Nosferatu

Robert Eggers' adaptation is the most faithful Dracula adaptation yet

Despite Dracula being one of the indelible images of cinema, there hasn’t been a definitive movie. Bella Lugosi’s famed portrayal in Dracula (1931) featured Hollywood Code restraint, Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) was unfocused with its use of special effects. Even the unofficial adaptation Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) featuring great expressionistic imagery, lacked attention to character. Robert Eggers has tried to print a definitive version of the Bram Stoker novel, with his remake: Nosferatu (2024).

Nosferatu follows the stand-in characters from the original novel, changed in the original 1920s German film to stave-off copyright suits, which was unsuccessful (you can jump down that off-screen rabbit hole yourself). Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is a real-estate solicitor, newly wed to Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) in 1830s Germany. He is tasked to travel to the Romanian province Transylvania to deal with the wealthy and mysterious Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgard) who is secretly the feared vampire Nosferatu.

Eggers has found a cinematic home in period horror films, whether it be Vikings in The Northman (2022), 1920s coast guards in The Lighthouse (2019), or New England pilgrims in The Witch (2015). In Nosferatu,Eggers delivers his most visually immersive film, delivering an indelible and inescapable gothic world. Every inch of cinematic technique, from the astounding cinematography from Jarin Blaschke, whose every frame deserves to be hung on a wall, to the sound design, fluid edit, and spooky imagery does its part to make you feel trapped within this Victorian world. Any sunlit scenes or the remote use of color feel jarring, with viewers cynically longing to return to the confines of the terrifying shadows.

Eggers’ story keeps pace with his visual ambition. Dread is achieved thanks to a patience and restraint, which has viewers’ imaginations working for the filmmakers. The feared Count Orlok, so terrifyingly played in the original by Max Schrek, is kept mostly in the shadows. This not only adds mystery, but menace as well. There is nothing more terrifying for viewers than a villain that cannot be seen. Eggers keeps this hidden nature as long as he can, albeit by the third act’s scenes it is unavoidable. Skarsgard dons a menace impressice even considering his previous work as Pennywise in the IT films. Some great make-up work keeps the horrific imagery alive once Orlok comes into the light, albeit once viewers see the real thing it’s hard to match what the imagination had conjured. However, one element of Orlok’s look that I couldn’t get past is his Poirot-worthy mustache, which contrasts with the iconically hairless Schrek portrayal, and was a distracting addition to this version.

Eggers maintains a loyalty to Stoker’s novel, ironically making this “unofficial” adaptation the most accurate page-to-screen embodiment of Stoker’s work, even accounting for the creative changes of the finale. These changes involve giving more prominence to the character of Ellen, making her a co-lead with a more autonomous role within the finale rather than the passive damsel-in-distress role she’s played in the lore.

In straying close to the novel, however, Eggers finds his second and third acts slowing down and falling into redundancies. This is because our characters are figuring out the lore surrounding vampires. However, for a mythology so overdone in cinema, to have viewers sit through real-time discovery of how vampires work is daunting and repetitive.

Eggers brings familiar faces from his previous work, with Willem Dafoe as the stand-in Dr. Van Helsing, here called Von Franz, and Ralph Ineson as Dr. Sievers. Hoult is great as the haunted Hutter, paranoid and seeing no escape from the cursed Orlok. Skarsgard is unrecognizable, donning a Romanian accent that never falls into parody, but rather drips with malice with every word. However, Nosferatu is stolen in its entirety by Depp in her expanded role. Nosferatu is an incredibly demanding role, yet she gives it her all, becoming the pale face of horror that will swim into your memory when remembering this film, more so than the vampire himself. Such is her draw; her switch from Victorian correctness, to marital desperation, and demonic possessions is truly admirable.

In the end, Nosferatu is one of the most definitive Dracula adaptations put to a screen. Eggers in his full faculties delivers a gripping and inescapable gothic tale, whose world is terrifying, but whose imagery you can’t look away from. While there are some slow portions of the second and third act featuring lore redundancies, Nosferatu’s dark hold on you never loosens even after the credits roll.

8.2/10