[Movies] Nosferatu (2024)

[Wintruz]

In one of the best publicised vampire films since Twilight, Robert Eggers, who brought the world The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman, has remade F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu. A previous remake, by Wener Herzog in 1979, is my favourite vampire film. Or should I say, was my favourite vampire film..

Eggers' Nosferatu is, by far, the most deeply "occult" vampire film ever released. In essence, it refracts the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel as an encounter between Ellen, an "enchantress", and the vampire which she has "stirred up from darkness". She, like Crowley, directly asks whether this being exists outside of her or if it's only within her, whether the HGA is independent or latent. This is all so well-aligned with the sexual chaos, melancholy and psychic activity which accompanies encounters with the HGA, that it's simply not possible that Eggers isn't aware of what he is doing. It seems unthinkable that he hasn't read something along the lines of Sex Magic, Tantra & Tarot: The Way of the Secret Lover. There are even mirrorings of this encounter: one desperate character attempts to unite with their projected HGA by engaging in necrophilia. Outside of that HGA connection, there are occult references galore. Prof. Von Franz (the Van Helsing of the film) is a consciously Agrippan Mage (Agrippa is named) who utilises alchemy and cabala. Herr Knock utilises similar magic as a means of contracting a demon of his own. Whether or not this demon is the same as Ellen's vampire is best decided for oneself.

Beyond all of this occultism, the film itself is spectacular. In keeping with the oldest folkloric tradition, Nosferatu is

Spoiler: (description of his appearance)

a fetid, living corpse but one which looks like a decayed version of Vlad Tepes II. He speaks with a command and strangeness as though he has spoken to no-one in 500 years.

. There are many unfliching, hyper-realistic references to traditional vampire folklore too, particularly from the Romani tradition. The cinematography throughout is near-unimaginably beautiful and there isn't a less than excellent performance. Most interestingly of all, the film develops the same tones of hysteria that were present in historical vampire panics but which have never been as successfully translated onto the screen. It gives the sense of being swept along into frenzy with it and, in that frenzy, perhaps glimpsing the thing that reaches out to contact us but which we banish to the shadows. Recommended. Five stars.