Still // Nosferatu (2024) via IMDb

HIS SHADOWY PRESENCE. Orlok reaches out to Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen Hutter.

By: Magnus Blanchard-Rockhill

Staff-Writer

This review discusses themes of sexual assault. 

“Nosferatu” (2024) may be a remake of an adaptation in a sea of media following the same plotline, but that is not to say it doesn’t have its own original ideas and a fresh take on the material.

This film, despite its runtime of two hours and 12 minutes, feels full to the brim with content. Although I was concerned going in that this remake is almost an hour longer than its predecessor, there were a few key plot additions that helped justify the length. 

There was also more of a focus on characters previously left mostly by the wayside, and while that could in some cases be at the detriment of a remake, in this case it feels appropriate. The pace did not drag as much as I had honestly expected it to, or really at all.

What I really appreciated about “Nosferatu” was the set design, costume design, color grading and more specifically the depiction of Orlok.

The set design looked as dreary and whimsical as one would want for a vampire movie set in 1838, and the scenes set in the streets of the town of Wisborg felt appropriately cramped and bustling. The costume designers also did a wonderful job; each character dressed in a way that helped to immediately identify what they had going on in terms of personality and class.

Shot composition was another big plus, with some shots being framed like a stage as opposed to a modern film. This, and the complete desaturation of scenes taking place in darkness or at night, are fun and obviously intentional nods to the 1922 film that also help sell the mood.

It can be hard to make a character like Count Orlock truly scary for a modern audience, but I think it was done very well here. Part of this is through the performance by Bill Skarsgård, part is through costume, lighting and framing and part is through Nicholas Hoult’s performance as Thomas Hutter.

Hutter looks like he’s gonna faint and cry and piss himself basically from the moment he first sees Orlok, and he visibly shakes throughout most of the rest of the movie. This really does help to sell Orlok as a presence so completely terrifying that being in the same room as him is physically difficult.

Another performance that must be addressed is Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter. She was essentially tasked to convulse during the entire runtime of this movie, and by god she did it. The character was given a much larger and more integral role than in the original, and an entire plot element was added to support this.

This decision adds depth to the character and more directly addresses the themes of sexual violation present in the original story of Dracula. I think that overall it was a good decision and one I understand the intentions of, but there are some elements to it that leave a bad taste in my mouth. 

Vampire stories have almost always been about moral and physical corruption and violation, among other things. Usually, the act of sexual violation is represented by the biting, the bleeding, the changing of the victim. This remake takes those themes and brings them directly to the forefront, unsubtly and inarguably.

Orlok not only drinks Thomas’s blood, but mounts him. Ellen also has an explicitly stated sexual past with him in soul form. This is the mentioned change to the plot, and while it does ultimately give her more agency and presence in the plot, it also ties her exploration of her sexuality to moral and physical corruption, both of herself and eventually the town. She had originally “called to him” because she was lonely.

Her interactions and past with him are clearly assault, coerced and manipulated and outside of her full control. This is meant to be a tragedy, and there is no problem with depicting tragedy. However, barring one instance near the beginning of the film, every time Ellen expresses sexual desire, it is tied to Orlock in some way. And her death is a sacrifice of her blood and her body to him. 

She does indeed gain character and substance in this remake, but her character remains defined entirely by her relationship with her abuser. The scene of her death does feel marginally more satisfying than it does in the original, since it gives her some degree of conscious choice in the matter, but it was still more about how her death could benefit those around her rather than anything to do with her own character growth.