Nosferatu Is Absolutely Disgusting. Thank God.

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As a film critic with a lifelong fascination for the macabre and the supernatural, I have had the pleasure of immersing myself in countless tales of vampires, each one offering its unique spin on this enigmatic creature. Robert Eggers’ take on Nosferatu stands out as a masterful blend of the old and the new, striking a perfect balance between the ancient and the relatable.

In Robert Eggers’ movie Nosferatu, Bill Skarsgard’s title character is undeniably monstrous, portrayed through heavy makeup that gives him a greyish, decayed appearance. His skin is reminiscent of spoiled meat, adorned with scabs and wounds. The little hair left on his head hangs like a shed snake skin on his skull. Unlike previous interpretations, his nails are not talons but overgrown human ones curling at the ends. He possesses the broad shoulders and height typical of stage and screen vampires, yet he also carries the distinctive high forehead and arched nose from Murnau’s original 1922 Nosferatu. On the surface, Nosferatu appears as a terrifying figure to non-vampires, but his true form, shown in drawings and feeding scenes, is even more grotesque: a scruffy, emaciated creature resembling a wolf-rat with spindly legs, humping his victims while drinking their blood straight from the heart.

Despite his grotesque appearance that should repel anyone, his voice manages to make Nosferatu appealing, defying logic. This captivating quality of his is not in a seductive or charming way, but rather as a hypnotic force that makes it difficult to resist, even when one knows they are encountering pure evil. The character of Nosferatu, portrayed by Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, is destined to be his victim, a recurring theme in Eggers’ films that immerses viewers in ancient, irrational fears. Upon meeting the creature, Ellen experiences convulsive ecstasies; she has always been susceptible to such cosmic forces and has had these fits since childhood.

Modern bloodsuckers, for the most part, are not as physically repulsive as one might expect. Over the past few decades, they have been portrayed in a variety of ways, often as dangerously attractive or stylish characters. This trend began with Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, who exuded an undeniable charm and was described as a suave, sophisticated European nobleman in his 1927 Broadway production. Despite this, the image of Lugosi’s Dracula may seem less charming today due to more recent, edgier interpretations and numerous parodies, such as “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

The incremental handsome-ization of Dracula and other vampire characters has been linked to the concept of assimilation, not just of Eastern European Jews in England (and later, the United States) but foreigners generally. Rob Silverman-Ascher, writing for heyalma, views the Lugosi version of Dracula as a major marker in the long journey of Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews and other people who had been designated as Others and/or foreigners. “It is not far-fetched to claim that Count Dracula offers himself as a privileged focus for any inquires into the possibilities of liberation within Western civilization,” writers Silverman-Ascher, noting that, over time, “the vampire shifted from a cruel Jewish caricature to just another white guy with a complicated political history. As we began to benefit from white privilege, so did the vampire.”

Building on this notion, horror expert Robin Wood observes that the character of the vampire hunter in these tales, whether Van Helsing or Professor Albin Eberhard von Franz, is frequently portrayed as a foreigner, because “the honorable British (and American) are found wanting when facing Dracula.” Similar to how Eggers’ film blends traditional and modern interpretations of the vampire, preserving Dracula’s eerie allure while reinforcing his role as a harbinger of disease, the story also combines the German heritage of earlier _Nosferatu_ characters with the Englishness prevalent in more recent ones. This is achieved by setting the film in Germany and primarily casting British actors who speak in their native accents. Both versions of the story view any country to the east of Germany as a capital-“G” Grimm, an enigmatic yet captivating mystery, much like concepts of evil or mortality themselves.

Eggers’ adaptation of Nosferatu portrays a vampire as a complex character who embodies both terror and pathos, an ex-lover who can’t move on, drowning in romantic obsession, self-pity, and despair, yet remains enigmatic and frightening. The film offers a chilling yet relatable interpretation of the ancient vampire, filled with Jungian and Freudian undertones, while still preserving an element of ambiguity that suggests the characters’ experiences are authentic to their time without any hint of modern perspective or condescension. Ultimately, Eggers’ movie encompasses various aspects of the genre, aiming to become the definitive vampire narrative in cinema.

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2024-12-25 17:56