Vampires and Mormons 🦇✝️
Nosferatu, Book of Mormon, VUKOVI & a roundup of recent news
Reviews of Robert Eggers’ remake of Nosferatu and a live performance of The Book of Mormon, alongside some personal news and plans for the month ahead. A smaller than usual edition of IF YOU GO AWAY this week!
Nosferatu (2024)
Robert Eggers’s fourth film, a remake of F W Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) is a gorgeous gothic horror in the classic tradition, taking a hugely influential Expressionist classic and showing exactly what can be achieved on the screen with a big budget, an ambitious vision and some of the most talented artists in the film industry.
I haven’t seen The Northman (2022) yet, but adored the other films written and directed by Eggers. The Witch (2015) was a masterclass in atmosphere and I felt so uneasy watching it alone that I shuffled to bed afterwards with my back against the wall, so that I wouldn’t have to turn my back on any dark rooms. The Lighthouse (2019) features two career-best performances by Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe in a descent into madness that has to be seen to be believed.
Loving Eggers’ work, I was predisposed to enjoy Nosferatu and knew what to expect going in. I bumped into a couple of guys coming out of the same screening as us at the cinema, who were I think expect some kind of Blumhouse jump-fest, and were thoroughly disgusted at the time they wasted watching Nosferatu. It definitely isn’t for everyone.
I’m also a massive fan of Nicholas Hoult, whose performance as Peter III alongside Elle Fanning in period comedy The Great combined exuberance, arrogance, romance and poor impulse control, creating a charismatic, dangerous and unpredictable character who I’d have happily watched for another 30 hours after the series ended. I’ve yet to see another director take advantage of the full range of what Hoult can offer on screen (Nosferatu included), but I’m always happy to see him in any cast.
A lot has already been written about Nosferatu, so I’ll focus on the recommendation that if you like the sound of watching a moonlit painting of ruined castles, plague rats, hordes of wolves, lunatic asylums and well-dressed 1830s Germans come to life, with the bonus of grotesque vampiric possession, then you’ll love this film. Conversely, if the idea of a period Hammer Horror achieved with a 2020s approach to budget and censorship doesn’t appeal, then there’s nothing here for you.
Although Nosferatu has already been remade multiple times, and revisited on film from other fictional angles, I feel like Eggers’ contribution adds something new and welcome to the conceit. Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula (the inspiration for the original unauthorised adaptation, Nosferatu), reflected Victorian attitudes towards sex, particularly framing women’s sexuality as something dangerous, bestial and untrustworthy. Dracula’s ability to pervert chaste, good-natured women into creatures of darkness reflected, among other things, a suspicion of female sexuality and reinforcement of the danger of such a sexual awakening, linking promiscuity to disease and danger.
The 1922 version of Nosferatu parallels this notion of a woman’s virtue being linked to her chastity, such that the character of Ellen’s submission to Count Orlok represents a kind of defeat – a sinless maiden, whose virtue is sacrificed to Orlok in something akin to a pagan ritual, trading her life for the lives of the other townspeople. Eggers’ version empowers Ellen with a level of agency and strength that allows us to view the story in a different light.
Intentionally or not, I’d argue that Eggers takes the opportunity of remaking Nosferatu and uses it to subvert Stoker’s historical views on the supremacy of gentlemen as chivalrous protectors of female chastity, instead rendering the women in Nosferatu as being empowered through and because of their sexuality. That was my takeaway as I left the cinema. That, and the fact that I’d just seen on screen an unforgettably sordid and sensual image of beauty and the beast, the kind of thing that the original Heavy Metal Magazine artists captured so brilliantly in their barbarian pinups.
The Book of Mormon
This week we watched The Book of Mormon at Theatre Royal Plymouth and came away crying with tears of laughter. Wildly inappropriate from start to finish, it played out pretty much as you’d expect if you heard that the minds behind South Park and the co-writer of the songs from Disney’s Frozen teamed up to create a Broadway musical satire of the Mormon religion.
Book of Mormon premiered in 2011, so we’re behind the curve with this one, but that’s how it goes with regional theatre in the UK. We’re fortunate that Theatre Royal Plymouth is “the largest and best-attended regional producing theatre in the UK”, meaning that sometimes we get to watch international debuts like The Artist (which was nothing short of inspirational, eclipsing the film that it was based on) and Elton John’s revamped Devil Wears Prada. But equally, we’re a long way from London’s West End, and there are a lot of big productions that stick to the capital and don’t tour.
I’m not sure that anybody today needs me to tell them whether to watch The Book of Mormon. It feels like the kind of performance that would be condemned if anybody tried to stage it for the first time in 2025 but gets a pass because its astronomical profitability proves that there’s still an audience for wildly inappropriate satire. What I will say is that the Spooky Mormon Hell Dream scene was one of the greatest spectacles that I’ve ever seen and I could have happily watched another two hours of dancing skeletons and serial killers.
The world according to the Buchans
After returning from Toronto last September, I vowed that I would try to take advantage of every opportunity offered to me and stop saying no so often. Sticking with that trend, last night I had my first monthly meeting with American author and teacher Richard Thomas, trying to learn as much as I can from him to strengthen my prose.
It feels like a long time since I started out writing comic books about alcoholism, death-by-misadventure, necrophilia and cannibalism. All the same, the overwhelming feedback that I received about the content of my writing was that it was “challenging”. The more things change…
I studied English Literature a looong time ago but was far too young and arrogant at the time to learn from the feedback that my lecturers were offering at the time. Richard’s advice and tips were reassuring and helpful, and I think I have a solid plan now for how to proceed with my next short story and the publisher that I want to aim for.
There are plenty of events on the horizon to look forward to, including trips to the theatre to watch Pride & Prejudice (sort of) and Ghost Stories, and the launch of Bodmin Jail’s Broken Hearts season for Valentine’s Day. Yesterday I also met and interviewed American multi-media artist and author Michael Petry, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), London, and had the privilege of watching him collaborate on a hot glass blowing project that was hypnotic to see.
I think that I’ve also finally found a contact in my own city who’ll publish my reviews, which might give me an excuse to visit more performances and events that are closer to home. I’ve loved travelling to so many folklore and horror events in Cornwall, but it would be nice if every invitation I received didn’t involve driving for an hour.
I’m currently reading The Churchgoer, a fantastic noir novel by Patrick Coleman that came close to being adapted for television by the True Detective creative team of Nic Pizzolatto and Matthew McConaughey. We’re in the middle of finally watching the first series of the Three Body Problem, which is way better than I expected based on the muted reception that it received when it was released. Between that and season two of Severance, we’re watching some excellent television. Just need to find time to keep writing in between episodes…
Now playing
Today I’ve been listening to Scottish rock band VUKOVI’s new album, My God Has Got A Gun, on repeat. I’ve listened to them regularly since hearing the phenomenal La Di Da in 2017, a rollercoaster of a song that I’d recommend wholeheartedly, and this new album doesn’t disappoint.
This is real rock club dancefloor music - frenetic and impassioned, filled with the kind of tracks you could as easily imagine kissing the nearest stranger to as you could picking a fight with some overexcited idiot who keeps crashing into you and spilling your drink. I caught the end of VUKOVI’s set supporting Creeper a few years ago and they felt like a young band who sounded better in recordings than their breathless live sets, but time has passed and I’m pretty sure they’re headline material now.
