Everything To Watch This Christmas
Nosferatu
Nosferatu is one of those classics that every film maker secretly wants to remake. This modern recreation is based on the 1922 version which in turn is based on the 1897 novel Dracula
The film was written and directed by Robert Eggers who has been trying to get the film off the ground since 2015. Now the stars have literally aligned to make it happen. Bill Skarsgård, your go to for all your villain needs plays the title baddy while excellent performances are put in by Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Willem Dafoe who had already had a turn at playing Nosferatu back in 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire where he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Some incredible steps have been taken to give the film a certain edge of authenticity while also drawing upon silent film era romanticism. In may ways the film feels like it’s dropped in from another era. The film is set in 1838, and was shot in the Czech republic and Prague. It shot on location at a couple 14th century castles, with a few exterior shots taken of Corvin Castle in Romania, which has sometimes been considered inspiration for Castle Dracula due to it’s connection with Vlad III. The film also relies heavily on natural candlelight even when the candles aren’t themselves in shot. Skarsgård suffered under the light of hundreds of candles as he told Den of Geek. “I had all the prosthetics pieces and the big fur coat, and Jarin [Blaschke, cinematographer] would have hundreds of candles, and the way he would light a face would just be like, ‘Light more candles; kill these four candles; light those up.’ I remember being very hot and sweaty.”
Emma Corrin gushed about Director Robert Eggers while on tour for Deadpool and Wolverine telling GamesRadar+ and Inside Total Film, “[He’s] a total genius, and a real artist. He puts together these incredible ensembles of actors and then, no matter what part you’re playing, you just really feel like it’s a group effort, and it’s a beautiful thing to be a part of. You’ll love it, it’s brilliant.”
Carry-On
It’s time for a new action movie with very light christmas themes sprinkled around the edges to make it palatable for holiday viewing. Jason Bateman has finally graduated to the villain role after a slow boil in Ozark. He’s antagonising Taron Egerton who plays the mythical role of a border security agent at an airport who actually gets to stop a crime for a change. But his love interest is on the line, and if he wants her to live he just needs to let one little bag slip through customs. What’s he going to choose? Probably violence. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra who’s cornered the market on commuter action movies after the Liam Neeson thrillers “Non-stop” and “Commuter”.
Squid Game: Season 2
When the original Squid Game came out a few people opted not to watch it due to hearing that the translation wasn’t that good, and they’d prefer to wait for a better version like it was a piece of classic Russian literature and not a dumb TV show about killing people in interesting ways. Well the much unasked for second season is fast approaching so if you haven’t watched the first season yet then maybe you should bless a couple evenings of your life with this much lauded Korean drama(?).
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
All this live action Lord of the Rings made after the original trilogy has had so much green screen it may as well be fully animated. So that’s what we’re getting, a full anime film based on the early years of the Rohirrim. The film is directed by Kenji Kamiyama who’s mostly worked on Ghost in The Shell flicks and most recently Star Wars: Visions. The movie digs into the origins of helms deep and it’s founder, Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan. It’s been criticized for focussing too much on his daughter Héra but I’m not going to be the one to say no to a redhead swinging a sword around.
