Real estate agent Thomas Hutter travels to Transylvania to meet with the mysterious Count Orlok, who wants to buy a house. But soon after arriving at the castle, he realizes that its inhabitant is a bloodthirsty creature of darkness… Meanwhile, at home in Germany, Hutter’s bride Ellen is haunted by terrifying apparitions…
I have to say, I have very mixed feelings about this movie, but, as I always do, I will start with the positives. There’s quite a few of them, but also, quite a few negatives, so, sit back, this is going to be a long one.
The acting and the dialogue makes this movie almost seem like a stage play or a work of art. Seriously, I forgot I was watching a movie sometimes. The costume design, the set design and like I said earlier, the dialouge, had me transported/invested into this world. The cast is phenomenal here, each and every one of the actors is giving really really great performances. Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson and Simon McBurney all shine in this movie, they all give chilling, devastated performances. Robert Eggers’ directing is really strong here. This might be some of his best work so far. The make-up for Nosferatu/Count Orlok is really great. I didn’t even notice he was played by Bill Skarsgård. This transformation is next-level! I can see this movie picking up a couple of oscar nominations.
This movie is also very scary. The atmosphere, the bloody violence, the visuals, the implications, the body horror, few but also very effective jumpscares. And this is my biggest negative of the movie. The violence and body horror was way too disturbing for my liking… I watched the Terrifier and Saw violence and I’ve seen my fair share of body horror/exorcism movies with no problem at all, but, this movie shook me to my very core. If I had to point out another small negative is that Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s and Emma Corrin’s performance and characters didn’t really add much to this movie. I feel like they were just slowing down the runtime.
I can see why the movie is rated highly. I’ve pointed it out in my positives section. The quality here is undeniable, it is very much worth a watch, but, too disturbing for my taste. I guess the movie did it’s job perfectly, because, it did do one thing a horror movie was supposed to do and that is scare you. Thankfully there were no spiders in this movie or else I would have left the theatre in tears. Rat/mouse haters, stay well clear of this movie, though, because you might need some therapy.
Director: Robert Eggers
Written by: Robert Eggers, Henrik Galeen, Bram Stoker
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson and Simon McBurney, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin
Rating: R (18+) – for bloody violent content, graphic nudity and some sexual content.
Runtime: 2 hours 12 minutes
