NOSFERATU (Robert Eggers)
It began life as FW Murnau's 1922 German Expressionist silent cinema classic - an unauthorised version of Bram Stoker's vampire tale 'Dracula'.
It has since inspired a 1977 Spanish dubbed version of Murnau's film, a Werner Herzog remake two years later and a Kickstarter funded 2023 version which took nine years to reach the screen.
Now we have a chilly remake from Robert Eggers of 'The Witch,' 'The Lighthouse' and 'The Northman' fame and it has been burning up the box office since New Year's Day.
Set in 19th Century Germany and staring Lily Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe and Bill Skarsgard, Eggers' film evokes memories of William Friedkin's 'The Exorcist'.
Depp plays Ellen, a young woman married to Hoult's Thomas Hutter, who in her teenage years stirred a malevolent supernatural spirit while trying to overcome her loneliness.
When Thomas is asked by his employer, Simon McBurney's Herr Knock to travel to Carpathia to seal a deal involving Bill Skarsgard's reclusive Count Orlok to purchase a decrepit property near their hometown of Wisburg, Ellen fears it does not bode well.
And so it proves, with Thomas exposed on his journey to gypsies exhuming alleged vampire corpses, being spooked by the presence Count Orlok and also his creepy castle, cutting himself during dinner, falling into a trance and waking up on the floor with bite marks on his chest.
Back home, Thomas's friend Aaron-Taylor Johnson's Friedrich Harding and his wife Emma Corin's Anna become increasingly concerned about Ellen who starts to suffer seizures and sleepwalk, prompting them to summon Ralph Ineson's Dr Wilhelm Sievers who in turn engages Willem Dafoe's occult expert Professor Albin Eberhart.
It very quickly becomes clear that Ellen's seizures and the increasingly feral behaviour of Thomas's boss Herr Knock are a form of demonic possession.
And it isn't long before an outbreak of evil consumes Wisburg, as Orlok seeks to claim the body and soul of Ellen.
Stunningly shot in silvery, wintry tones by Jarin Blaschke, Eggers delivers an unsettling version of Murnau's horror classic, mixing exquisite period detail with a Gothic sensuality and tapping into a COVID inspired sense of impending doom.
Blaschke, production designer Craig Lathrop, costume designer Linda Muir and make-up and hairstyle artists David White, Traci Loader and Suzanne Stokes-Munton earn their Oscar stripes in a typically visceral film from Eggers.
Depp, Hoult, Dafoe, McBurney and Skarsgard also rise to the occasion with performances that disturb but also delight.
'Nosferatu' is best seen in the cinemas but if you can't, do the next best thing and watch it on your biggest, loudest TV.
Darken your living room for maximum effect and marvel at the terrifying beauty of it all.
('Nosferatu' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on January 1, 2025)
NIGHTBITCH (Marielle Heller)
Sometimes films don't get the release they deserve.
Unlike 'Nosferatu,' Marielle Heller's 'Nightbitch' barely got a foothold in British and Irish cinemas in December, thanks to 'Wicked,' 'Gladiator II' and 'Moana 2' gobbling up screen space.
Yet it is a far more impressive movie than any of those films.
Adapted from the 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder, Amy Adams plays an unnamed married mum to a difficult two year toddler who might as well be raising him on her own.
Scoot McNairy's unnamed husband dips in and out of raising the boy at weekends after spending the week on work trips, leaving Adams' character to ruminate on how joyless it is to raise a demanding young child almost single handed.
An artist by trade, she mourns the career she sacrificed and is looked down upon by those who were once her contemporaries.
As she becomes more resentful about her role, Adams' character finds herself drawing the attention of dogs in her neighbourhood, spouting hair in unlikely places in her body, additional nipples and even a tail.
But is she really turning into a dog?
Adapted for the screen by Heller, 'Nightbitch' is a searingly honest look at motherhood, thumbing its nose at traditional stereotypes and cleverly deploying magical realist techniques.
It helps that Adams is in the lead role and it's a wonderfully complex performance, aided and abetted by an equally impressive turn by McNairy as the self centred and unaware husband.
When it first screened at Toronto last September, the film was considered an awards season frontrunner but it quickly faded from contention after a solitary nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes.
By far Heller's best movie, it and Adams deserved a lot more awards attention than it got and certainly a much better distribution deal.
Watch the movie and Adams' performance, though, grow in appreciation in years to come while memories of some of this year's more successful awards season contenders fade.
('Nightbitch' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on December 6, 2024 and was made available for streaming on Disney+ on January 24, 2025)
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