Nosferatu (2024)

My first cinema experience of 2025 is for one of my most anticipated films of the year. This is a remake of the 1922 copyright infringing Nosferatu which itself is based on Bram Stoker's Dracula and comes from Robert Eggers the director of The Lighthouse and The Witches along with 2022's The Northman. This isn't the only Dracula movie we are getting this year with a Chloe Zhao directed Dracula supposed to be coming this year but there currently are no details about it so there are several question marks attached to this.

GOOD POINT 01: VISUALLY BRILLIANT AND ATMOSPHERIC

You can tell this by the trailer but this film is very atmospheric and looks stunning. The film does basically exist in black and white although there are obviously other colours but when I think of this film I just think of it in black and white. Every frame gives off a gothic vibe and despite the plot, Credit has to go to Jarin Blaschke for his cinematography work which would totally undermine the tone of the film if it didn't work like it did. I would love to spend a bit of time in this world. We might not even be a full week into 2025 but I would be astonished if there were any better looking films that I see this year. 

GOOD POINT 02: GREAT PERFORMANCES FROM SKARSGARD & DAFOE

To say that Bill Skarsgård and Willem Dafoe give the best performances is at this point a given. I cant remember a time when Dafoe has given a bad performance, he might be in films that aren't as good or terrible but he's never been bad in them. As Professor von Franz, he comes into the plot relatively late but when he does appear he makes up for the time he is missed and starts to steal the show (more of that later). It’s a confident and at times cranky performance yet its mixed in with kindness and warmth. Skarsgård who plays Count Orlok gives a performance that at times rivals Pennywise. In fact there are a couple of shots where he did remind me of It. The thing about Skarsgård’s performance is that we don't really see him for 80% of the runtime as he is always shown in silhouette which works for the tone of the film and when we do see him it's quite horrific and makes the final scene. I did find the manner in which he spoke to be slightly frustrating and joked to myself that the film would have probably been 30 minutes shorter if he spoke at normal speed. It’s still a great performance and a great villain for the film.

GOOD POINT 03: NICHOLAS HOULT AND LILY ROSE-DEPP ARE GOOD SUPPORTING ROLES

Normally this would be a negative but Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp are supposed to be the leads of the film but they are outacted by Dafoe and Skarsgård. They aren't terrible in it by any means but they weren't able to quite keep up with their co-stars. I quite like Hoult and think that he is quite underrated in most of his films. The Menu instantly comes to mind as a cowardly Tyler in 2022’s The Menu. He is very good as Thomas Hutter who is trying to be a nice person but has been pulled into this horrible work through no fault of his own. Lily-Rose Depp is ok when she is playing Ellen normally but never has any weight behind her scenes, where she saves this from going into the negative section is when she is possessed and has to contort her body in ways that dont look like they have been done with CGI. I think that this makes up for the weaker aspects of her performance.

Ralph Ineson is also worthy of an honourable mention as it is his character that drives a lot of the action in the first half of the movie. He always elevates whatever he is in and is one of those actors that never delivers a bad performance regardless of whether the film is any good or not.

GOOD POINT 04: WELL PACED AND NEVER BORING

The film is just over two hours and it was never boring. The atmosphere and visual moments keep you occupied when the action takes a breather and at no point during the course of the film was I looking at my watch waiting to see how much time was left. For something that is lacking in light hearted moments, the film managed to keep my attention and was the rare thing nowadays and that is a film that is the perfect running time. It would have been so easy to make this an extra 30 minutes or so but Robert Eggers told his story and got out as soon as he could. An argument could be made that the film needed a final scene which left the audience with an upbeat moment but I thought it ended just the right way.

BAD POINT 01: AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON WAS THE WEAK LINK

Hollywood’s attempt to try and make Aaron Taylor-Johnson a big star continues to falter. I haven't seen Kraven the Hunter but apparently he’s not great in that and I don't think he is much better in this. There are moments where he is fine but I thought that he disappeared into the background. He was at best the fifth best person in this film which considering he’s in a decent amount of the movie is a shame.  It’s worrying that people keep trying to push him as the next Bond because I don't think he has the presence that is needed to play the role.  

He is due to appear in 28 Years Later so hopefully that will show us what he can do but in Nosferatu he doesn't quite keep up with everyone else.

OVERALL

I had a lot of expectations for this film and they were met. It’s not the best Robert Eggers film but I still think it's a damn good movie with some great performances and one that looks like care and attention has been paid to the film and it's also clear that Eggers cares about the source material and the end result is an early contender for film of the year. Not sure if that will be the case by the end of the year but wherever it ends up in my rankings, its a relief that the year has started off in such a great way.