Nosferatu 4K 2024 Extended Cut

I hadn't seen Coppola's Dracula or any of the other film adaptations. I went to the screening with a clear, empty head, not knowing what to expect. And what I saw was a rather primitive tale, with faded characters, questionable motivations, and a sluggish structure. Yes, these are the fantasies of 19th century people, they don't have to be clear to us. But Nosferatu is critically lacking in detail, emotion, and cause and effect. Stoker's original book is a tabloid work in the horror genre. Its essence is novelty. A wow effect for contemporaries. It is the essence of the comic book. Vivid form and questionable content. Entertainment. Comedy differs from tragedy in having a terrible beginning and a beautiful ending. It's also physical. That is, it is the physical movements and transformations of the characters that make us laugh or frighten us, but not their inner world.

The scenes in the first half, where the protagonist is in Count Orlok's castle, are powerful. They give us hopes of madness, shock and adrenaline, and make us squeeze our eyes shut. But what happens next? What's the drama? Who to sympathize with and why? The characters of Johnny Depp and Nicholas Hoult's daughter look lethargic and luscious. They have nothing to play except the typical screaming and agony typical of any horror movie. It's not enough, they don't inspire sympathy, not even antipathy, let alone empathy. The villain is as empty and simple as three pennies. What his shtick, hope and purpose is, it was not clear to me personally for the whole two and a half hours. There is certainly a beautiful wrapper. Stunning castle locations, natural scenery, period costumes, creepy music. It's filmed in a very chamber-like, aesthetic, gothic way. Very beautiful. Bravo to all the artists, cameramen. Bravo to the director for stirring our interest in the classics. Eggers has made a serious, big and good movie. But as if not for his level of talent. After Beacon, he went commercial, almost losing his bold vision of a movie in which irony, meta-irony, absurdity, question, challenge, doubt, criticism, pain are always called for.

There was hope for the best horror movie of the year. What's left is a residue, like a light, old-fashioned horror flick. Nosferatu doesn't show a double bottom. It's a straightforward, non-trivial statement about the nature of evil. It is irrational. A person has been hurt and killed by someone, improperly buried, has become resentful of the world, and dreams of revenge on everyone. I just told you the plot of a thousand horror movies. Including Nosferatu. And one step to the right, one step to the left of this formula, and we find nothing new, brilliant, touching. Sociopolitical allusions in the form of the evil and plague-ridden East invading the holy West do not work. The moral of this sympathetic fable sinks in the darkness of the lack of serious dramaturgy.