Cast: Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicholas Hoult, Simon McBurney, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Mystery
Director: Robert Eggers
In Irish Cinemas: 1st January 2025
It’s indisputable that F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror remains the definitive portrayal of Dracula in cinema. Released in 1922, this silent German Expressionist masterpiece boldly and unauthorizedly adapted Bram Stoker’s Dracula, infusing the 1897 novel’s themes of lust, dread, and despair with a unique artistic vision. By transforming Count Dracula into the unnervingly grotesque Count Orlok and shifting the setting to a haunting German town, Murnau reimagined the story into something hauntingly original.
Despite facing legal battles with Stoker’s estate and nearly being erased from history through court-ordered destruction, Nosferatu miraculously endured. Its survival ensured that its eerie aesthetic, chilling atmosphere and unsettling imagery cast a long shadow over cinema. Every vampire film that has followed—from arthouse interpretations to blockbuster spectacles—owes a debt to Murnau’s groundbreaking work, which continues to define the genre over a century later.
Werner Herzog famously reimagined Nosferatu with his 1979 film Nosferatu the Vampyre. Decades later, director Robert Eggers boldly steps into Herzog’s shadow with his take on the story. Known for his meticulous craft in films like The Witch (2015), The Lighthouse (2019), and The Northman (2022), Eggers once again delivers a film that is both visually striking and thematically haunting. His adaptation of Nosferatu transforms the classic tale into a cryptic, atmospheric horror, building tension through a moody score and ethereal, pallid lighting to create a foreboding, almost operatic experience. At its centre is Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), Eggers’s version of Mina Murray from Bram Stoker’s original novel.
Ellen is introduced in a dreamlike sequence, wandering in a somnambulistic trance. “Come to me,” she whispers, a plea and a command. A guttural, inhuman voice answers her call. A chilling communion takes place in the shadows of an overgrown garden—a meeting between the despairing young woman and an ancient, demonic presence. This surreal and unsettling encounter becomes a recurring nightmare that follows Ellen into her waking life.
The story takes place in 1838 in the fictional German port town of Wisborg, where Ellen lives with her new husband, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a well-meaning but naive property agent. As Thomas comforts his wife, oblivious to the depths of her torment, the town—and Ellen herself—stand on the precipice of an unimaginable horror, one that Eggers unveils with his trademark slow-burn intensity.
This fleeting comfort is soon disrupted. Hutter’s employer, the enigmatic and unsettling Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), dispatches him to the remote Carpathian Mountains with a mission to finalise a real estate deal for Count Orlok in the town of Wisborg. Bill Skarsgård’s portrayal of the infamous vampire offers a fresh and striking interpretation. Unlike any version before, his Count Orlok is a menacing, hulking figure with a thick moustache, often lingering just out of focus, amplifying his eerie presence. Skarsgård, a rising star in the horror genre, leaves an indelible mark on this legendary character, further cementing his status as a master of the macabre.
The film’s narrative faithfully hits the iconic beats of Dracula lore—from Hutter’s unsettling encounters to the vampire’s ominous voyage aboard the Demeter. Alongside these touchstones, it weaves in nods to the yearning, romanticised vampire of Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) and the dread of pestilence that defined the original silent Nosferatu. Yet, director Robert Eggers ambitiously juggles these influences, resulting in a film that sometimes struggles to balance its tones. The blend of absurdity and terror often feels uneven, as though the movie is wrestling with the weight of its predecessors.
What ultimately anchors Nosferatu, however, are its performances. At its emotional core is Ellen, brought to life in a career-defining turn by Depp. Her portrayal transforms Ellen into the soul of this tragic nightmare, pulling audiences into the depths of a sinister and haunting love story. In a film teetering between homage and reinvention, the cast—especially Depp and Skarsgård—gives it its haunting cohesion.
Overall: 7/10
Movie Reviewer
