Some say we are entering an era of gloomy cinema movies, where each new film is becoming darker and darker. Often, it becomes almost impossible to recognize forms, objects, and actions, even on a big screen. (If you’ve ever encountered an Internet meme about the evolution of “Batman” movies, you’ll know what I mean). Yet some cinematic works find their true beauty in darkness and simply belong to the “night” world. A great example is the modern remake of the silent classic “Nosferatu” by Robert Eggers. What secret sauce does the somber yet masterful cinematography of “Nosferatu” hide? Let’s find out!
“Nosferatu” has had a modest award season so far, but even the Oscar committee could not ignore its gorgeous cinematography, nominating the DP Jarin Blaschke and his team (as well as giving the film three other nominations, including Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling). The category has strong competition this year, featuring the epic visuals of “Dune: Part Two” and the fundamental work of Lol Crawley in “The Brutalist,” to name a few. Whatever the competition, what is certain is that “Nosferatu’s” cinematography is breathtaking, so let’s dive deep behind the scenes of its dark and tempting world.
The idea of retelling the silent horror classic
As you know, “Nosferatu” is a silent 1922 horror classic made by German expressionist F.W. Murnau and based on the novel “Dracula.” (Although there is a whole copyright story behind it, we won’t go into that here). As some point out, it was the first vampire movie and the work that basically set a template for the horror genre.
In various interviews, the director, Robert Eggers, admits he was fascinated by the original movie even before his teenage years, so much so that he made a high-school play, which performed reasonably well and got attention from the community theatre.
No wonder by the time he finished his feature directorial debut “The Witch” in 2015, he already had a fully written script and a lookbook for a modern remake of “Nosferatu.” However, it would have been way too big a leap from a low-budget indie production to something of this caliber, so the idea had to wait. Two more renowned films were made in between – to be precise: “The Lighthouse” and “The Northman.” Eggers collaborated with American cinematographer Jarin Blaschke on these, and “Nosferatu” is no exception. It seems the duo has mastered their cinematic workflow and can push visual storytelling to its absolute craft.
The plot of the remake
Set in 19th-century Germany, “Nosferatu” follows a married couple: Thomas (performed by Nicholas Hoult) and Ellen (portrayed by Lily-Rose Depp). As his first task on a new job, Thomas has to travel to the Carpathian Mountains for a business meeting with a mysterious Count Orlok. Meanwhile, his wife discovers she shares a psychic connection – not with the Count himself, but with the entity residing within him. The tension we feel from the film’s beginning gradually becomes a full-scale nightmare as Orlok decides Ellen should belong to him alone.
Look and feel of the cinematography of Nosferatu
In the dedicated episode of the ASC Clubhouse Conversations, the film’s DP, Jarin Blaschke, shares what inspired the cinematography of “Nosferatu.” From the very start of this project, they knew they wanted it to be precise and visually strong. For reference, the creators drew from the beauty of Romanticism, the dominant art movement of the film’s era. For instance, the subsequent still from the travel scene is, in Jarin’s words, the closest thing to one of the pictures in their lookbook – namely, the famous painting “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” by Caspar David Friedrich.
A film still from “Nosferatu” by Robert Eggers, 2024 
Image source: Wikipedia
“Nosferatu’s” cinematography follows many visual rules that make it feel both beautiful and unsettling. For example, perfect symmetry, and we analyze some of the movie’s shots in more depth here. Another part of this horror’s visual language is using long continuous takes with the camera panning around 180 degrees and more, going left and right, back and forth, which creates a slightly disorienting feeling. A clear instance is the scene when Thomas arrives in the gypsy village. A lot is going on around him. A lot is going on in the blocking as well. His head starts spinning, and so does ours.
Film stills from “Nosferatu” by Robert Eggers, 2024 
Jarin Blaschke discloses in the conversation (and emphasizes this in other interviews as well) that “Nosferatu” does not have a single Steadicam shot. They could only achieve such precise choreography and blocking, as in the scene above, by using a crane. Although, as he explains, producers always try to insist on the Steadicam for the time and cost factor, he and Robert managed to stand their ground on this project.
Fun fact: The snow in the gypsy scene is not real. It’s done through special effects. However, it is not standard. Roughly before the shooting, the chemical that was widely used to make fake snow was banned. So, the SFX artists had to go old-school and use potato flakes in this scene – a trick inspired by 1940s cinema.
Candlelight and high-speed custom-made lenses
Another thing Robert Eggers and Jarin Blaschke wanted to try out in “Nosferatu” from the very start of the project was shooting on film and using real fire and candlelight with no artificial lighting in some scenes. They did so on “The Witch.” The big difference is that “The Witch” was shot digitally.
To help achieve this ambitious plan, Panavision’s famous optics guru Dan Sasaki built high-speed lenses especially for “Nosferatu.” For example, another scene with the gypsies, where the old woman carries a candle leading the protagonist to his overnight stay, uses the custom-made 35mm with T1.1. The only lights you see in the stills are real flames. Nothing artificial. Impressive.
Film stills from “Nosferatu” by Robert Eggers, 2024 
To support the low light work, Jarin used the Kodak Vision3 5219 500T film stock, pushed it half a stop, and rated it at 250. He smiles, saying that most people would probably rate it at 640 or 800, but he just likes a rich black and wants to be able to print it later.
Not mixing the sources
When the scene continues, we jump outside to a kind of a protagonist’s peculiar vision with a naked woman on a horse. There, the only lighting source is also the torch fire. As Jarin Blaschke points out, when they needed stronger lights, they added more torches or multiplied the flames using mirrors.
A film still from “Nosferatu” by Robert Eggers, 2024 
Image source: Variety
You may wonder why there is no moonlight in this scene. The answer is simple: the cinematographer doesn’t like to mix candlelight and moonlight. In his opinion, it mucks the colors and looks messy. So, when he has the chance to do one thing with focus and precision, he prefers to take it.
How far the cinematography of Nosferatu goes
A further scene Jarin Blaschke is particularly proud of (which made me forget how to breathe in the cinema) is the night sequence on the crossroads. Lost in the woods, Thomas suddenly sees a driverless carriage approaching him and opens the door invitingly. Jarin recalls it took them four months to find a suitable location. They needed an almost archetypal “meet-the-devil-at-the-crossroads” corner in the woods with a perfect cross. Also, to achieve his lighting plans, he required a wide opening in the trees, allowing him to place light arrays precisely at the intersection. Well, lucky for us that everything came together in the end.
Film stills from “Nosferatu” by Robert Eggers, 2024 
The cinematographer admits that he likes very hard moonlight, and in this particular scene, he uses it twice from two different directions. (That means we get two backlights, which is not necessarily correct, but boy, is it impactful!) Front-lighting the carriage or the protagonist wouldn’t have worked, and it’s the kind of small cheat everyone can accept. Personally, I think the silhouette choice made the scene even eerier and more mysterious, adding an almost unreal quality to it.
What’s interesting is that Jarin Blaschke throws away a lot of the color in the moonlight. As he explains, they didn’t just print these scenes cooler. There was literally no red information on the negative. For him, it meant making decisions while filming. Out of three color layers, blue did most of the heavy lifting for moonlight shots. Even if they wanted to bring out reds in the post, it wouldn’t work.
Disorienting camera style to create tension
In the interview with “Variety” (linked below), Jarin Blaschke also walks us through the scene where we first meet Count Orlok. It explains a lot about the disorienting camera style we touched on above.
Orlok leads the main character to the “office,” and we follow him. Then we swipe on the staircase, but he is no longer there. Our eyes catch the light of the fire through the doorway, and the camera pushes through, but Orlok is not there either. When we finally see him again, he is a mere silhouette against the flames. It feels like the creators don’t want to give his appearance away just yet. Thus, they play all possible tricks with us, showing the Count out of focus in the fore- and background and making him appear and disappear again.
The choice of the oner is what makes the encounter feel even more confusing. Because long takes almost always mean “real-time” action, they make us believe the Count can disappear and reappear somewhere else over seconds. And therefore, they make us believe in magic and horror.
Conclusion
“Nosferatu” will compete for the Best Cinematography Oscar on Sunday, March 2, during the 97th Academy Awards. Stay tuned to find out which contestant will take home the prize. “Nosferatu” has, however, already won one heart – mine.
What about you? How did you like the cinematography of “Nosferatu”? What part of the visual language caught your eye in particular? Share your opinion with us in the comments below!
Feature image source: The ASC.
