Major spoilers ahead for Nosferatu. You’ve been warned.
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Back in 1922, German Expressionist filmmakers F.W. Murnau and Henrik Galeen brought to life the first movie version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula without actually calling it Dracula. In order to avoid rights issues with the Stoker estate, they changed the names of the characters and altered the story and the setting. So instead of Dracula, they came up with Count Orlok and the title, Nosferatu (more precisely, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror), the Romanian word for “undead.” Now we have a new version from the more-than-capable hands of writer/director Robert Eggers. Does it scare as well as the original? Read on to find out.
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Nosferatu begins with a lonely young girl named Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) saying her nightly prayers, calling out for a guardian angel’s companionship. A male voice answers, telling her that she has awoken him. The voice draws her to her window, where through the blowing curtains, we see a shadow. The voice asks her if she will pledge herself to him forever, and as she eerily floats above the floor, Ellen agrees.

Cut to years later, and Ellen’s now married to Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a newly hired real estate agent, living in the town of Wisborg. His boss, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney), assigns Thomas to oversee the sale of an old, broken-down castle to Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) of Bohemia. Thomas is to travel there to have Orlok sign the paperwork.
When he tells Ellen of his assignment, she gets upset and tells him about a scary dream she had about getting married to Death. Everyone around them was dead, and everything was wrong – but she was happier than she’d ever been. Thomas comforts her as best he can, but he can’t refuse his boss.
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Thomas brings Ellen to her best friend Anna’s (Emma Corrin) home, so she can stay there with her and her husband Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). They have two little girls, Clara (Adela Hesova) and Louise (Milena Konstantinova), and Anna’s pregnant with a third child. It’s a happy, bright home all decorated for Christmas, and Thomas trusts that Ellen will be well cared for.
Ellen and Thomas say their tearful goodbyes, promising they’ll write to each other every day. Thomas travels alone on horseback to Bohemia. When he arrives in the village, he’s met by a horde of local gypsies, who all laugh at him. He asks if there’s anywhere he can sleep for the night, but the locals don’t want to help anyone involved with Count Orlok. So Thomas shells out double the amount of money, and one old woman takes pity on him and gives him a room.
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Unable to sleep, Thomas watches the locals doing some strange rituals. They walk a young, naked girl on horseback out into the woods. They find a sarcophagus and impale the dead man inside. Thomas wakes up in the morning thinking he dreamt it all, but then sees his feet are covered in mud and leaves. He also finds the village deserted, and even his horse is gone.

Thomas continues the journey on foot until, at last, he sees a carriage coming toward him. It stops in front of him, with no driver and no one inside. He gets in, and the carriage takes him to the castle, where he finally meets Count Orlok. Or at least, as much as anyone could actually see him, as the castle is dark, and he keeps himself almost completely covered.
Orlok orders Thomas to address him as “lord” as he reads the paperwork. When Thomas cuts his thumb, Orlok tastes the blood. He also demands to see the locket Thomas has, with a picture of Ellen in it. Orlok smells lilac on it and recognizes her as the girl who pledged herself to him. He keeps it and tells Thomas he’s to stay there until he’s fully rested. The only problem is that Orlok feeds on Thomas when he’s asleep, so he never fully recovers.
Finding the bite marks on his chest, Thomas runs around the castle during the day, trying to find a way out. He finds the sarcophagus where Orlok sleeps, finally seeing the grotesque, undead creature he really is, with rats crawling on him. Thomas goes to kill him with a pickaxe, but Orlok wakes and sends his wolves chasing after him. Thomas crawls out onto a window ledge and in desperation, makes the long jump into the river below.
Meanwhile, Ellen’s becoming more distressed as more time passes with no word from Thomas. She has seizures that are becoming more frequent, so Friedrich brings in Doctor Sievers (Ralph Ineson) to take care of her. He tries everything that “modern” medicine dictates, but nothing seems to work. Also, at the hospital where he works, Sievers meets a new patient – Herr Knock. Sievers initially objects to Knock being kept in the basement cells, but after he attacks Sievers, they strap Knock down to a chair.
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A group of locals find Thomas and take him to the nearby church to treat him. He stays until he has the strength to move and then leaves despite the locals’ advice. Knowing that Count Orlok is after Ellen, he rushes home.

Dr. Sievers brings Friedrich to meet his mentor, Dr. Von Franz (Willem Dafoe), who’s been laughed out of the medical field because of his concentration in the occult. They consult with him about Ellen and about Herr Knock, bringing Von Franz to see him in the hospital. Herr Knock just keeps ranting, “He is coming,” as he bites the heads off pigeons. Yum.
Sievers then brings Von Franz to see Ellen, who rants like Herr Knock, saying the same things. She tells Von Franz that “he” has been haunting her dreams since she was young. And she tells him how it’s her fault for calling out to the ether for companionship. She asks Von Franz if evil comes from within or from somewhere else.
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Meanwhile, Count Orlok travels by ship to Wisborg, sleeping inside a crate full of dirt from his home. When sailors begin disappearing and/or turning up dead, the crew believes it’s due to the plague. They examine their cargo and open up the Orlok’s crate. A slew of rats spills out, and Orlok kills the remaining crew before the ship crashes into the port. The rats escape the wreck and begin spreading the plague through the town.
As Thomas arrives home, Herr Knock escapes the hospital and takes Orlok to the castle, where he says that he needs Ellen to pledge herself to him again, willingly – he can’t take her by force. Meanwhile, Ellen asks to sleep with Anna, and the two of them talk about their long friendship. Anna gives her a cross necklace to hold onto. But then later that night, Orlok appears to Ellen in her dreams, and she tells him she knows what kind of monster he really is and that she’ll never be his.
Orlok tells her she has three nights to reconsider her decision. And if she does not pledge herself to him, he’ll kill everyone she cares about and destroy the entire town. When Ellen wakes, she’s horrified to find Anna on the floor, covered in rats and rat bites.
As the plague spreads, Friedrich gets fed up with having to deal with both Ellen’s problems and now Anna’s sickness. He kicks Ellen and Thomas out, sending them back to their own house. Ellen and Thomas argue about everything, but it’s clear to Thomas that Ellen is what Dr. Von Franz calls “possessed.” Ellen’s just about insane from Orlok’s hold on her mind, but she has Thomas have sex with her as a way to fight back.

Meanwhile, a sick Anna hears her daughters screaming and runs into their room to find Orlok feeding on them. Then he attacks and kills Anna. After the funeral, a despondent Friedrich goes back to the crypt and opens Anna’s coffin, kissing her and infecting himself with the plague. Dr. Sievers and Dr. Von Franz arrive too late to help them and burn their bodies.
Realizing what she must do, Ellen talks to Von Franz, and they agree that she has to give herself over to Orlok. In order to distract Thomas, Von Franz has him and Sievers go with him to Orlok’s castle, seemingly to kill him. They find the sarcophagus and stake the body inside – but it’s not Orlok. It’s Herr Knock, who says with his dying breaths that Orlok tricked him, and that it’s Ellen he really wants. Thomas takes off as Von Franz and Sievers set fire to the castle.
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Orlok comes to Ellen’s room, where she disrobes and pledges herself to him. They lay together, and Orlok starts feeding on her. He goes to stop after a while, but Ellen keeps hold of him, telling him to keep feeding. Orlok loses track of time, and then suddenly, it’s morning.
As daylight spills into the room, Orlok screams as he shrivels and dies, blood pouring out of every orifice. Ellen holds him and lives just long enough to see Thomas when he gets there. Von Franz says that because of Ellen’s sacrifice, the curse was lifted, and the town was saved. The end.
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Dracula is one of the oldest stories in history, and as a movie property, it’s been remade numerous times. But what’s interesting is that, as an audience, we never seem to tire of it. Which I think, is the main reason why it continues to reappear every decade or so in some shape or form.
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Trusting the remake of Nosferatu to Robert Eggers was an extremely smart and exciting choice. Since his stunning debut, The Witch (2015), he’s proven himself to be one of the best writers/directors out there. And the way he’s molded the story, which is basically just Dracula with the names changed, has made it brand new for another generation.

Nosferatu stands out largely due to its visual style. It’s an absolutely gorgeous flick. With ticket prices (and oftentimes audiences) the way they are, I totally understand people not wanting to deal with the aggravation of going to the theater. But Nosferatu is definitely one that’s worth paying the money for and even enduring those annoying idiots who can’t leave their phones off or can’t sit still.
The beauty of Nosferatu’s sets, costumes and shot compositions is breathtaking. It immerses you in dark, Gothic blues and grays, in warm torchlight and blackest blacks. It also takes full advantage of its R rating and goes for terrifying images, lots of blood, gore and sex, which, let’s face it, is what makes vampirism so enticing.
The cast is also top-notch, and everyone turns in terrific performances. But it’s Lily Rose-Depp who shoulders much of the narrative’s weight, and she proves herself up to the challenge. Her Ellen demonstrates innocence and kindness, but also a chilling, possessed insanity that’s scary to watch.
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The decision to leave Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok as more creature than human also adds to the flick’s devastating, dark beauty. Shrouded for most of his time onscreen, his gangly, nasty hands and fingernails are all you have to create an image in your mind of what he could possibly look like. And when you finally do see him full-on, it’s even worse than you thought.
Unfortunately, for all of Nosferatu’s beauty and superior craftsmanship, the news is not all good. I feel bad saying this because I know this was a passion project for Eggers, and I really want to be able to say that it excels in all aspects. But at the end of it, I found myself feeling largely unaffected emotionally.
It’s difficult to explain because the flick seems to have everything it needs to be truly great. But there’s just something missing, something about it that doesn’t quite click. It’s impossible to name, but you know it when you feel it – or, in this case, don’t feel it. So definitely, go see Nosferatu on the big screen to lose yourself in Gothic beauty for a couple of hours. But the flick’s strange sort of cold detachment in its overall vibe makes it difficult to truly love.
Directed by: Robert Eggers
Written by: Robert Eggers, Henrik Galeen (original screenplay), Bram Stoker (novel)
Release date: Dec. 25, 2024
Rating: R
Run time: 2hr, 12min
Distributor: Focus Features
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