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Nosferatu…the December 2024 remake of the 1922 gothic horror movie. Directed by Robert Eggers, Nosferatu has captured the attention of many. However, the public’s overall opinion has been divisive, with many expressing that it was disappointing while others felt it to be a cinematographic masterpiece.
Weinberg student Onyinye Ohanaka says that she originally only watched the film because of actor Aaron Taylor Johnson, but actually grew to like it in the end.
[ONYINYE OHANAKA] So I’m not usually like a big horror fan, but I really like Aaron Taylor Johnson. Like, especially him in Bullet Train, Anna Karenina, Avengers Age of Ultron, and stuff like that, so I saw that he was in this and I was like ‘ooh I’ll watch this.’ And I actually ended up really liking the movie. I know a lot of people said that his role wasn’t really that good, but I think he did a good job at really selling his character.
DJ Harrison, a Medill freshman, said that he felt the same way he’s felt about other movies from the director – Robert Eggers.
[DJ HARRISON] My initial reaction was just like my reaction for every other Robert Eggers movie. I thought some of the parts were weird for no reason. I thought it really didn’t all connect at the end. I was kind of disappointed because I had high expectations for like Lily Rose Depp in it and Willem Dafoe, but at the end of the day, it was just like every other one of his movies and just left me wanting more I guess.
Harrison hasn’t seen the original 1922 Nosferatu in full, but has seen bits and pieces that left him feeling like the remake didn’t quite capture the same amount of dread and gothic atmosphere as the original.
[DJ HARRISON] There is just no matching the first one. Any time you see that image of Nosferatu in the first one, it’s just terrifying. But in this one, it was filled with just a bunch of overacting and just – I just wasn’t a big fan.
Ohanaka found the sexual aspects of the film to be excessive in some ways, but nonetheless she enjoyed it.
[ONYINYE OHANAKA] I thought the movie was like overly sexual, you know, especially like the ending of it, but overall, I still liked it. Like I enjoyed watching it. Like I said, I’m not really a horror fan, but this movie isn’t really horror, it was more like gore and gore isn’t fun to watch, but like it’s better than like being scared. You know, I would just like look away when they were eating somebody. Also, I’m not really like a film nerd and this film was easy for me to follow along. Like it wasn’t like oh really sophisticated, it didn’t feel pretentious at times. And like, the cinematography too was really good. Like, the use of like shadows and light and darkness was really fun to watch and really easy for like a normal person to follow along, so overall, I really liked that.
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Nosferatu has sparked passionate debates—some see it as a visual triumph, while others feel it misses the mark set by the original film. Whether you’re drawn to it for its modern reinterpretation or you’re left yearning for the eerie shadows of the past, one thing is certain: this movie has people talking. So, what do you think? A gothic masterpiece, or merely a subpar imitation? Let us know your thoughts.
For WNUR News, I’m Darasimi Bankole.
