Director: David Lee Fisher
Release date: 2024
Contains spoilers
David Lee Fisher ran a Kickstart for his version of Nosferatu back in 2014 (starting October 29th to be precise). It was a remix of the classic 1922 film, something he had done before with the Cabinet of Dr Caligari. To explain remix, I’ll quote the Kickstarter page:
“OUR GOAL is to produce a feature-length, faithful homage to this classic masterpiece through use of an updated story structure, plot pacing, visual effects, and importantly sound and music. We believe this “fresh take on an old tale” will bring something new to devoted fans, and excite an entire new generation of audiences as well.
“By scanning a vintage print, we were able to shoot our actors on green-screen, then layer them into digital sets recreated from the original film's imagery.”
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| Doug Jones as Orlok |
The film was set to (and still does) star Doug Jones, whose physical prowess under heavy makeup was always going to be a selling point for the film. Unfortunately, it vanished… However, when Eggers’ version of the film was announced I suspected it would make an appearance, and lo… just in time for Halloween and a couple of months before Eggers’ is released it does appear. And, it isn’t bad. Certainly the way it is built is clever, Jones is as good as one would expect but there are issues too…
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| Hutter and Ellen |
Starting in the fictional German town of Wisborg we meet the protagonists of the film, young married couple Thomas Hutter (Emrhys Cooper) and his wife Ellen (Sarah Carter). She is the pure character of the original film, and I liked her saving a spider (which then bites her and her defending that it is its nature), but Hutter… the change to his character is one of the things I disliked about the film, unfortunately.
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| Emrhys Cooper as Hutter |
Hutter, in the original, comes across as an innocent fool and I recognise there was plenty of scope to expand him. Now there is no reason why a character cannot be reinterpreted, and it might work, but in this case, for me, it did not. This Hutter is incredibly money/status obsessed – he is drawn to go to Transylvania by the promise of copious amounts of money, he wants to be the richest man in Wisborg and he covets the riches his friend Wolfram (Jack Turner) has. Later it appears that he either doesn’t love Ellen (or at least doesn’t understand that love) – he doesn’t respond in kind when she says “I love you”, he has casual (off screen) sex in the inn, cheating on her, and there is a “Hutter finally understands love redemption” element introduced to the story.
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| occult letter |
Before Hutter gets his orders from his employer, Knock (Eddie Allen), we see the realtor receive a letter from Orlok (Doug Jones). The insides being wet with blood, which Knock gets on his hands, was interesting (from a symbolic perspective), the occult writing glowing as his hand brushes the letter was inspired. Eddie Allen played the role of Knock really well and was a highlight for me.
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| Ellen's later apocalyptic dream |
There is a connection between Orlok and Ellen already (she dreams of a tall, frightening shadow), which suggests he is coming to Wisborg as much for her as anything else. Hutter leaves Ellen with Wolfram and his spinster sister – rather than his wife – Ruth (Joely Fisher), and Hutter gets a train, rather than rides a horse. This brings him more in line with Harker, from Stoker’s novel, of course. At the end of the line he finds an inn and, as mentioned, manages to cheat on Ellen before finding the book with vampire lore. Unlike the original, he actively steals that, rather than it seeming to follow him, showing his lack of innocence yet again.
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| shadowy wings |
It is interesting that a blind man (Thomas Ian Nicholas) is introduced, and he falls victim to the deathbird – we see the shadow of wings. This replaces the werewolf/hyena aspect of the original and later we do see Orlok with gossamer wings that seem formed from shadows. When Hutter has to walk to the castle he is picked up by Orlok’s carriage and Fisher chooses to have it move at a speeded-up pace, rather like the original. Cutting back to Wisborg, the reason for making Ruth a spinster sister is revealed when she makes a (pretty subtle) lesbian pass at Ellen – like a misplaced Chekhov’s gun that’s never fired. I also found Ellen dreaming of being pregnant whilst an apocalyptic Wisborg burns a strange choice, which I felt Fisher should have expanded upon.
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| exposed to sunlight |
There is an interestingly pagan aspect, with protection runes being used (and Ellen said to have learnt from her mother who was of Romani descent) – her relinquishing such a stone invites Orlok physically to her. Jones works really well as Orlok, as if there would ever be a doubt. As for the other performances… in the main it felt like most were acting in a way they felt a silent actor would have acted when faced with sound and this made many of the performances a tad stagey, Eddie Allen's Knock notwithstanding. The concept is clever and whilst there were aspects I disliked (at the head of that, the changes to Hutter’s character – though I recognise that others might like the change – and the random lesbian pass due to it not having a narrative reason for being there), I thought the film interesting. The score worked well but, whilst worth your time, the remix struggles to get anywhere near the genius of the original film. 6 out of 10.
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