As the credits rolled, all I thought was “thank god that’s over.” I watched Nosferatu in theaters, and I found it almost unbearable to sit through thanks to the too-effective visceral horror that undergirds the movie. The blame does not lie at the feet of just the grotesque Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård). Everything about the human characters, their morality, and their surrender to evil repulsed me. The effects and costumes and settings succeed in creating a movie-watching experience so uncomfortable, I would not wish it on another person.
The movie’s themes focus on sex, death, and evil. Definitely not something you should watch with your parents. As my friend Sam said about the movie, “If my mom walked in on me watching Nosferatu, I’d switch the tab to porn.” With obsessive sex as the main driver of action of the movie, the movie makes for an uncomfortable watch even without the demonic tones.
The movie centers itself on the lonely and haunted newlywed Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). As a child, she had begged for company, a call horrifyingly answered by Count Orlok, the vampire character, a nosferatu. From then on, she is haunted by sexual nightmares of Orlok. Her wedding to Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) helped quell the erotic horror of Ellen’s life, but when Hutter is called to sell a property to the Count, Ellen’s nightmares come back in full swing. The situation devolves into Ellen desperately raving for Count Orlok’s nauseating touch.
Two hours of Orlok’s repulsive voice, revolting skin, and disgusting eating habits did more than enough to completely turn me off from the movie. But my own horror stood at total odds to the on-screen actions of the characters. Each character seemed to devolve into the evil that radiated from Orlok. Corpse exhumation, necrophilia, devil worship, and rampant horniness separate the main players of this film from the audience. Well, maybe not the horny part, depending on the audience.
Ellen spasms uncontrollably throughout the movie, her body bewitched and begging for Orlok. Depp has a knack for contorting her body in unnatural ways, but her performance did not stretch much deeper than that. The only thing she brought me was uncomfort. I found no empathy for such a black and white character. In fact, the only characters I had any sympathy for were Hutter and their married friends Anna (Emma Corrin) and Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). But by the end of the movie, each had done something so repulsive, I could not help but lose a little love for them.
The best performance in the movie was Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok. He delivered exactly what he needed to deliver; the most grotesque and uncomfortable half-dead bachelor I have ever seen. He fits Egger’s occult madness and serves as a perfect representation of the repulsiveness of this story. The character design makes Bill Skarsgård unrecognizable under Count Orlok’s façade.
The story itself, to me, didn’t make any sense, and the script was simple and seemed like every word was put into a thesaurus to seem era accurate. It would not be a compelling enough movie without Jarin Blaschke’s cinematography, and the amazing sound design done by Damian Volpe. Both the look and the sounds of the otherwise unbearable movie were so deeply entrancing and disgusting. Each crunch of ribs and teeth as Count Orlok locks his jaws into someone’s chest is expertly done. A hyper-realistic sound design and delicate imaging for this supernatural movie makes it all the more unsettling. There is a stark lack of good in this film about the power and temptation of evil. The whole movie is one long sick seduction, and I wish I never stepped foot into the theater to watch it. If you’re looking for some vampire-themed entertainment, please just stick to Twilight or Hotel Transylvania.
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