Movie Review – Nosferatu

Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe
Year: 2024

Robert Eggers is a madman and I mean that as the highest compliment.

The Witch. The Lighthouse. The Northman. Each one more obsessively detailed than the last. Each one absolutely committed to its period and its vision. The man researches 17th century goat husbandry for authenticity. He builds actual Viking longhouses. He’s insane.

Nosferatu is Eggers tackling the vampire myth. The original story. F.W. Murnau’s 1922 film. The shadow on the wall. The fingers. The rat-faced horror that defined what movie monsters could be.

And it’s. God. It’s so good.

Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok is genuinely terrifying. This is not sexy vampire territory. This is not suave immortal seducer. This is plague in human form. Death wearing skin. The makeup and performance work together to create something that shouldn’t exist, that your brain rejects as wrong. When he appears on screen the temperature drops. You feel cold in the theater.

Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen is the center of the film in a way that previous adaptations haven’t explored. Her connection to Orlok — that psychic bond that draws him across Europe — is not just plot mechanics here. Eggers makes it erotic and horrifying and shameful. Ellen is pulled toward something she knows will destroy her and she cannot stop. It’s addiction metaphor if you want it to be. It’s sexual awakening horror if you want that instead. It’s both.

The production design is beyond praise. Every frame looks like a painting from the 1800s come to life. The practical effects — the rats, the shadows, the decaying bodies — make CGI look like a cheap trick. Eggers shot on 35mm film and you can feel the texture of it.

Nicholas Hoult plays Thomas Hutter, Ellen’s husband, and he’s essentially the audience surrogate. A rational man confronted with the irrational. His journey to Orlok’s castle is. I mean. Horror filmmaking at its finest. The dread builds and builds until you want to scream at him to turn around.

Willem Dafoe returns to vampire hunting after Shadow of the Vampire and he’s obviously having a blast. Van Helsing reimagined as this eccentric occult scholar, playing against his usual intensity with something more theatrical.

My complaint. One complaint. The middle section in the town drags slightly. After the castle sequence the movie has to downshift and set up the finale and some of that setup feels slower than the rest. Minor issue.

Nosferatu is the best horror movie of the year. Maybe the best horror movie in years. Eggers took a story that’s been told a dozen times and found new terror in it. New beauty in its ugliness.

Go see this in theaters. Go see it with someone who’s scared easily. Watch them clutch their armrest. That’s the experience.

My rating: ★★★★★

Nosferatu on IMDb | Nosferatu on Rotten Tomatoes