Nosferatu – Film Review

Cast: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Willem Dafoe, Simon McBurney

Director: Robert Eggers

Synopsis: In 19th-century Germany, a young woman has disturbing dreams and visions of an ominous supernatural presence who becomes infatuated with her…

Review: Humanity has always been fascinated with mythical creatures, perhaps none more so than the creatures of the night known as vampires. These blood-sucking entities have sunk their teeth into and left an indelible mark on the history of cinema, going all the way back to 1922 when F. W. Murnau’s silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror was released. The first vampire film and one of the films to establish horror as a genre, its influence has stood the test of time. Yet, if ever there was one filmmaker who could reimagine this gothic nightmare for a modern audience, you would be hard-pressed to find a more suitable filmmaker for this reimagining than one of the new masters of horror in Robert Houston Eggers.

It is 1838 in the German town of Wisburg and Ellen Hutter (Depp) has married estate agent Thomas Hutter (Hoult). Thomas is tasked by his employer Herr Knock (McBurney) to travel to Transylvania to get the reclusive Count Orlok (Skarsgård) to agree to a deal that will see the Count buy a dilapidated old manor, on the promise that the completion of the deal will see Thomas gain significant monetary reward and a promotion. Upon arriving at the Count’s foreboding residence, their fateful meeting sets off a chain of events leading back to Ellen. In the absence of her husband, she has been suffering from seizures and nightmarish visions of a creature she calls “Death” incarnate, which leads the villainous Count to become obsessed with her and pine after her in a twisted attempt to cure her loneliness.

Having been in development as a passion project for Eggers since 2015, it has perhaps served him well that during the years he worked to awaken this project from the slumber of development, he has gone on to refine his craft as a new master of horror. First, he captivated audiences with his New England folk-horror story and the haunting yet darkly comedic tale of two lighthouse keepers struggling to maintain their sanity on a remote island. After taking a break from horror to dabble in Norse mythology, he has returned to familiar territory, fully in his element and ready to scare the living daylights out of the audience. His screenplay takes the bones of the 1922 film (based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula) and puts considerably more meat on them by framing the story of Orlok’s campaign of terror from Ellen’s perspective. We see from her perspective how her intense desire for companionship, even if it is from a supernatural being of any kind, and Orlok is only too happy to oblige.

Framing the story from Ellen’s perspective is a masterstroke by this masterful director, and every cast member delivers truly outstanding performances. The sheer terror of being haunted by such a frightening presence demands a powerful performance, exactly what both Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult deliver. Depp invests everything into her role, allowing the audience to profoundly feel her dread and fear, which leads to some extremely unsettling scenes where it truly feels like she has been possessed by a supernatural entity and an immediate exorcism is required. Similarly, having to make the unsettling journey to Transylvania to deal with Orlok directly, you really feel Thomas’s absolute terror at staying in such an objectively unsettling place.

Having likely given countless people who suffer from coulrophobia with his portrayal of Pennywise, Skarsgård’s menacing performance stands an excellent chance of being one of the most unsettling horror performances ever put to film. Through a combination of incredible makeup work and an extremely sinister voice, is one you will remember for a very long time as it will chill you to your very soul. Even with a horrifying sense of dread, Dafoe, re-teaming with Eggers for the third time, once again fully understands the assignment and injects some humour into the gothic and unnerving moments.

In keeping with his earlier films, Eggers immerses the audience as if they were themselves in 19th-century Germany being haunted by this terrifying blood-sucking creature of the night. The director has explicitly said he has no desire to ever make a film in modern times, and all the better for it. Amidst incredible work from the production design and costume departments, special mention must go to returning cinematographer Jarin Blaschke. who has shot every single one of Eggers’ films, produces some of his best work here with some atmospheric and truly haunting cinematography. The scenes at the Orlok residence in particular stand out where the conniving Count is shrouded in shadow and darkness for a considerable proportion of the film. The dead of night can be a scary enough place as it is, but Blaschke’s work is so ominous and foreboding, that it may well leave you with a temporary phobia of the dark and consequently be tempted to sleep with the lights on.

Reimagining a film which has left an enduring impact on the world of film would have been a daunting task, but Eggers’ passion for the project comes through with each and every bewitching and yet simultaneously haunting frame. This new iteration of this classic tale packs plenty of bite, and by the end, will leave you no choice but to succumb to the darkness of its terrifying beauty.

With chillingly committed performances from Depp and Skarsgard, this new atmospheric incarnation of the classic vampire story will invade your nightmares as it passes into horror folklore.

Deadpool & Wolverine – Film Review

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, Emma Corrin, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, Leslie Uggams, Aaron Stanford, Matthew Macfadyen

Director: Shawn Levy

Synopsis: After retiring as the Merc with a Mouth, Wade Wilson is recruited by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) for an important mission with everything Wade holds dear at stake…

Review: Cast your mind back to Spring 2019, the opening night of Avengers: Endgame. Audiences around the world gasped, applauded and cheered as the culmination of more than ten years of cinematic universe-building came to one almighty and epic finale. It seemed an absolute certainty, at that moment in time, that the popularity of the comic book genre was infinite and would last for generations.

Fast forward five years later, and you can’t move for talk of superhero fatigue, particularly in recent years. While there have been some undoubted misfires (and some other issues offscreen) along the way in its post-Endgame era, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a far cry from the crisis point many would have had you believe. But now, following on from the merger between Fox and Disney, a portal of opportunity has been opened for the X-Men to enter the MCU. Enter the self-anointed “Marvel Jesus” AKA Wade Wilson.

Six years since his time travel shenanigans at the end of Deadpool 2, Wade Wilson has hung up the katanas and retired as the Merc with a Mouth. This is until the Time Variance Authority come knocking and informs Wade that the fate of his universe hangs in the balance and to save it, he must search for a particular individual who could hold the key to saving his world and everything he holds dear, who just so happens to be a certain claw-wielding mutant, albeit from a different timeline.

When it comes to X-Men characters to integrate into the MCU, the extremely hard R-rated, profanity-laden, fourth-wall-breaking Deadpool would seem on paper the most difficult as it sees the studio venturing into uncharted waters. Would the Disney/Fox merger silence Deadpool as he was in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine? Not a fucking chance. Reynolds is once again brilliant in a role he has emphatically made his own and it is hard to imagine seeing anyone else don the red spandex in the future. Talking of characters that actors have made their own, Hugh Jackman did this and more across a 17-year stint and got the perfect send-off with 2017’s Logan. So naturally, fears may have risen that Jackman’s emotional swansong in the role would be undone with his decision to don the claws once more. Fear not, because this multiverse phase of the MCU allows Jackman to return in a way which enables these two to go on an adventure together, without rendering his emotional sacrifice irrelevant. An adventure, the details of which shall not be divulged here, but suffice to say, with Deadpool’s wisecrack penchant for wisecracks and pop culture references, combined with Wolverine’s gruffness and zero tolerance for bullshit, it makes for a perfect comedy duo, though only one of them is having any sort of fun.

As great as it is to see these two share a screen together, the overall plot is a bit threadbare and the multiversal shenanigans in which they get involved get a bit messy. With five credited writers (Reynolds, Levy, Zeb Wells and returning writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese), it is a case of too many screenwriters convolute the page as multiversal shenanigans are nothing new, and this film does little to differentiate itself from that. A trend in recent MCU history has been to delve into the past to provide easter eggs in the form of cameos. Sometimes they can drive the plot forward, but on other occasions, they can be little more than nostalgia/ fan service. More the latter rather than the former in this case frustratingly as it means Cassandra Nova (Corrin), the sister to a certain Charles Xavier and the antagonist at the centre of this adventure, lacks the sufficient screentime to show what a menacing threat she could be. Corrin does their best with the material they are given, but ultimately Cassandra becomes the latest victim of the MCU villain curse.

With this being the third film he has worked on with Reynolds since 2021’s Free Guy and 2022’s The Adam Project, Levy slots right in seamlessly to the director’s chair. The action scenes are bloody and glorious to watch, with many needle drops that are sure to give these songs a resurgence in popularity. Prior to its release, the 34th film in the MCU was seen as a film to rejuvenate the universe to which audiences had seemingly grown tired and disinterested. It might not necessarily be the ultimate slam dunk many would have wanted it to be, but when the cast is clearly having this much of a hoot with the multiversal mayhem, sometimes you simply have to just suit up and enjoy the ride. Let’s. Fucking. Go.

Despite some narrative bumps along the way, Deadpool & Wolverine relies on the charisma, passion and energy with which its two leads have poured into their characters over the years, along with some glorious bloody violence which will leave you more than entertained. Maximum effort.