Nosferatu

Robert Eggers announced his version of Murnau’s 1922 Nosferatu in 2015 and spent years stuck: Anya Taylor-Joy was attached to Ellen from 2017, Harry Styles left in 2021 over scheduling, and the parts went to Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult. Bill Skarsgård first read for Thomas; he built Orlok in a ten day pandemic workshop with Eggers, then had to find him again when the shoot slipped two and a half years. Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke built the moonlit scenes on a filter that stripped yellow, red and most green, leaving almost only blue, because he wanted the wavelengths the eye registers in low light. The cold blue grey of the nights is a decision, not a shortfall. Five thousand live rats were used; production designer Craig Lathrop describes plexiglass barriers keeping horses on one side and rats on the other, real rats in front, digital behind. The film took four Academy Award nominations: cinematography, costume design, production design, makeup and hairstyling. It lost all four. A good fit if you accept that Orlok’s face is a prosthetic build of up to six hours and will watch a performance from under it. Not for anyone who cannot sit through crowds of real rats, or the scenes behind the MPA’s R for bloody violence, nudity and sexual content.