal immersion into the role adds to the charm of the monster.

The silent film Nosferatu (1922) was largely based upon Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula . For the first half, Nosferatu (2024) also follows the novel quite faithfully, but all on screen adaptations of Dracula have taken some creative liberties. For a story that’s been told so many times, a faithful retelling would be redundant, and that’s not a word I’d use to describe this film. Aside from the complex interpersonal relationships depicted in the film and Eggers’ own twist to the plot, Willem Dafoe’s brilliant performance as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz breathes new life into a character that could have easily been a derivation of Professor Van Helsing.

Nosferatu might not be the sort of horror that keeps you up at night or scares you off your seat, but it doubles as a seductive gothic romance that bewitches viewers.