4 Stars

Adapting an age-old story never guarantees success, as evidenced by the countless Dracula retellings that have failed to capture the acclaim of their predecessors; Robert Eggers’s Nosferatu is the rare masterpiece that stands on its own among the classics. From the visionary director of The VVitch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman, Nosferatu presents a hauntingly romantic Gothic epic to a modern audience with brilliant poise and daring artistry. It also reestablishes Count Orlok as one of horror’s most prolific villains, particularly this rendition piloted by the unrecognizable Bill Skarsgård.

Harkening over 100 years back to Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Eggers’s version of the dark romantic classic draws from its unofficial first cinematic adaptation, Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau. The German director famously altered several details from Stoker’s book to avoid legal prosecution (which took root anyway, nearly destroying all copies of the 1922 silent film), including the conceptualization of the rat-like Orlok and the film’s finale—the first-known instance of sunlight being fatal to vampires. Eggers closely follows Murnau’s depiction of Stoker’s complex tragedy while enhancing several key factors, namely the character of Ellen Hutter.

Nosferatu - Castle Orlok

Courtesy of Focus Features

In Nosferatu, Lily-Rose Depp portrays Ellen (analogous to Stoker’s Mina Harker), the wife of real estate agent Thomas (analogous to Stoker’s Jonathan and portrayed by Nicholas Hoult). Murnau, doing away with the Lucy character from Dracula, bestowed her sleepwalking to Ellen; Eggers expands on this trait to give the character a far more pronounced mystical quality and centeredness in the plot. Here, the devious Count Orlok came to a lonely Ellen earlier in her life, roused by her desire, continuously exerting his supernatural influence over her for some time.

This expansion of Ellen’s character is the most welcome addition to Eggers’s bold take. It allows audiences to better sympathize with the tortured innocent; we can also more vehemently oppose the predatory Orlok. The film’s finale also benefits exponentially from this more established relationship, further delineating the classical contrast of good versus evil and the sacrifices made to combat the latter.

The Nosferatu structure that mimics Dracula is otherwise hardly changed. Eggers whisks the viewer from the fictional Wisborg, Germany, in 1838 to Transylvania, where Thomas Hutter must provide the mysterious Count Orlok with the documents to his new residence in Wisborg, and so on, per the Dracula story. As Orlok tortures Thomas in his Transylvanian castle and telepathically plagues Ellen, causing constant violent convulsions, and eventually brings a plague to Wisborg, the forces of good rally against him.

Nosferatu - Count Orlok and Ellen

Courtesy of Focus Features

Eggers complements this well-known tale with his fresh eye for cinematic photography and filmmaking as an artistic medium. He employs DP Jarin Blaschke to create stunning, bold shots amid practically built sets, handmade costumes, and primarily natural lighting. These decisions lend beautifully to the dreamlike Gothic atmosphere that Nosferatu and its source material are known for and accentuated more so by gorgeous contrasts in light and shadow.

The dimly lit nighttime scenes in Castle Orlok and Ellen and her housemates’ bedrooms are visually sumptuous and equally unsettling. Filming real ancient castles in Transylvania and the Czech Republic only further legitimizes the Gothic tones and paints stunning brush strokes on the screen. Eggers also takes extra care to emphasize the psychosexual nature of Orlok’s vampirism, itself a defining characteristic of the Dracula mythos, and therein the Gothic dark romanticism Nosferatu channels.

The hypersexualized content of Eggers’s vampire is a popular point in today’s critique of Nosferatu but a natural contemporary point of interest for a more sexually tolerant society. To this point, Ellen and Orlok have a disturbingly erotic mental and physical connection, much to the dismay of Ellen, and it is one that Depp and Skarsgård play with excellent chemistry. Overall, Depp’s performance is vulnerable and exciting, showcasing great range, and Skarsgård is the film’s standout, donning a full-body prosthetic with terrifying efficacy.

Nosferatu - Professor Von Franz

Courtesy of Focus Features

His voice for the ancient Transylvanian vampire, in particular, is grossly unnerving, and his physical acting is tremendously imposing. Eggers’s meticulous nature and insistence on historical and folkloric accuracy turn the vampire creature here mortifying yet again, which is welcome considering his vague connection to Goetic sorcery and demonology in Murnau’s film.

Rounding out the cast are Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the Hutter’s friend, Harding, Emma Corrin as his wife Anna, Willem Dafoe as Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz (formerly Bulwer in Murnau’s film, this version’s van Helsing), Ralph Ineson as Dr. Sievers, and Simon McBurney as the insane Knock, who all perform their roles more than well. As such, Eggers’s Nosferatu is a complete film, set at a brisk pace and made entirely enticing by the filmmakers’ elevation of the Gothic and tragic elements that launched the original 1922 adaptation into horror film legend.

Nosferatu is now playing in theaters nationwide.

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