Nosferatu

Directed by Robert Eggers, Nosferatu follows Nicholas Hoult’s Thomas Hutter as he triggers a series of horrific episodes after encountering Bill Skarsgård’s mysterious title figure. Filmmaker Eggers, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a progressively intolerable trainwreck that does hold some promise within its opening stretch, admittedly, as the movie boasts an undeniably impressive visual sensibility that’s echoed in Jarin Blaschke’s lush cinematography and Craig Lathrop’s stunning production design. It’s clear, then, that Nosferatu‘s downfall is triggered by an overly, exhaustingly familiar narrative and almost total lack of compelling characters, with the latter especially disappointing given the proliferation of top-notch personalities within the picture’s roster of performers. (And it doesn’t help, certainly, that Skarsgård offers up a grating and hopelessly underwhelming turn as the far-from-frightening antagonist.) The degree to which Nosferatu subsequently wears out its welcome is nothing short of disastrous, ultimately, and there’s little doubt that the movie’s sluggish and completely tedious second half ensures it runs out of steam long before arriving at its endless climax – which does, in the final analysis, confirm its place as just another irrelevant, pointless piece of work from Eggers.

1/2* out of ****