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Winter is a wonderful time to go to the movies, especially if you’re into the atmospheric and dreary allure of gothic horror. Though it debuted as a 2024 movie, Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu is still ready to drain eager audiences of their blood and their awe. After finally catching the picture myself, I have to bow down to this pitch perfect fang banging, as the man has mastered something that a good number of horror directors don’t focus on.
Nosferatu Is A Rare Example Of Palpable Cinematic Dread
There’s a fine line between a horror movie that knows how to scare you with spectacle, and one that truly unsettles you through atmosphere. Nosferatu is one of the latter sorts of stories, as the relentless pursuit of Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) by Count Orlok (BIll Skarsgård) is a truly chilling affair.
I’m not only talking about the fact that this new adaptation takes place during Christmastime, though the festive period helps. Under Robert Eggers’ writing and direction, there’s a confluence of facets that make up an unrelenting atmosphere of melancholy, danger, and death present in this film.
With some of our characters trying to fight against this bleakness in the name of love, Nosferatu is also a bittersweet gothic romance. Very few horror movies dive into dread as expertly as Focus Features’ holiday offering does, and breaking down the elements of the picture that make it so give us a better understanding why.
The Sound Design Of Nosferatu Pushes The Audience’s Limits
Unfortunately, I missed Nosferatu’s IMAX run, as I didn’t get around to heading to the theater until early this month. Thankfully, the Dolby format was available, which actually highlights the key factor all premium formats should enhance in this film: its calculated and nerve shredding sound design.
As we see the unsettling Transylvanian arrival of Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), the trip to Count Orlok’s manor shines in everything from deathly stillness to the various imposing animals in the dark woods. Even the volume level seems to be tweaked to get you right to the point of wanting to hear no more, and then easing back at that exact threshold. Paired with composer Robin Carolan’s haunting score, that attention to sonic detail gave me moments that were so loud and intense that it honestly unsettled me.
Which in turn made me smile, because Nosferatu doesn’t waste any resources to get you gradually squirming, as opposed to jumping from a momentary scare. If you can sit through Count Orlok’s booming commands or drawling monologues without feeling anything, then you’re either a big brave dog or a vampire yourself. Although that kind of makes me sad, as the whole point of Robert Eggers’ decade-long passion project is to scare you in all the right ways.
Robert Eggers’ Visual Language For Nosferatu Takes Its Time
People have started to learn from Superman’s recent IMAX confusion that titles encouraging you to “Experience it in IMAX” are converted for large format. So while you’d still be getting excellent picture and sound, it’s not as essential to see in that format as, say, going to an Oppenheimer 70mm screening. It’s more than ok if you got to see Nosferatu through that particular offering, as Robert Eggers’ visual style permeates this tale through any theatrical format.
The visuals are not only striking and horrific, they’re given time to linger right in front of your eyes. Horror genre instincts had me waiting for more jump scares and quick cuts meant to throw myself and the audience into temporary fright. But that’s not what happened, as we get to see long takes that keep us focused on the horrors we’re supposed to observe.
Giving us a moment to take in all the details of the bloody savagery at hand, this contributes to the creeping dread the audience is steeped in throughout, slowly turning up the heat. You can almost feel the flames that spread after Willem Dafoe sets that coffin room on fire as a result, so maybe there’s more juice behind releasing Nosferatu in the winter than I initially observed. Though now that I mention it, I do wish they’d do a limited re-release, because I’d love to see what IMAX brought to the table.
Nosferatu’s Dreadful Atmosphere Could Revive Gothic Horror
If you know me, you know what movie I’m going to cite in this final section of defense. While most acclaimed horror directors don’t dabble in gothic horror as much as they should, there’s one that has previously, and continues to do so at this very moment. I am, of course, talking about Guillermo del Toro, whose work on Crimson Peak and the Cabinet of Curiosities anthology have swam in this very same circle.
The distinction between gothic horror and the other subgenres in existence cannot be stressed enough. It’s part of the reasons why del Toro feels Crimson Peak failed, as the budget spend and the marketing campaign leaned more mainstream. While the Mia Wasikowska/Tom Hiddleston romance has gained a healthy fan following in the decade since its release, it’s nice to see that Nosferatu wasn’t forced to make those same mistakes.
As someone who certainly enjoys their blood and guts, and has 28 Years Later theories constantly on the brain, I’m not here to tell you that directors in this space don’t know how to make a movie like Nosferatu. However, what I will say is that I think more fixtures in this space should dig into romantically gothic tragedies, especially when trying to welcome “non-horror” fans into the fun we scare fiends know deserves to be enjoyed by all.
While we all know the market dictates whether or not we’ll get more pictures of that sort, the fact that Robert Eggers has raked in over $100 million with this blood-draining bonanza does seem to indicate that maybe audiences are ready for more. If you’re even remotely interested in succumbing to the darkness known as Nosferatu, I highly encourage you to head to your local theater to do so.
While Robert Eggers’ fantastic vision of gothic horror will play well in any format, you really need to get lost in the terror that envelops you only at the movies. And if you need me to prove that I’m not some quack who deals in alchemy, then allow me to present my Crimson Peak review from 2015 for your further reading by candlelight.