When the first trailer for Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu came out, I said I hoped it would play TIFF, as did two of Eggers’ previous films. Well, it did not, much to my disappointment. But that DOES mean I still have Nosferatu to look forward to, which I am, very much.
I am still not sold on Lily-Rose Depp as a leading lady, though that shot of her in nearly black and white in her Victorian night dress does look like Tim Burton made her in a lab. She certainly looks the part of potential vampiric victim, Ellen Hutter. Nicholas Hoult plays her disheveled husband, Thomas Hutter. They’re the stand-ins for Jonathan and Mina Harker created by screenwriter Henrik Galeen for FW Murnau’s unauthorized 1922 Dracula adaptation, Nosferatu, which is what Eggers is adapting now. The Harker-Hutters seem to be up to some weird sex stuff this time. Eggers has the benefit of a less rigidly moral society, he can portray things on screen Murnau never could.
We still are not getting a clear look at Bill Skarsgard as Count Orlok, previously played by Max Schreck in the 1922 film, and was kind of/sort of played by Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire—he starred as Schreck in that fictionalized telling of the making of Nosferatu. This is a culturally incestuous film. We also don’t get a clear look at Aaron Taylor-Johnson, but he is in this film, too. It will be a busy December for him, between this and Kraven the Hunter, but that’s a good thing. Whatever happens with Kraven—not holding my breath for much—he’ll bounce back right away with Nosferatu.
Which still looks cool as hell. Both trailers have offered a visual hook, this time, it’s the shadow hand stretching over the town. Robert Eggers started as a production designer, and that background shows in all his films. He has a meticulous eye, not only for framing, but also detail. His films are so historically detailed, they just look like everyone smells and probably has lice, too.
I cannot wait for Nosferatu, even though another vampire film recently let me down. But more on Salem’s Lot later.
Here is Aaron Taylor-Johnson arriving at his hotel in Paris with wife Sam, and Bill Skarsgard heading out for dinner in Paris on Friday.