The modern horror audience is difficult to scare. Cheap jumpscares, flimsy practical effects and cringe-worthy computer-generated imagery don’t really hit the average fan the way they used to back in the early days of gothic cinema. Audiences entered the theater wondering if Robert Eggers’ 2024 rendition of the 1922 film Nosferatu can turn a 20th-century classic into a contemporary screamer.
The short answer — yes. Between Bill Skarsgard’s performance as the dreadful Count Orlok, also known as Dracula, and the eerie Victorian landscapes and foreboding tone of the movie, there are several times where audiences must cover their eyes, and if they dare, peek through their fingers.
Set in Germany in the 1830s, the film follows real estate broker Thomas Hutter, portrayed by Nicholas Hoult, as he is sent on a journey to Transylvania, where Count Orlok has insisted that a new property deal takes place. Hutter’s wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), however, is plagued by gruesome nightmares of what will come if her husband accepts the assignment. Blinded by the promise of a promotion, Hutter sweeps her concerns under the rug. Arriving in Transylvania, Thomas soon discovers that Ellen’s visions were correct and that Orlok is, in fact, a bloodsucking fiend.
The most immediately notable element of the film is Orlok’s picturesque castle, filmed in Prague with the Carpathian Alps overhanging in the background. Iris Cabot (II), who watched the film, shares, “Those first thirty minutes where we get to see Thomas lose himself in the wilderness and castle were totally time-warping and probably one of my favorite parts of the movie.”
But it is following the first act, when the snowy mountain tips fade into a bleak night, that the terror and dread really begin. Having caught sight of a picture of Ellen in Thomas’s locket, Orlok decides he must have the maiden for himself and follows Thomas back to Germany to woo her. Upon his arrival, he gives Ellen an ultimatum: either she marries the Prince of Darkness (him), or he wreaks havoc on those around her. The typical Bram Stoker Dracula is depicted as a bachelor, but in this adaptation, Orlok is a hideous, almost rat-like monster, making Ellen’s choice particularly nauseating to think about.
Critics of Nosferatu say this is where the film failed to portray the plot of the original in a more modern light, as Depp’s character is a typical madwoman in the first half, but a mere victim of Orlok’s lust in the second. The fact that a part of her actually loves Orlok, furthermore, can be taken as what the Washington Post calls “the old ‘female desire unleashes evil’ hoodoo.”
While the film does not do much to include women more in the plot than the original, it certainly places more emphasis on Ellen as a character. While Thomas, on paper, is the main protagonist, she is the real center of the story.
“I’d say that Ellen’s role is more prominent because she’s the only character that interacts with every single person in the film […] she’s the one that saves the city. Even though Count Orlok is trying to take her, she is remembered as the most important character in the movie. The movie can exist without Orlok but it cannot exist without Ellen,” shares Oriana Dunker (I).
As put by the New York Times, the 2024 version of Nosferatu “dares you to feel seduced and sick over the seduction.” It’s the kind of film that audiences must pay close attention to; it is not a film to put on while doing homework or making dinner.
Cabot adds, “Even if you’re not interested in the plot, though, I still think it’s worth watching as an aesthetically gorgeous movie.”