Love me some Gothic horror and god damned if I wasn’t satisfied. Gorgeous, had a bit of fun addressing some of the more problematic trappings of the genre in how it treats women.
Remade some of the amazing shots from the original film, maintained a fantastic creeping horror and dread, lots of truly disgusting practical effects, and some original and well realised additions.
Absolutely fab.
That’s a fair point, but I still find it an interesting choice that an entity as powerful as Orlok who has been haunting her dreams for years is as susceptible to being beguiled and completely helpless to pull himself away as a mere mortal. More so actually, since a man could have the presence of mind to pull out mid-stroke and run if his life depended on it.
It’s literally magic. Her calling out resurrected him, from being “buried in darkness”. He isn’t like a vampire like idk lestat from Anne Rice’s novels, he is more like a force of nature, devourance, plague, death made by Satan from a fell sorcerer to go do evil shit.
It’s like fairy rules, he was killed before by a maiden’s sacrifice, a maiden called out and awoke him again, they are magically bound and her sacrifice puts him down again. Presumably until some new sensitive person awakens him.
He doesn’t have a choice in his desire for her.
This is why I love it so much. I’m from the Balkans, we birthed vampire lore. This movie took care to include so many elements of traditions and tales. I loved it so much.