Director: Robert Eggers
Release Date: 2024
Contains spoilers
When I see a film at the cinema, I tend to write a
First Impression rather than a review and then I’ll review it later, when I have the home media, which allows me opportunity to sit and make notes. Sometimes I don’t bother, realising I have already said all I wish to say, and simply add a score to the original article. With this film I knew I had so much more to say, and it is a film that already has had multiple watches. I saw it in the cinema more than once, I watched it on digital stream but have waited for the home Blu-ray release to review it. It appears to be a “marmite” film – with some hating it, but I am in the love it camp. I want to dive into it, the film deserves that, and so if you have not seen it, this will be jam packed with spoilers running from beginning to the final scene – you’ve been warned. I’ll declare at the head that I am a fan of Eggers’ work and have enjoyed all his features thus far. This is less a review and more a case study, please strap in, it’ll be a long one.
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| Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen |
Obviously, it is based on
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, which was an unofficial rendering of
Dracula, Eggers maintained (mostly) the character names from Murnau’s film but also took inspiration from the book itself, Herzog’s
remake, folklore and the wider vampire megatext. As the film opened, after production logos based on silent era aesthetics, we hear the sound of Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) crying. As we see her, what came to my mind (and remained in mind in the less physical side of the performance) was Isabelle Adjani in Herzog’s film – indeed for me, Depp’s entire performance often invoked Adjani.
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| Orlok - first look |
Ellen is lonely (and adolescent), and she calls out for a companion – unfortunately she is answered by a dead thing. Firstly, it needs noting that the idea carried a kernel of the child Laura being visited by the titular vampire in
Carmilla. Secondly, we may as well tackle the nature and look of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård,
Hemlock Grove) at this point. In the Murnau film the vampire is the spawn of a demon, Belial, and Herzog based the design of his Dracula on Murnau’s aesthetic. Eggers takes the deliberate decision to base his vampire on folklore and make him a dead thing – when we eventually see him in full, he is a corpse, rotten, skin broken, fetid and cracked. There is a theme at the core of the film of 'death and the maiden' – and, for me, in this context it reaches back to the Gottfried August Bürger poem Lenore, where Lenore is taken to a marital bed of a grave by a skull faced rider (masquerading as her dead love), but importantly the poem contains the line “
Denn die Todten reiten schnell”, later quoted by Stoker in the novel Dracula. Eggers also based Orlok’s look on Transylvanian noblemen of a certain period – hence he is moustachioed, with a large downward dipped moustache (and not that popularly associated with Vlad Ţepeş, as some have tried to argue, which was straight rather than dipped). The lock of hair he wears reminded me of Cossack styling and in the director’s commentary Eggers notes that the Transylvanian nobles of the period wore a similar style to the Cossacks.
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| shadow |
Ellen calls, Orlok answers… but he comes to her at first as a shadow – and for obvious reasons Orlok’s shadow is important in this, due to the importance placed in it in Murnau’s film (which was at odds with Stoker as Dracula cast no shadow). According to Eggers, the language Orlok speaks is a reconstruction of ancient Dacian. Orlok says that it is Ellen who has “
wakened me from an eternity of darkness”, meaning that she has invoked him – and we will return to Ellen’s magical nature later – and that she is “
not for the living”. She walks outside her house – a somnambulistic moment, perhaps – and he has her swear she will be with him “
ever-eternally”, which she does. At this point he physically seems to grab her throat, as she lies on the floor, and she screams but, as the camera pulls to a side shot, we see her fitting (she mentions the epilepsies later). This foreshadows the possession of Ellen, that will come later, but also foreshadows the labelling her as hysterical. Some, I know, dislike this early connection between Ellen and Orlok – whilst Murnau can be read as having Ellen psychically connected to her husband, which brings her into Orlok’s attention, and I personally favour that interpretation, I think moving that connection round to Orlok himself works given the death and the maiden trope.
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| a moment of peace |
The film moves forward to “
years later” – later to be confirmed as Germany in 1838 (actually the town of Wisburg) – and Ellen awakens, she calls for her husband Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult,
Renfield), who is dressing. She is concerned and is about to mention a dream, but cuts herself off – there is frequent talk about her melancholy, mental instabilities and how she mustn’t talk of her morbid fancies, through the film. These are not mentioned here as she has learnt to mask these, clearly, and instead seductively tries to keep him with her (newly back from their honeymoon, as they are). He, however, has an important meeting and must go. Mention should be made of the cat – Ellen in Murnau’s film is first seen playing with a kitten and this cat is called Greta after Greta Schröder who played Ellen. Once Hutter leaves, she reveals something of her precognitive ability by saying that he has the position already and that they’ll send him away.
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| Herr Knock and Hutter |
Hutter is going to meet with Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), a real estate agent. Something I have noted in some (American) remakes of the film is the tendency to put money at the heart of Hutter’s motivation. I really disliked the treatment of the character in
Fisher’s remake where he is greedy and a womanising cheat, for instance. Eggers makes the point that in the original Galeen script, Hutter turns his pockets out to show them bereft of monies, but the Murnau film itself has Hutter take the role of the fool. It is clear then that Eggers did see money as a motivation for his character (and Hutter mentions his debt later, for instance), it is also clear that he truly loves Ellen, and his monetary motivation is born out of wanting to provide for her and can be read as an earthly concern - Hutter grounding her. Hutter is late to the meeting, but Knock seems unphased – for he has plans for Hutter, of course, and in his words it is all “
providence”.
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| a magical creature |
With the pretext that he is helping the newlyweds he outlines a job that could secure him a position with the firm but, briefly, let us touch on his insight into Ellen. He says she is nonpareil (she has no equal) but also calls her a sylph. The sylph is a spirit of the air that is associated with the works of Paracelsus (who we will return to later), Orlok says she is not for human kind, Hutter’s friend Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) will make mention of her fairy ways and Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz (Willem Dafoe,
Shadow of the Vampire &
Daybreakers) says that “
In heathen times, you might have been a great priestess of Isis”. All of which sets Ellen as something Other, something magical and remote. As for Knock, he tells Hutter that he is selling a house to a foreign Count (who "
has one foot in the grave", he jokes with a quip Hutter can’t understand), and that he must travel to him. As he shuffles papers he hides a sheet with occult sigils – a nod to the letter Knock receives in Murnau’s original. After Knock gives Orlok’s name, and offers a creepy off-screen chuckle, the heavens open outside.
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| lilacs |
Hutter brings Ellen flowers. In wondering how he could kill them and, after he says put them in water stating they’ll die anyway, the film points back to Murnau. In the original, Ellen also became upset that Hutter had killed flowers but to me that was her sensitive nature abhorring even the death of a flower. For me this reaction is to death itself because Ellen, who is associated with lilacs, knows she is bound to death and this seems confirmed as she proceeds to tell Thomas about her dream. The dream was of their wedding, but the scene was one of thunderclouds (and the smell of lilacs, which becomes a motif as suggested) but Hutter was not there, rather her groom was Death, and yet she was intensely happy, and they exchanged vows. When they turned, the congregation including her father, were dead, the smell of rot overpowering but she was happy. Hutter says not to speak such things aloud (and mentions past “
fancies”) but this, of course, foreshadows the whole film with her contract to Death (Orlok) and the dead congregation could be read as the dead of the town as the plague comes. That she does not want him to go could be read as fearing a destiny she is already aware of and, as such, Hutter saying he wants her to have all she deserves could be a double-edged line.
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| Hutter and Harding |
They travel to the Hardings’ home (where Ellen is to stay whilst Hutter travels) and Hutter and Harding speak and smoke cigars as, in an adjoining room, Ellen sits before Harding’s wife (rather than sister as in Murnau), Anna (Emma Corrin,
Deadpool & Wolverine), and plays with their children. Harding and Hutter come from different social strata, with Harding coming from money – and now in charge of his father’s shipping business. They did go to school together, however, and Harding has lent Hutter money – this is important to Hutter, who wishes to repay the debt, but less so to Harding, who waves the issue off. Harding has had two children and a third is on the way – there is play around rutting that shows a layer of immature masculine traits but also, as we’ll see later, is somewhat emasculating for Hutter as he and Ellen are without children (unsurprisingly, one might argue, given they are just returned from honeymoon). Hutter does confess a concern around Ellen’s mental stability, but Harding passes this off as tied to anxiety about Hutter’s trip. When they are sent to bed, the children’s extolling of a monster in their room is a foreshadow, of course. That night, as Hutter sleeps, Ellen creates a locket of her hair for him and, elsewhere, Knock performs a blood ritual, mentioning Orlok’s object of contract – being Ellen who contracted herself to him in the opening scene.
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| surrounded by laughter |
Hutter sets off on horse (Ellen looks pained) and eventually he reaches a point overlooking a village. He comes into the village and Romani have set up camp within the village boundary. His horse is taken as he enters, with him remembering at the last moment to take his saddle bags and he walks towards the inn, chased and surrounded by children, Romani musicians playing in front of him until he gets close to the inn where a Romani man (Jordan Haj) begins to laugh, prompting the crowd to laugh also as Hutter stands perturbed. The innkeeper (Claudiu Trandafir) comes out to shout at the Romani and is less than friendly to Hutter but brings him inside as Hutter offers to pay double and holds his coin pouch up. The innkeeper’s mother-in-law (Gherghina Bereghianu) leads him to a room and, as she walks, tells him to “
Beware of his shadow. The shadow covers you in a nightmare. Awake, but a dream. There is no escape.” She presses a cross in his hand as she extolls repeatedly for him to pray – of course it is unlikely he can understand her.
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| vampire detection |
He wakes to noises in the night, and it turns out that the Romani who laughed is a vampire hunter and he, with the whole of the caravan it seems, leads a horse ridden by a naked girl (Katerina Bila) – with a point made that she is a virgin in the dialogue. This is a traditional form of vampire detection, and the horse will not cross a vampire’s grave. It does appear in vampire films from time to time, notably in
Dracula (1979). The horse stops and the Romani dig up the grave’s occupant. The corpse is rotting, and we hear comments about finding his tail and his cloven hooves. The vampire hunter stakes the corpse, and a gush of blood explodes from the mouth. Hutter, watching from a distance, screams and shouts out. He awakens in bed, but his boots are encrusted with mud. When he exits the inn, the Romani are gone, as is his horse.
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| the crossroads |
His journey is continued on foot, and we see him pass a shrine at a bridge – the crossing of which harks back to Murnau and represents the crossing from one world to another. Eventually, with the snow falling, he reaches a tree lined crossroads and stands in the centre in a rather evocative composition. There is the sound of horses, as a carriage bears down on him. He flinches and suddenly it is before him and the door opens by itself – there is no driver. We might wonder why he would get in – at least in Murnau the carriage has a disguised Orlok driving it – and the answer is not given but, perhaps, can be inferred? Hutter has seen strangeness, has been robbed of his horse, has walked (and so will be exhausted) but, most importantly, later will say he fears he has taken ill. We can infer later that this feeling of illness has already built up. Perhaps he is unquestioning of the carriage due to the illness (though part of that later reported sickness will be the result of the vampirism that will be committed against him) or perhaps it is the exhaustion? Whatever the reason, he does get in the carriage and it thunders to Orlok’s castle, chased by wolves.
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| terror |
If getting in the carriage seemed an unwise choice, then following the rotten Orlok through his castle might be more so, but Hutter, like the audience, sees little of the Count. Hidden in shadow and often a silhouette due to the positioning of light sources, Hutter first hears Orlok's laboured breathing and the thick, Romanian accent. The breathing is another thing I have seen criticism of, but Orlok is dead, and he would have to force air into his lungs and through his windpipe to speak. He asks for the deeds Hutter has brought and, when Hutter questions if he should like to look at them at that time, Orlok makes it clear he is to be obeyed. More than this, he ensures Hutter refers to him as “
My Lord” as his rank entitles. Hutter asks about the Romani (using the period accurate pejorative “gypsies” and also “
errant wanderers”) and the events of the vampire hunt, but Orlok dismisses this as “
their filthy ritual”. When Hutter cuts himself, Orlok offers to ease the wound and tells Hutter he seems unwell. For his part, Hutter is sweating and looks utterly terrified. During this sequence the figure on the fireplace seems to move – a trick of the light, a moment of magic or Hutter’s illness causing hallucination?
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| the contract |
The film cuts to Ellen and Anna walking the shore, the sand dunes with crosses in them harks back to Murnau (and, of course, in turn Herzog). She tries to explain her feelings, how she experiences life, but it is out of Anna’s frame of reference. Hutter, meanwhile, awakens on the floor by the fire and, in daylight, the castle seems awfully decrepit. Getting to his room he finds teeth marks in his chest. I’ll return to Orlok’s feeding but it is notable that they are teeth and not fang marks. That evening the business of the property is entered into. Orlok produces a contract in “
The language of my forefathers.” Hutter’s inexperience shows here as it would be for him to produce the contract and, certainly, he shouldn’t sign something he cannot read. Before he signs, Orlok spots Ellen’s locket and takes it – smelling it he declares "
lilac" – and he takes a purse of coins (commission) and offers them. The contract signed, Hutter wishes to leave immediately, citing being ill of late, but Orlok refuses the request as it is an ill omen to travel whilst sick and leaves the young man stood there – he calls forlornly for the return of his locket.
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| Orlok in coffin |
In the daylight Hutter is searching for a way out, trying doors frantically, which are all locked. He breaks in to a doorway off the courtyard by smashing the lock and goes into a crypt. There is a large, ornate coffin there with Orlok’s sigil, a heptagram, on the lid. Note the difference here with Murnau, where Orlok’s coffin was rotten, with a broken lid. This is a grand design. Hutter pushes the lid off to reveal Orlok’s naked, rotting body. He turns but grabs a pick and swings at the corpse, however the sun is setting and Orlok grabs the pick mid-swing, sits and then stands upright. Hutter runs, chased by wolves he makes his room and bolts the door. Orlok, sniffing the locket, reaches to Ellen to say her husband is lost to her and to dream of Orlok. Ellen starts to sleepwalk, whilst in the castle Orlok’s shadow enters Hutter’s room, independent of his physical self, and controls the young man, making him unbolt the door. Orlok feeds from him and, within the moment, Ellen is there in spirit also. The feeding itself is interesting as Orlok bites the chest above the heart and takes long draughts of blood – Eggers chose this as aesthetically close to folklore (tying to the feeling of weight on the chest reported in vampire cases).
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| epilepsies |
Back home Dr Sievers (Ralph Ineson,
the Northman) has called to see Ellen. He puts her somnambulism down to a surplus of blood. He suggests sleeping in a corset – the suggestion that it calms the womb refers to hysteria being deemed a womanly affliction, tying mental instability to gender. This then references a deeper, cultural misogyny present in the 19th century (and perhaps holding a mirror to it reasserting itself in the present). Even a Doctor drawn as good (he mentions trying to remove barbarity from treatment later by not using the old cells in the hospital) is susceptible to, and part of, it. As she murmurs that “
he's coming to me” (definitely referencing Orlok, where similar dialogue in Murnau might be either Orlok or Hutter), Sievers' answer is to increase Ether, keeping her drugged. Hutter wakes in the castle but there are wolves in his room waiting, which react as he wakes. He is just able to get to a window and out onto an external ledge, escaping their jaws, but slips and falls into the river below. In Stoker’s Dracula, leaving the loose end of Harker alive is logical as he is left for the vampire women. Nosferatu has no such creatures, and so it seems an oversight in Murnau’s film. Here the intent was, clearly, to leave him to the wolves (and my thanks to Kurt for suggesting this), the waiting for him to wake can be read as an act of cruelty – later Orlok references him still being alive, indicating he was not meant to survive. In Wisburg there is no word of Hutter and Knock has gone missing. Ellen’s attempt to assert herself is rebuffed by Harding, who is exasperated by her. He and Anna leave her for a moment, but she falls and starts to fit.
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| Ralph Ineson as Dr Sievers |
As for Knock, he has been delivered to Sievers having attacked three sheep in the market, with his bare hands, and eating them raw. When Sievers sees him, he has a pigeon and bites its head off, eventually attacking the doctor and receiving a beating from an orderly. This cuts to Ellen fitting again, rather violently. Harding has noted the fits occur at nightfall. Sievers relays the news that Knock is incarcerated but also mentions that, like Ellen, he repeats that “
He is coming.” (we see a cut away indicating that Hutter has been found by a nun and taken to a church). Sievers notes that there is a learned doctor, Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz, who may be able to help them. He is Swiss, though currently in Wisburg, and was Sievers’ mentor. There’s a problem, however, he is persona non grata in the medical community as “
he became obsessed with the work of Paracelsus, Agrippa and the like.” You’ll recall I mentioned that the sylph is associated with the work of Paracelsus and importantly von Franz is the character who has most notably changed name (and importance) from Murnau’s film. In that he was the character Bulwer who was described as a Paracelsian and showed his students the natural world such as the Venus flytrap or the polyp, likening them to vampires. Egger’s view of Paracelsus concentrates on his alchemist (rather than medical) side, but his character is far more active than Bulwer (as well as being much more occult facing).
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| vampire attacks |
This occult facing aspect sees us jump from scene to scene. Hutter is exorcised by an Orthodox priest and during this we hear that Orlok was, in life, a Solomonar – this makes him a graduate of the Scholomance as per Dracula in Stoker. It is the devil that has given him the means to walk again, and he must also return each day to “
the cursed earth wherein he was buried” (which is within the coffin, of course). Hutter leaves the church, though they suggest he is not yet fully exorcised (but enough that he will not succumb to the plague passed through Orlok’s bite). Knock shouts exultantly to his Master. Orlok reaches (from ship) out to Ellen and the sailors succumb to plague (if there is a section too short in the film, it is perhaps the ship section). Sievers and Harding find von Franz and he first meets Ellen when calm during the day and she admits to having precognitive abilities but also the epilepsies and the somnambulism – all of which stopped when she found Hutter (he earths her). When von Franz observes her at night, he realises that she is using the second sight and cursed. He also pronounces her possessed by some spirit or demon (I will address the possession aspect later). The final crew members are killed on the ship (and we get a neck bite, the attack of choice when killing quickly it seems), Knock murders a guard and escapes, Hutter makes it to Wisborg and the ship crashes into dock. The landing of the ship, unlike the smooth entry to port in Murnau and Herzog, is a true wreck and Orlok (and his coffin) are transported onwards to his home on a barge piloted by Knock, before the authorities have got there.
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| Ellen and Orlok |
The rats (and plague) start to spread at once and the next night Hutter is clearly in distress, unable to breath as he sleeps, and he sends Ellen away (arguably unknowing that it is her). This leads to Ellen sharing a bed with Anna (Harding away at the time with Sievers and von Franz). Orlok visits her. She says that she has felt him “
crawling like a serpent in my body,” and though he suggests it is her nature she feels, it may be a reference to both his influence over, and possession of, her. One of his most interesting lines is “
I am an appetite, nothing more.” This line came to mind when I read
Hungerstone, which focused on appetite. Hunger is a physiological need to devour but appetite is a psychological want to devour – he is not a creature driven by an uncontrollable need rather it is a desire to, in the words of von Franz, “
consume all life on Earth”. Orlok informs her that Hutter sold his conjugal rights for gold, but she must come to him willingly. Another interesting line in this encounter is Ellen accusing him of being unable to love and, unlike Stoker’s Dracula, he agreeing it is true – she is his key to satisfaction, not love. He then gives her three nights (that being the first) to submit during which he will destroy all she loves, finishing with Hutter. She wakes to find Anna on the floor, rats crawling on her.
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| von Franz finds the codex |
Anna still lives. However, Harding is having a hard time accepting von Franz’ suggestion of occult forces and when Ellen tries to convince him of the evil of Orlok he kicks her and Hutter out of his home. Von Franz finds Knock’s magic circle and his book, which von Franz identifies as belonging to the Solomonari and names as their codex of secrets. Arguably, therefore, it can be read that as well as being Orlok’s acolyte, Knock too attended the Scholomance. Back at their home Ellen confesses that she has brought the evil upon Wisborg and to the relationship with Orlok. When she says “
he is my melancholy” she likens him to a mental health impairment and continues the conflation of her supposed mental ill-health and the supernatural happenings. Hutter seems reluctant to listen and so she attacks his manhood, remembering that Harding and Hutter tied manhood and virility together. She suggests that he not only forgot about her, but he was emasculated by Orlok and suggests that the vampire told her “
How you fell into his arms as a swooning lily of a woman.” She then moves into a more possessed state but, with the conflation between the supernatural and women’s hysteria at the forefront, Hutter suggests bringing the Doctor. She begs him not to and then flips the narrative, insulting his manhood again by suggesting that the dead thing is a better lover, “
You could never please me as he could.” This encourages him to sexually take her roughly, though she is fully consenting and, it seems, needs this from Hutter (as her anchor to this world, the coupling perhaps earthy rather than loving). At the end, however, she is doubtful of herself and fearful that, if she does not go to Orlok, Hutter will die.
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| possessed |
Touching on the possession scenes, for a moment, it is clear that at times she is possessed and at others having fits, but for the Paracelsian there would likely be no difference. Possession would lead to a form of madness and so it is natural that Eggers would have these scenes, and they are remarkable physical performances by Lily-Rose Depp. For von Franz, who suggests that Ellen might have been a great Priestess of Isis in heathen times, he may well be of the opinion that she is possessed but it is apparent that he also believes she may be possessed of theia mania – divinely mad (when displaying the second sight) who becomes dangerously mad (when possessed). For those who felt they did not belong in a making of Nosferatu, I understand your reticence, but to me Eggers followed a logical path, and this Ellen is not the same character as Murnau’s. She is not the “innocent maiden” or “woman without sin”, rather she knows sin. However, within the pages of the codex von Franz reads “
And lo, the maiden fair did offer up her love unto the beast and with him lay in close embrace until the first cock crow. Her willing sacrifice thus broke the curse and freed them from the plague of Nosferatu.” He therefore understands the role Ellen has to play.
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| death at cock's crow |
However, this is night two and Ellen has lain with Hutter and not called Orlok to her willingly. Orlok is not one to idly threaten though. He causes Harding to sleep, whilst Anna awakens to hear her girls screaming – the monster is now in their room. She runs to see him slaughter them and turn to her. Come the morning Harding is laying his wife and children to rest. His grief and anger are turned to von Franz but Hutter calms him by showing him the scars on his chest. What we see is that Harding has the plague welts appearing at his temple already. There is a plan to hunt Orlok, Hutter has determined to stake him with an iron spike, but Ellen is able to speak to von Franz as she knows it is for her to end the plague and the vampire, and the Paracelsian knows it too. For him, the hunt is to keep Hutter away whilst she does what she must. The hunt does not go as planned as Harding vanishes. He has returned to his family and, mad with grief and succumbing to plague, it is implied that he sleeps with Anna’s corpse before dying entwined with it. The three remaining hunters set fire to Harding’s mausoleum before heading to Orlok’s mansion. The vampire’s crypt is filled with rats, but they wade through them to get to the coffin and stake the occupant – Knock. Ellen has called Orlok to her, however, and lays with him as he feeds from her. Hutter races across Wisborg to save her, von Franz yelling “
You cannot outrun her destiny!” This is opposite to Bulwer, who at the
beginning of Murnau’s Nosferatu tells Hutter he can’t outrun
his destiny. The sun starts to rise. It is not the sun that kills the vampire in this. In his commentary Eggers is clear that rather than the sun, it is the crow of the rooster, which denotes the borderline between night and day. As the rooster crows, Orlok begins to bleed profusely from his eyes, growling, with blood slewing from his mouth. When we see him dead, laid upon her dead form, he is a shrivelled thing – no longer the dead alive but truly dead, mummified almost.
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| death and the maiden |
Von Franz lays lilacs and repeats the words from the codex. And what a ride we have had. The film is absolutely gorgeous to look at and the style perfect – that includes the look of Orlok. I understand why some might be disconcerted but I think Eggers was wise to tread his own path with that. All the performances work for me. I have seen criticism of Lily-Rose Depp but, as I mentioned at the head, her performance brought Isabelle Adjani to mind – though not in the physical aspects, which were astonishing in themselves. The very English accenting, reminiscent of perhaps a British period drama, seems an oxymoron for Germany but as I watched it seemed to fit somehow and perhaps plays with the location change from Stoker. The fact that I can write over 5000 words (as suggested, this is more a case study than review) is testimony to the astounding piece of filmmaking it is and there are so many more observations that could be made. I am sure that the film will be a base text for academic papers aplenty. Personally, I just scratched the surface of the Paraclesian angle (it’s not my subject) and I particularly look forward to someone deep diving into that. Now, there is just the matter of the score. The Murnau film will, forever, be a milestone in vampire films (and filmmaking generally) and, when viewed through the eyes of the past is near perfect. This comes close, it really does.
9 out of 10.
The imdb page is
here.
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK