Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Short Film: Strigoi


This was a 2021 short film, directed by Florin Anghel and coming in at just under 14 minutes.

It starts with the sound of laboured breathing, and we see that a poorly man struggles for breath. His wife brings him food, but he knocks the plate out of her hand and threatens her. Telling her she won’t get away from him so easily and he will return as a strigoï and haunt her.

A young woman is at work, a bouquet of flowers is brought in for her. Her phone rings and it is her mother – her father has died from cirrhosis. They are the couple from the opening. Her mother asks her to come and says she is afraid at night. The daughter exits onto a balcony (for a cigarette) when she returns to her office the flowers are withered.

the daughter

Not a lot more is said about this – the sender of the flowers drives her to her old village, and she suggests they arrived withered, we saw them fine and then withered. Could it indicate her father’s influence. Maybe she is (unknowingly, perhaps) a strigoï vii? Also on the drive her companion questions her atheism (though she does wear a cross) and asks what happens to evil doers after death if there is nothing else.

equine vampire detection

The funeral arrangements were interesting, he lay open casket but with his hands bound and holding a candle and the open casket continued at graveside. A man with a horse comes by but the horse is skittish by the grave (this is a stripped-down version of the traditional vampire detection method, as the horse carries no naked virgin, boy or girl). He is returning to mother and daughter (we see a shadowy figure as he visits the daughter) and so the grave is opened. The corpse has talonlike fingernails, his heart is cut out as a ritual (which names him both strigoï and moroi) is spoken. It is suggested that the heart be cut into 9 pieces and scattered to be fed on by nine dogs.

strigoï's nails

What is interesting about this is that the filmmakers based it on the real case of Toma Petre – a Romanian vampire killing that happened in the 2000s, the film suggests between 2005-2007. As well as outlining the event, the film contains a snippet of an an interview with Mircea Mitrica who was one of those involved in the real life exhumation – I assume it is the actual gentleman and not a reconstruction, the credits do not say.

The imdb page is here.

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Honourable Mention: Plan 9 from Aliexpress


This is a 2022 Russian experimental film from Diana Galimzyanova and, as I watched it, I was struck tonally of a comparison with Trasharella, though I’d say that this had less plot but more style, and perhaps even Visions of Suffering, though that may have been the Russian origin and this did have more plot than VoS, just, but was nowhere near as dark.

The plot, such as it is, is that a Gothic Princess (Ekaterina Dar) has a ball of twine (referred to as rope, through the film) stolen by Prince Charming (Anton Medov) and the film sees her attempts to track him down and retrieve it, as she needs the rope to kill herself. The film, I guess, could be a tracking of her personal growth but it is very experimental and deliberately obtuse.

vampire detectives

The mention comes from a moment fairly early on in the film where two vampires (Andrey Sirobaba & Anastasia Popkova) appear, They announce themselves as time travelling vampire detectives (and just to prove they are vampires, he wears a cloak). Why are they travelling back in time? They just give an answer of “some reason”. They have the wisdom, they say, of how to find the rope and then give vague information of a clue given that will lead to a dead end, but there she can find someone with a correct clue – rinse and repeat. When asked if they could just give the rope, they refuse explaining that it is a McGuffin that drives the plot (the fourth wall really doesn’t exist in the film). They give her a small plastic basket she’ll need and then travel back in time to discover how Trolley 54 became a bus (the whereabouts of the trolley/bus is a repeated theme).

And that’s it. A fleeting visitation in a surreal experimental feature, with the use of a cloak triggering the recognition of the megatext – even if they had not stated they were vampires.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Friday, April 25, 2025

Honeybee – review


Director: Nicki Harris

Release date: 2016

Contains spoilers

This one passed me by, and its identity as a vampire film nearly passed me by as I watched it, because the vampire aspect, that horror core, is almost non-existent. Yet vampire film it is. On the surface this comes across more as a teen high school drama (with a very lower-case d) and they missed a trick by not turning it on its head when the vampirism was revealed.

So, we are in small town USA and the opening is narrated by Hilary (Connie Shi) who explains that it is a small town, where nothing really happens, where everyone knows everyone and where everyone has roots in the town (her own family can trace back 200 years). Hillary lives with her dad (Andrew Start), goes to school and would do anything for a little variety.

Andrew Start as the dad

That variety pitches up in the form of the Morris family that rents the house next door (and for which her dad is a caretaker). They happen to be watching them arrive and the first is Kadin (Garrett Richmond), getting off his motorbike. If one boy next door was bad enough, out of the following vehicle comes Brian (Nathan Ross Murphy), Jeremy (Will Thames), and twins Matthew (Jason Parks) and Kyle (Justin Parks). Hillary’s dad is all for never letting her out of the house again when mom, Louisa (Suzanne Jaehne), gets out the vehicle. He rushes out to greet them.

the boys arrive

So there are two weeks of school left but they still sign up and then we get a 'new boys walking the corridor scene' with the girls drooling. In reality, they may all be good looking but they were not the unearthly beauties the film wanted to infer. They also seemed oddly close in age. Nevertheless, Kadin and Hilary hit it off and there are some moments of high school mean girl-ness, which essentially stems from Hilary’s mom having had an affair with her (now ex-)friend’s dad before killing herself.

Connie Shi as Hillary

Things sit off key with the newcomers – but for the viewer, not the characters. We see that Louisa is oddly dominating and sends the boys out of the area to steal goods (we don’t see the raid, just the aftermath). Kadin cuts his hand but won’t let Hailey see or help – because his blood is black. However, she washes the black blood off the knife he was cut by, without even noticing the odd colour.

blood at mouth

Louisa is the vampire, presumably the Queen, given the honeybee title, and they are the worker bees. They go to a town, enrol in high school, pick five victims and she feeds on them. Kadin is fairly new, however, and seems to have both a conscience and has really fallen for Hilary. The boys' life and longevity (there is a newspaper clipping with the twins from 1929) is dependent on her – if she dies, they die. A vampire hunter (Pokey Spears) turns up and he turns out to be a worker bee who left (replaced by Kadin) and so has aged. He makes the “wise” choice of checking out the school and luckily only sees Kadin – because, of course, the others would recognise him.

finding a victim

When we get to the vampirism (which starts with picking up a guy in a bar, whose age means that she will only get a week of use from him but that makes it sound that she is youth or life stealing) we see very little – a sort of a kiss bite at a distance, leaving a torn up mouth. This is where this really falls flat. The acting is ok but they have little to work with, the filmmakers could have made a lot of thriller or horror tension – we could have followed the raid, we could see the kills properly and gore could have been added – but they failed to do this. Yet, as a high school drama, it is drama light and as a vampire-high school romance it is lighter still. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

The Cat Creature – review


Director: Curtis Harrington

Release date: 1973

Contains spoilers

A made for TV film, I wish I had seen this before submitting a chapter for a forthcoming book as it would have fit right in. It isn’t a bakeneko film, in that it isn’t based on the rough story that underlines that Japanese genre, but it is certainly one for the bakeneko fan. It does suffer for being quite 70s US police procedural but it has some fab ideas – and a devilishly queer subtext even though the studio made Harrington remove the references to lesbianism.

Kent Smith as Frank Lucas

It starts with a car approaching a mansion. It is night and when the driver, Frank Lucas (Kent Smith, the Night Stalker), enters the building he discovers the electric is off. He goes to an office and starts a recording. He is an appraiser brought to the Drake estate by the attorneys and is working at night to meet their deadlines. He just has the special collection to do. He goes there and it is all Egyptian artifacts.

the amulet

He makes a beeline for a sarcophagus and pries it open. There is a mummy inside and he notes the golden amulet she wears, with the likeness of a cat and emeralds for eyes. He puts the lid back on and seems to leave. Out of the shadows comes another man, Joe Sung (Keye Luke, Gremlins 2: The New Batch), who steals the amulet and sneaks off as Lucas returns. Lucas starts to record about the newest part of the collection (the sarcophagus) describing the amulet. He then notices that the sarcophagus is empty, there is the shadow of a cat and cat noises as he screams.

Gale Sondergaard as Hestor

We see Joe in the city, and he enters an occult establishment called the Sorcerer’s Shop. The proprietor, Hester Black (Gale Sondergaard) speaks to him as he tries to sell the amulet as a family heirloom. We discover later that she was a fence and she smells trouble and refuses him – he leaves with the amulet but leaves the briefcase. Hester’s assistant, Sherry (Renne Jarrett), comes through to get paid and she gives her the briefcase. The viewer sees a cat shadow at the window, the shrewder viewer will see a lesbian subtext to the conversation on the part of Hester, who suggests a meal with her assistant. It was after watching the film that I picked up, on IMDb, that the studio had ordered the removal of lesbian aspects from the character, but they certainly are still there in the inferences in the dialogue.

cat eye mojo

Sherry refuses the meal and the offer of a lift home. As she walks down an alley there is a noise but it is a cat knocking over a trash can. Sherry speaks to the animal and then picks it up as a stray she intends to feed. She gets to her apartment and gets the cat a saucer of milk and then notices blood in its fur. The cat stares at her and starts making growling noises. The girl, blank eyed, responds with nods and then walks in a trance to her balcony and throws herself off.

Meredith Baxter as Rena

A woman, Rena (Meredith Baxter), goes to the Sorcerer’s Shop and gets offered Sherry’s job. Meanwhile the police, in the guise of Lt. Marco (Stuart Whitman, Ghost Story: Concrete Captain) has the university send someone who knows about Egyptology to the Blake Estate. That is Prof Roger Edmonds (David Hedison) and he notes that the sarcophagus was for a worshipper of Bast. Marco takes him round pawnshops, looking for the amulet, and they end up in the Sorcerer’s Shop speaking to Rena. Hester comes through and Marco knows her as a fence. When she protests that she has gone straight he responds “Straight eh? .Why you could sleep on a corkscrew.” The double meaning is strong with this one.

John Carradine as the clerk

So, the police manage to track down Joe at a flophouse (run by John Carradine) but are too late, hearing his screams and then finding him dead. So far we have a missing mummy and a cat (apparently) killing people. However, the coroner (Milton Parsons) says the bodies have been drained of blood and this leads to a determination that the worship of Bast was outlawed because the priesthood were committing blood sacrifices to gain everlasting life and could turn into cats. The police, of course, don’t believe that. As for Roger, well he’s falling for Rena (which leads to Hester being sharp with him, as she asks her new assistant out for a meal also).

Egyptian garb

I now need to totally spoil the ending as the lore round this is ahead of its time. Rena is the priestess of Bast and the amulet was to keep her trapped in the sarcophagus. Once removed she has returned to life, she is feeding on blood and trying to find the amulet so that she can’t be trapped again. She seems scarred of cats, and they get agitated when she is near. They also gather near where she is staying. When the amulet is put back on her she suddenly is wearing Egyptian garb and then turns back in to a mummy. Stumbling outside, the cats attack her and reduce her to dust. All this pre-empts the similar lore in Sleepwalkers, and though they turned into cat creatures, rather than cats, and were energy drinkers one can’t help wonder if this had an influence on that story?

cats attack the mummy

As I mentioned at the head of the review, there is something very 70s police procedural about this that does mar a really interesting film. It feels episodic almost and it’s a shame as the performances are solid enough, Carradine has a 2-minuite appearance that is a joy, and they could have got a really (American) Gothic flick out of this. But if you are a bakeneko fan (as this is at least adjacent), a cat vampirism fan or want an interesting take on the mummy genre it is worth tracking down. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Monday, April 21, 2025

Use of Tropes: A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse


As a bakeneko (or ghost cat) film, A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse has some strange and unusual aspects but, of course, here at TMtV we look to the vampiric aspect and the bakeneko genre usually requires consideration on a film-by-film basis. In this case it, to me, might have been listed as being of genre interest (simply for being a bakeneko film) and of course it carries the generic bakeneko tropes. But there was a genre connection I saw that was subtly done.

reporting the change in law

The Kazuhiko Yamaguchi directed film was released in 1975 and veers away from the more traditional period stories (or modern with period flashbacks) and sets itself in a more contemporary part of the past, 1958. This was the year that the anti-prostitution act was introduced in Japan and this law is the catalyst for the film and is mentioned in a newspaper headline at the head of the film.

Yukino and Kuro

In one such brothel, about to be shut down, the manager Genzô (Taiji Tonoyama) has thought of a way around the act and intends to turn the brothel into a Turkish bathhouse (which will have the girls working in it and will have extras). His wife, Utae (Tomoko Mayama) – known to the girls as Mama, asks them if they are prepared to stay and all say yes bar Yukino (Naomi Tani). Having been reminded that any debt might have been forgiven by the act (as debt bondage was used to hold women to the brothels) but it was still a dishonour to not repay it, she leaves anyway taking her cat Kuro.

pretend gangsters

Her reason for leaving is that her boyfriend, Yûzô (Hideo Murota), is moving her in with him. He puts wedding rings on them when back at their new apartment and she asks him to move her country living younger sister Mayumi (Misa Ohara) in with them. They are in a clinch when gangsters (presumably yakuza) break in and demand he pay the money he owes – which he bought the apartment with. To protect him, she offers to take the debt and pay it off – having to return to the bathhouse (at first part time and, after he acquires more debt, full time).

Misa Ohara as Mayumi

Actually, it is all a big scam cooked up with Mama, and the gangsters were his men acting. He and she split the money Yukino earns and he was even given a fee for returning her. He is, all-in-all, a bad guy. He starts an affair with Mama, (rather graphically) rapes Mayumi and, when Yukino tells him she is pregnant (and has refused to have an abortion) he and Mama torture her (again in a rather gritty, graphic scene) during which she miscarriages and dies, they then wall her body up in the basement. It also becomes apparent that he works at the bathhouse (and presumably the brothel before) as a manager – how/if Yukino was unaware of this isn’t addressed. The second act is 6 months later and sees Mayumi (no longer innocent) start at the bathhouse, quickly becoming the highest earner, which draws the ire of the other women.

the blood appearing

So far, no bakeneko action. Indeed the film goes on with its graphic violence (we get another rape, leading to a suicide, and a murder) and intersperses that with an exploitation level of nudity. Kuro, the cat, is watching proceedings and intervenes to save Mayumi from a beating by flying through the air and scratching faces. We also see its shadow loom large behind paper walls. However, it is after the cat is decapitated that we get our bakeneko action. The plaster, behind which Yukino is walled, starts to have blood appear on it, spreading outwards and quickly taking the shape of a body. This is the subtle trope, more often than not in these films the cat licks blood and becomes a bakeneko. This blood pattern becomes the blood connection, creating the bakeneko with the corpse behind the wall.

flying bakeneko head

The wall breaks up and we see Yukino’s corpse perfectly preserved. We then see her head fall and, as she rises again, she has become the bakeneko. This means it is a bakeneko film where the corpse is possessed by the cat spirit, rather than the cat shifting form to look like a human. There isn’t much in way of blood drinking, she is after revenge, but we do get the flying disembodied bakeneko head biting into a neck that then offers a really nicely gory blood spurt. This one might be a tough watch, bearing in mind the rape scenes and is certainly full of sexploitation as well but, despite holding off on the bakeneko action for way too long, I rather enjoyed it and it is definitely something that is of genre interest, at the very least.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Saturday, April 19, 2025

First Impression: Sinners


Every so often a pundit will declare that the bottom has fallen out of the market when it comes to vampire films. In honesty, the concept is ludicrous, the 19 years this blog has been running would have ground to a halt and yet I am still finding vampire films to watch and review. At the low budget end, the market never seems to dry up at all. At the higher budget end, especially with regards those released into cinema, there may be a slowdown from time to time. However, at that end of the spectrum we have been blessed over the last few years with several high-quality cinema releases and Sinners is the latest.

Directed by Ryan Coogler, Sinners is set in the Mississippi Delta area during the 1930s and there is a touch of From Dusk Till Dawn in the format with the film following a crime/social drama first part of the film until things go crazy with vampires in the second part. Both sections are really well done. However, there is also a knowingness with regards this and the film deliberately drops in a taste of the vampire section within the first section.

An introductory piece tells us of musicians so talented that their music is spiritually transportative and can summon spirits from the past and future but also it can attract evil. The film then has a flashforward, past the events of the core movie. A vehicle pulls in front of a chapel, gospel music coming from within, and the driver staggers to the church. He is Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) and his clothes are blood stained and ripped, he has vicious claw wounds across his face and he grips to the neck of a broken guitar. His father holds him but rather than find help tries to have the boy renounce the sins of (non-church) music, assuming the debauchery that has led him to this state.

Miles Caton as Sammie

Cut back a day and Sammie’s cousins, the Smokestack twins – both Smoke and Stack played by Michael B. Jordan – have returned to the Delta. They had got out, survived the First World War and have been running with gangsters in Chicago. They buy an old sawmill from Hogwood (David Maldonado, From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series). The money (and the booze they also hold; Irish beer and Italian wine) has been lifted from the crime gangs and they intend to set up their own jukejoint. Sammie has gone to the cottonfields early and filled his quota and spends the day with them. He is to be part of the entertainment, playing blues under the moniker Preacher Boy – Miles Caton has a fantastic voice.

the Smokestack twins

The first part of the film sees the set up for an opening that night. It also goes into the personal lives of Stack and his ex, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), who passes white and happens to be in town as she has just buried her mother. Likewise, Smoke reconnects with Annie (Wunmi Mosaku, Citadel, Lovecraft Country & Deadpool & Wolverine), his estranged wife and a Hoodoo practitioner. This part of the film absolutely showcases the high-quality acting and screenplay.

Jack O'Connell as Remmick

However, we also see Remmick (Jack O'Connell), running towards a house, his skin smoking in the sun. He begs shelter from the occupants, noticing the Klan robes in the house. He says that a group of Choctaw are after him. They are sceptical but consent and, with him ensconced inside, the First Nation vampire hunters arrive – they are given a frosty welcome but still warn the wife as they retreat, because the sun is due to set. It’s too late, her husband has been turned whilst this went on and she is next… Later Remmick is drawn to Sammie as he plays, and the vampires then, eventually, lay siege to the jukejoint.

bloodied

Importantly, within the lore, is the need to be invited in and that a single bite turns and this happens pretty quickly. There is a hive mind that the vampires share, with Remmick at the centre, and they are described as having their souls locked in their bodies with killing them a release of the soul. Sunlight, staking and garlic are efficient against them – and Annie is the font of the lore, given her beliefs. The film has a fantastic nod to The Thing (1982), which I won’t spoil but you’ll know it when you see it and Sammie’s jukejoint performance actually brought a conceptual feel of a theme in Only Lovers Left Alive but, for me, this did it in a superior way.

Wunmi Mosaku as Annie

Michael B. Jordan stands out as the twins and Wunmi Mosaku offers a particularly strong performance too. Indeed, the whole cast was blisteringly strong, but as well as superb performances and some lovely cinematography, this had a soundtrack that just wouldn’t let up. With Delta Blues, some Traditional Irish and a tad of Gospel in there, the soundtrack is a massively important element of the film – to the point that the film touches on being part of the musical genre at some points. It has themes around the black experience and racism, a critique of equality issues through a version of the white saviour trope but, most of all, it is a darn fine film. As always, there’ll be a full review once the home media is released.

The imdb page is here.

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Nosferatu (2024) – review


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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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).

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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