nosferatu is absolutely horrible

[u/thatreader24]

saw nosferatu tonight and i'm not even close to a regular movie critic, but i don't know if i've ever seen a worse movie. i walked out of the theater with my mind absolutely blown, (and possibly destroyed). how did this even make it to theaters, and even more importantly, how does this movie have 87% on rotten tomatoes?? it was disgusting to say the least. wish i could bleach my eyes and my brain.

spoiler alert

edit: i will say that i had pretty much no problem with it until she's possessed and says something about her husband not being able to please her like the vampire could, and then in what seems like an attempt to prove a point, they start aggressively banging? like...who had that idea? at that point the whole movie was pretty much ruined for me, and then it somehow managed to get worse as the movie went on, which ruined it even further. i do think that it started off strange, alluding to her as a child allowing this vampire to come into her soul or whatever, it's pretty weird. but up until that specific scene, and the many ones that would soon follow, having any chance of liking this movie was gone for me.

[u/Max_Cherry_]

OP barely explains why they didn’t like it and just calls it disgusting. Worthless critique. Feels like bait to me.

[u/InteractionSilent268 → u/Max_Cherry_]

They didnt like it...because theres a sex scene? I didnt love the movie, its beautifully made though and i can articulate why i didnt love it. This guy wrote a few paragraphs of nonsense.

[u/Max_Cherry_ → u/InteractionSilent268]

I actually appreciated everything they said in contrast to the OP of this post. At least they were detailed.

Their first point about Eggers making a movie about X but the movie proves the opposite makes sense. But if you can only apply that idea to 2 of the last 4 movies he’s made I don’t think that’s a strong point of n terms of criticizing his film making. It’s like, yeah I guess being a religious zealot was the preferable outcome compared to everyone dying and becoming a witch-hag. It would be a different movie if the message or the way the events played out showed that being a religious really wasn’t the best thing. Are we even meant to infer a message from The Witch? From Nosferatu?

Saying the characters were hatable is not a very strong point either. Are we supposed to love every character? All the reasons they list are just saying things that happened in the movie and saying I didn’t like that. She let her friend die. Ok, well, there’s some crazy vampire possession ritual happening. I’m not sure if Helen is really expected to just fall on the sword and sacrifice herself to save her friend.

In terms of rooting for a character in Nosferatu, it was Dafoe for me. While I’m fine with it, I see how this me could say most of the characters were weak. I thought the acting was good, but none of the characters were particularly strong or interesting. Except Dafoe IMO.

I’m not sure what they mean by wokeness. I thought it was un-woke to portray these men basically treating their women like a lesser class of human being.

The film barely showing the Count makes sense. I almost never like “reveals” and I prefer the Count being kept in shadows most of the time. I thought it was creepier and more menacing. The times we could see him in his entirety I didn’t enjoy as much because he wasn’t all that scary to me when fully visible. If you prefer being able to see the monster frequently and in full visibility, that’s cool. But in my opinion they go on to conflate visual visibility with sense of presence. The way they explain what they mean makes sense and I can’t say I disagree. I might have liked the movie more if the alternative they described was true. From watching the film you have the knowledge and some sense that Orlok has sort of omnipotent occult powers and is in control, but I guess it wasn’t this weighted feeling of helplessness.

They apparently have a problem with the mixed messaging of lust is bad but then people giving into lust is such a heavy theme. Or rather if lust is so bad why have so much lust in the movie? This nitpick feels so contrived. As much as I appreciate their critique and even agree with some of what they said, I feel like they’re eventually writing negative criticisms out of contrarianism. This is supposed to be a retelling of an unofficial retelling of Dracula. I haven’t seen Coppola’s Dracula or 1920’s Nosferatu, but is lust leading to downfall a consistent theme? If so, how is this even a complaint?

They say it wasn’t scary and I agree. I’m fine with that. It didn’t diminish anything for me. In fact I appreciated that it wasn’t scary in the sense I think they mean. I liked that it was graphic, creepy, and unsettling even if it wasn’t scary the way movies like Hereditary or Sinister are scary. At least to me.

They nitpick over the mustache but I think they’re misunderstanding Egger’s explanation. I read it as Orlok had a mustache because Lords of his time commonly had one.

All in all, if these are the reasons they don’t like it, that’s fine. I do think they’re trying hard to criticize it though.

[u/InteractionSilent268 → u/Max_Cherry_]

People are looking for messages in the most straightforward stories. A witch terrorizes a family of religious zealots and the witch wins! Whats the message?! No message, its just a scary story.

[u/Max_Cherry_ → u/InteractionSilent268]

Exactly.

[u/BaewulfGaming → u/InteractionSilent268]

That would be great...if the director himself didn't specifically state that this was a theme in his film. So, per the director, you are incorrect.

And if his statement is that religious zealotry is actually the horror of these times, then why make this sentiment lesser by having the ending be that the devil is real and the main girl goes with him? Because that then lessens the impact of his theme, by making their worries and paranoia true.

[u/Cap-Mindless → u/InteractionSilent268]

And what is the point of a story, oh ya, to communicate an idea which is the delivery of a message. Think deeper sometimes, and maybe you won't judge others for doing so.