Saw Nosferatu on Christmas Day, had conflicting feelings over it. It’s one of those movies you want to be good because it does so many things so well but it just feels off somehow.
The positives- impeccable acting/ authenticity for the era, Eggers has always been good about this and you feel apart of the era by every single piece of it down to the verbiage and locale. It’s as authentic as it can be which is delightful. Acting is spectacular across the board. Cinematography is exceptional, all over the movie is shot beautifully.
The mixed- it’s 2 hours long but still feels rushed somehow, this is the downfall of trying to cram a Dracula esque story into a movie versus a series. However the 2 hours don’t feel like two hours because despite feeling rushed at parts it’s still engaging throughout.
The negatives- it doesn’t have dread, there are tense moments, there are some well done jump scares, even a bit of body horror. But at least for me there was no real dread and with no real dread it’s not real gothic horror. I didn’t fear for the characters, I didn’t feel that gnawing anxiety like I did reading Dracula for the first time. The other negative- it’s a “love triangle” like the classic Dracula, where you don’t feel the love between any of the triangle. Imagine if the Harkers in Dracula seemed cold and even antagonistic towards each other from the onset. The ending also heavily suffers because of this. That lackluster love also made the dread nonexistent and something that could have been fixed with and extra 30-40 minutes runtimes.
Overall it’s a movie that could have easily been an 8-9/10 with a few changes but suffers from not having the key component of gothic horror, dread. I would say 6.5/10. Worth watching simply for the immaculate authenticity to the era and acting.
Nerdrotic seemed to like it, and I’m sure the majority will say it’s at least worth watching.
I'm reading Dracula right now. The Harkers come off as a couple going through hell and dealing with the PTSD it causes. Jonathan writes much of his journal for Mina, and makes sure to talk about local foods he wants to try with her. She worries about him, but then watches her best friend slowly die. When they meet back up they're both trying to deal with everything. Mina decides to write the various journals together so they have a way to trace their knowledge.
Also, Dracula has a big white mustache and acts like a proud pompous Czech lord. We base our knowledge on the movies, which were based on a play that sort of covered the book.