Ty Watches "Nosferatu"

I'm a Robert Eggers fan. I have three of his four movies now, and all 3 I have enjoyed very much. Last week my dad and I decided we were going to see "Nosferatu". We try to see a movie during the holiday season and this was one that we both wanted to see. I had high expectations because I love "The Lighthouse" and "The Northman" is one of the coolest movies that has ever been made. The early reviews were also very favorable. As we settled in and sat back, I was ready to love Eggers vision for "Nosferatu".

And, it delivered on every level for me as a movie goer. This movie was an absolute homerun. I have only recently seen the original from 1922, and Eggers and crew do that movie some solid justice. The story is pretty much the same, but they added dialogue and made it a little more understandable. We also get to see Count Orlok early on in this movie, and we get to hear his horrifying voice. Bill Skarsgaard does an admirable job as the Count. He plays him menacingly and unforgiving. He is a truly wretched being, and Skarsgaard nailed it. I am more impressed with each role I see him in. He is a good actor and he seems to have found his niche in Hollywood. Lily Rose Depp is undeniably great as Ellen, the one whom Orlok is obsessed with. She is pitch perfect here. The convulsions and visions also felt very real to me. Depp never dives into cliche stuff with this role. She embodies this sickness and it shows on screen. Nicholas Hoult is very good as the husband. You buy his naivete at first, but then when he encounters Orlok, his whole outlook on the world changes, and Hoult embraces the madness incredibly well. You can see the agony and fear on his face when he goes to sell the Count the new home he is purchasing. Aaron Taylor Johnson and Emma Corrin give very good performances as the married couple friends of the Hutter's, who take on Ellen when Thomas is sent away. They have a family and a life, but all that is on hold when Ellen comes to stay with them. You see their grief and frustration. Ralph Ineson, a buddy of Eggers I presume, is wonderful as the doctor trying to help Ellen with her issues, but he won't buy into the occult. Instead, he enlists his former professor, played excellently by Willem Defoe, to take on the patient. Defoe is magnetic. I loved every single second he was on screen. Defoe is one of my favorite actors, and he is more than game for this role in this movie. From his dusty jacket to acting with live rats, Defoe nails it here. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Simon McBurney as Knock. He is Orlok's pet so to speak. Everything he does is in service to Orlok, and he will go to great lengths to get the job done.

Outside of the cast, the cinematography and the story are dynamite. There are some shots in this movie that are impeccable. When Hutter meets the chariot that takes him to the castle at a fork in the road, that was an amazing shot. Every time we get more of a glimpse of Orlok, it gets spookier and spookier. The castles are big and beautiful to look at on screen. The story is simple enough, but the actors have totally bought in and they really sell it to the viewer. I was on the edge of my seat the entire two plus hour long runtime. I didn't want to miss a thing. For as gross and gory as some of the stuff in the movie was, it was all needed to move along the plot and let us know why we were in certain situations.

"Nosferatu" is truly an achievement and a movie I think a lot of people should see on a big screen. I cannot recommend this movie enough. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Barbarian"

Every Halloween I like to write a blog about the holiday. This year I am going to do the same, but I am also going to wrap in a movie review.

I have mentioned many times that, ever since the start of the pandemic, during our date nights in October that I like to pick movies that are on the scarier side. I like trying movies out that I may not pick any other time of the year. Sometimes it works, "The Babadook", sometimes it doesn't, "Midsommar". I had the pick for the last movie of the month and I chose "Barbarian". I have heard a lot about the movie, but I chose to not read anything or watch any trailers. That was what the people who were talking about suggested doing. The whole idea is to go into the movie blind. I did see a ten second clip of crowds' reactions to the movie in the theater, and they all looked pretty scared. So I was ready to pull the trigger. I was going to go hyper scary with the movie in the final week. Now, I am going to tread lightly so as to not spoil anything, but if something slips out, sorry. Try to watch the movie before reading this.

Now, "Barbarian" is a solid movie. It is scary. I jumped a ton. I was on edge the entire time. I feel like that is how it is supposed to be when watching a movie like this. It really got to me. It also stayed with me for a few days because I had nightmares. It was nothing related to the movie, but the movie's after effects stayed with me. That is another feather in its cap. The movie did its job. The acting was also really well done. I despised Justin Long, as you are supposed to. Bill Skarsgaard is as creepy as ever, and that is without any makeup on. And the star of the movie, Georgina Campbell, was dynamite. She did such a great job, was so easy to root for and she is so easy to watch. She was really, really good in this movie. I had only ever seen her in an episode of "Black Mirror" before this, which she was also wonderful in, so I am not surprised she carried this movie.

Now, for the bad part. As I said, this is a good movie, I understand that objectively, but I did not like it. I loved the story, how they told it and how it all came across, but it was gross. It was gory. It was terrifying. It made me shudder. It jumps tones and times. It was jarring at moments. And you could tell it was filmed during the pandemic. All that being said, I feel like that was the intention of the people making it. They wanted it to be gory. They wanted you to be grossed out. They wanted it to make you feel some kind of way and they achieved it. But it wasn't for me. Movies like this mess me up. I watched it three days ago and I still can't shake it. Images from it still jump into my brain and frighten me. I am definitely more of a psychological thriller type of "scary" movie viewer. Stuff like "The Babadook" does that perfectly.

So, while I can see why "Barbarian" is so loved, and why it got excellent reviews, it is not the movie for me. I do recommend it because it is fascinating, but I will never watch it again. That is the best I can say about it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.