Nosferatu (2024)
"No Vampires Remain in Romania"
Un-Holy smokes! Robert Eggers returns with another classic horror movie.
I’m a massive fan of The Witch (or The VVITCH, as it appears on my t-shirt), and it looks like I may have a new favorite Eggers flick. I’m a bit behind on his more artful films — The Lighthouse (starring Batman!) and The Northman (with Batman Forever’s Nicole Kidman) — but I’ll get there. My interest leans more toward traditional horror flicks and vampire movies! We even have an entire podcast dedicated to Long Island vampires over at VampCouncil!
Nosferatu (1922) is a classic — but has anyone actually seen it? We have! And we’re glad we did. We watched the silent movie at 2x speed before checking out the most recent reboot. One person who’s definitely seen it is Taika Waititi, who was inspired by the original in What We Do In The Shadows to create Petyr, based on that classic vampyr look.
It’s quite the watch at 2x speed. You won’t miss anything, but you may find the music a little distracting that way. In college, DJs used to play silent, public domain films like Metropolis and spin original soundtracks over them. Maybe throw on some Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross tunes on your Bluetooth speaker for the right mood.
The original was based on Dracula, but not without its problems. The filmmakers, worried about its fate, changed Dracula’s name to Orlok. No one asked permission — “Any resemblance to actual persons, living or undead, is purely coincidental” — and Bram Stoker’s widow ordered all prints of the film destroyed! Luckily, someone stashed a few reels in a coffin, and we’re able to watch this 103-year-old film today!
Orlok and the film Nosferatu are certainly recognizable to modern vampire fans, but who’s to say how many people have actually seen it, versus just being familiar with the memes and visuals? It makes me muse on my art school days, when I started as a painter. German Expressionism and artists like Max Beckmann were — and still are — hugely important influences on my personal style. I used to love going to Harvard to see them in person. The shadows, the colors, the thick paint — it all really appealed to me in a very comic book way.
The Actors - Max Beckmann (1941-1942)
I’ve even chatted about how this style influences film, like Frankenstein over at LeaguePodcast with the gentlemen.
We’re a few years older than Eggers, but the gap isn’t too big. He’s influenced by some of the same stuff we are. I’m obsessed with DVD extras — or “Digital Whatever” extras you can find now. Luckily, extra video content is everywhere these days, and the behind-the-scenes story of how this film was made as a passion project is fascinating. From casting his favorite (Willem Dafoe) to staging a high school play of Nosferatu, Eggers is a true fan. This is more than a Dracula rip-off — way more. In fact, I can’t picture a cinematic universe in which any adaptation of either crosses over. Nosferatu, in all its versions, is very much its own thing. Maybe that’s because Orlok seems to exist singularly — a lone vampire beast of Romanian legend brought to life — whereas Dracula (or What We Do in the Shadows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Anne Rice’s movies and novels) are based on vampire communities, generations of bloodthirsty demons infecting new blood for The Hunger, year after year.
One thing we do in our house is go “All-In.” We’ve mentioned the silent film, but we also plan to make our way through Herzog’s 1979 version, Nosferatu the Vampyre, and 2000's Shadow of the Vampire — another post-college favorite of mine.
Shadow of the Vampire is actually my main reference point for Nosferatu, and it also stars Willem Dafoe! Having him appear in the 2024 film is just icing on the cake. In Shadow, Dafoe plays the actor portraying Orlok in the original film. It’s essentially a “making of” Nosferatu, with John Malkovich as director F.W. Murnau. Dafoe takes on the role of Max Schreck, an actor so deeply committed to his character that people believed he was a real vampire. It’s a fantastic film, and I can’t wait to revisit it. Fun fact: Christopher Walken’s character in Batman Returns is named Max Shreck, with Burton paying tribute to the famously eerie actor. That’s right — Batman made it into this review again! Surprise! Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) also delivers a great performance as cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner.
Eddie Izzard plays anti-Nazi Gustav von Wangenheim in Shadow of the Vampire, taking on the role of Hutter, the stand-in for Dracula’s Jonathan Harker. In the 2024 Nosferatu film, Hutter is played by Nicholas Hoult (Beast in X-Men, Emperor Peter III in The Great) and remains a central figure. Harker, famously played by Keanu Reeves in Coppola’s Dracula, is the real estate agent bold — or foolish — enough to sell property to clients with a taste for haunted forests and hellhounds.
In addition to Dafoe and Hoult, the film features standout performances from Bill Skarsgård as a mustachioed and mohawked Orlok and a surprisingly dramatic turn from Kraven the Hunter’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Taylor-Johnson handles the old-timey dialogue beautifully and is nearly unrecognizable as the dandy Friedrich Harding — one solid “Dude” role here. I’ve been critical of his film choices and past performances, but here, he’s genuinely top-notch. I hope he continues picking projects I’ll actually want to watch (and not just hate-watch, like that Sony-verse movie).
Lily-Rose Depp is fantastic as Ellen Hutter, both the wife of Hutter and the unsettling object of Orlok’s desire. Emma Corwin (The Crown) is equally impressive as Anna Harding, a pregnant traditionalist wife with a gruesome fate ahead of her. Depp’s transformation and commitment to portraying possession rivals Linda Blair’s iconic performance in The Exorcist. Depp is sexy, unhinged, drooly, twitchy, and deeply disturbing all at once. This is a horny movie — in the best way.
The cast is small, aside from extras and a few townsfolk, and this remake is an excellent companion piece to the original. You’ll recognize shots lifted directly from the 1922 film — the look of the town, the castle, and even specific frames pay loving tribute to the classic. It’s clear Eggers has been dreaming of this project his entire life. By blending modern drama with a timeless, atmospheric aesthetic and obsessive attention to detail, he’s created a vampire film destined for endless re-watches.
The popcorn meter for this movie is wild. A 73% audience score? O…K…? I’m not sure what people were expecting, but maybe my deep love for German Expressionism isn’t exactly universal. If those folks want a watered-down Orlok, they can go watch The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
I’m officially adding Nosferatu to my re-watch vault, right alongside Coppola’s Dracula and Interview with the Vampire. I’m dead serious, folks, not a joke! These films are pure comfort viewing for me, like cracking open my worn copy of The Dark Knight Returns. At least once a year! And since I also love the taste of butter and living deliciously, let’s go ahead and add The Witch to that list too.
No spoilers here — though if you Google ‘Nosferatu’ images, you’ll pretty much see Orlok’s fate. The final shots of both films are framed in a strikingly similar way, complete with Ellen and her mirror. Eggers’ version offers a compelling story for modern audiences to sink their teeth into. It’s now streaming, with an extended cut that adds four extra minutes on Peacock. Watch it in the dark, let the shadows creep into your living room, and let the eerie special effects and gorgeous calligraphy grab you by the heart.
Carry your coffins or your torches heartily, as the shadowy hand of Orlok demands to be satisfied!
Excellent work once again. I've been meaning to check this movie out. Now I have the incentive. And nice history lesson, and also thanks to you for pointing out hat we're older than Robert Eggers.