A Nosferatu Christmas
When you think Christmas you think family, fun, and lights, but this year I decided to think gothic, erie, and Dracula. On its opening day, I watched Nosferatu (2024) directed by historical horror filmmaker Robert Eggers. The movie stars Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlock, Lily-Rose Depp as Elen Hutter, Nicholas Hoult as Thomas Hutter, and Willem Dafoe as Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, just to name a few of the all-stars. This story follows a newlywed couple that is haunted by grotesque force that they are not able to put their finger on until their worst supernatural fears start to come to life. Viewers are in for quite a barbaric showing of Nosferatu, himself, and his sinister deeds.
The newer generations know the name "Nosferatu" from the SpongeBob episode titled "Graveyard Shift". In the episode, we see a spooky-looking little man standing in a doorway with a trench coat draped high. For me, this was one of the first times I saw a frightful depiction of Count Dracula. With Nosferatu (also known as Count Orlock) and Dracula being the same person, I was not prepared for how dramatized Eggers' Nosferatu was. I offer a standing ovation to Bill Skarsgård for playing roles where he is utterly unrecognizable to the point where his on-stage image still haunts audiences for years to come. I spent the full two hours searching for any hint of Skarsgård in Count Orlock, but there were no signs at all. Now THAT is disappearing into your role.
A still of Count Orlock’s (Bill Skarsgård) resting place from Nosferatu (2024).
This star-studded cast displayed their outstanding ability to execute each scene with intense perfection and dedicated preparation to step into their roles. From Robin Carolan's score to the grueling sound design, each element brought a uniqueness that made up the world of Nosferatu. I particularly liked the film's color grading and the use of shadows.
The evolution from black-and-white to Technicolor alone to modern digital cinematography proves the importance of color grading in film. Robert Egger's is no newcomer to using color to tell stories. His film The Lighthouse (2019) was shot on 35mm film and in black-and-white to bring to life early 19th-century photography and contribute to the audience's unease whilst watching the character's mental deterioration and sense of isolation on a stormy night atop a lighthouse. Similarly to this, Nosferatu is not shy to careful use of both black-and-white, emotive color, and shadow work. The black-and-white contributed to the gothic horror-ness of the film, taking us back to 1800s Germany itself. While not in black-and-white, the color palette includes dark blues, blood reds, yellows, and oranges. The dark blue is primarily seen coupled with other darker hues of blue and black in nighttime scenes with an eerie moonlight shining on the character or an important location. Red is seen in parallel to scenes where blood is being shed. Its deepness provides for a heavy contrast while the background is made up of more muted blues or yellows. The combination of darker red, yellow, and oranges make up the fire used to burn Dracula's victims and the lighter yellow and oranges make up the daylight that is the Count's biggest killer.
Cinematographer, Jarin Blaschke, ensured that the use of shadows in the film wouldn't be overlooked. As per the plot, we know that since a young age, Count Orlock has been within Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) for as long as she can dream of. In scenes where Orlock is evoked in person or dreams, we are introduced to him as a shadow first, then in physical form. This depicted that the Count was always with and within her, creating a mystic allure. The shadows evoked through candlelight provided an equally haunting image. I truly enjoyed this use of lighting rather than using traditional three-point lighting to create the suspense. Blaschke and Eggers helped us to be fully immersed in the film through a simple mechanism rather than using an overcomplicated one.
Starting as a seed in Eggers' mind circa 2015, Nosferatu has developed into its own dark, twisted, fantasmical adaptation of F.W. Murnau and Bram Stoker's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. This is sure to transport audiences back into a time when the line between science and the supernatural was a fine one. Be prepared for uncomfortably real, visual opulence that will make your skin crawl this holiday season, for Nosferatu is coming.
