Celluloid Chronicles: Christmas Creature Double Feature

A Creature Feature that features...creatures

I spent a few hours at the movie theatre on Christmas Day and did an unplanned double feature. Surprisingly, both began with moans and touched on the effects of sexual & social repression.

Nosferatu

I don't know about you, but I was only vaguely familiar because of that Spongebob episode where they stitched a clip of Nosferatu at the end of it. Something about the juxtaposition of 2D animation and live action evoked fear and mild distress for children, especially when it's not expected. Another example would be that Courage the Cowardly Dog episode where the face of the moon was a man in white face speaking. It's unsettling. It's odd. Similarly, Nosferatu evokes these same feelings, and more, successfully.

Nosferatu (2024) is a re-imaging of the original Nosferatu(1922) which was an unlicensed adaptation of Dracula for the German population. Though illegal and nearly destroyed because of Bram Stoker's wife winning the lawsuit, it was a cornerstone for filmmaking, and quickly amassed a cult following. I have not watched it, but I will.

Nosferatu begins with Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) as a teen, ignored by her father after her mother's passing, pleading for someone to care about her. The entity who hears her cries and felt her loneliness was not God, but Some Thing awoken and ready to devote himself to her, promising to return. Years later, Ellen is happily married to Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), but now the nightmares and fits and melancholy have returned because she fears the promise she made under the duress of her loneliness will be ruinous to everyone around her. Her fears are warranted. Her husband's boss sends him off to draft a contract for a dying man in need of an old home to rest in. That man ends up being the Thing of Ellen's nightmares.

Lily-Rose Depp is very good in this. Her body and face performance was unsettling and ugly with purpose. Women are taught to not look like that or express themselves in ways that are not aesthetically pleasing. I see a lot people online meme her performance while acknowledging the skill and having conversations about the expectation of expression in society. I think that makes it a successful performance. However, the first thing I noticed was the fitness of Simon McBurney, not a main character, but an unforgettable performance. I aspire to be that agile and unhinged at that age.

Aaron Tylor Johnson plays best man and friend to the newlyweds and represents a "healthy" but normative representation of the times: a well to do family with his beautiful wife (Emma Corrin) & his daughters who he absolutely adores at the very least as objects that prove his manhood. He's good. It also helps that he is very attractive. Definitely made some people's viewing of the Box Office Bomb Kraven the Hunter worth watching. Not for me; I'll re-watch Bullet Train instead

Willem Dafoe is Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz, An ostracized doctor because of his study and fascination with the occult. Dafoe is having a great time and makes that character shine. He has a particularly great line that I will definitely when it's appropriate, but he had bangers throughout.

This film is gothic, but there is a sense of modest humor present reminiscent of The Batman(2022).

Nicholas Hoult plays Ellen's very lovely husband who is still a product(victim) of his time. He embodied the fear of someone/something that he cannot comprehend so well. His body and face conveyed a fear and confusion so feral and uncontrolled.

Skårsgard as Count Orlock is a masterclass in committing to the bit. He worked with an opera singer and lowered his voice an octave to create the voice used in the film. Shout out to the makeup department. He's looming and rather gnarly looking, but that certainly did not kill the libido of the masses and especially the self-identified Monster Fuckers out there. The way he was illuminated throughout the film and later revealed was extremely effective.

Robert Eggers, is a phenomenon with horror. The imagery, the darkness, the illusions were shot, crafted, designed so well. What really stuck out to me was the scale of the terror, the scale of the distance Thomas had to go to meet Count Orlock. The vision for this story...the aesthetic, it's just delicious. Like The Batman, it feels lived in and real while also out of this world.

There were a couple of cuts that seemed bad to me in a way that took me out of the movie watching experience. Someone online proscribed it to adding to the disorientation of the story, but I don't agree. Outside of that, solid editing. Costumes were sublime and just make me long for more natural fibers and vintage wear in my wardrobe.

The mood was erotic, homosocial, eerie, sexual. It's interesting that in 2024 that certain subtexts can be simply texts because Hollywood is less repressed(superficially) in what is allowed on screen to a degree, but these subtexts still are relevant as society slides into fear and conservatism again. I think many people are unaware of how horror and specific gothic tales use monsters to represent sex and desire and things that society couldn't handle being discussed straight out. This like a lot of films this year, came out at a good time.

Babygirl

A modern tale on the effects of repression, this revolves around Romy, A CEO, a mom of two daughters and married a decent man who secretly wants to be dominated. An opportunity arises when a young man, Samuel, who has a way with dogs and dominance, becomes an intern at her company and clocks the submissive girl beneath her WomanBoss(tm) exterior. This feels like a recipe for disaster, but I won't spoil the ending.

While the focus is on Kidman's character and family, this is equally a journey of the leads navigating desire in the world we live in, figuring out unconventional relationships when one lacks experience and boundaries. I've heard people discuss the immaturity of adult audiences laughing throughout this film and I think that speaks a lot to how repressed we are as a society. Viewing candid unconventional desires and people working through that can be a lot , but it's not funny. There's nothing funny about that. It reminds me of the people just thinking challengers was a lot the Threesome when it's about Tennis (a lot more than that).

I think Nicole Kidman was pretty good in it. The performance seemed authentic. Harris Dickinson Was fine. I haven't seen him in other stuff. The family dynamics felt pretty modern and not too hammed up. There were some legitimate humorous moments that weren't just people being like "omg sex lol and an elderly woman". I think this is actually more successful as a story than Fifty Shades of Gray, for example, because it's not a fantasy or a twilight fan fiction that somehow got published. Babygirl was a realistic exploration of someone who never had to opportunity to explore a part of themselves that they felt ashamed and confused about. It felt a little long to me. And media that involves secrets and stakes that can ruin relationships and credibility give me third hand stress/embarrassment so there's that.I hope people check it out and perhaps explore their own feelings about sex, gender, desire, and kink. Whether or not that's your thing, it's important to broaden your horizons and consume a variety of stories and perspectives.

Okay so going to IMDB to get the names of actors, I see that Halina Reijn also directed Bodies Bodies Bodies which I thought was a mediocre senior film thesis with a big budget. However, she didn't write it so I won't knock her for it.

Cheers to a new year of film. Talk to you later