Nosferatu

Ever as beautiful as I expect from Robert Eggers' filmography, it is hard to put into words how amazed I was by the visual language used in this film. I don't think I will ever forget that haunting imagery of the riderless horse carriage making its way down the forest path, with every beat of the hoofs making my skin crawl as the snow falls around it. The acting performances were on another level; Lily-Rose Depp's depiction of Ellen reminds me so much of Isabelle Adjani in Andrzej Żuławski's masterpiece Possession, and that is one of the highest commendations I can give to any actor. My god, the themes in this movie, the depiction of the supernatural and the occult. Where Stoker’s Dracula is aristocratic and seductive, and Murnau’s Orlok is epidemiological and, in a way, capitalist, Eggers’ vampire is ontologically wrong, a being that violates Christian, natural, and social order simultaneously. One that also represents the supression of sexuality, he is the shadow cast by a society that refuses to integrate desire into its understanding of the human soul. The occult becomes the language through which that shadow speaks. “𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐨, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐩 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭… 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐍𝐨𝐬𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮.”