When Robert Eggers announced he was reimagining Nosferatu, I was ecstatic.
Eggers has been tremendously successful in taking old-school, period horror stories, like The Witch or The Lighthouse, and making them feel alive. He’s a master at using period detail and expert craftsmanship to foster creeping dread, which is why he’s the perfect filmmaker to bring Nosferatu back from the grave. Granted, the original 1922 silent film directed by F. W. Murnau still holds up as a fantastic horror film, as his use of shadows amongst his creaking, musty sets paired fantastically with Max Schreck’s ghoulish performance as Count Orlok. Eggers understood Murnau’s style and built on those same techniques, capturing darkness in his film. Eggers’s production is, of course, a massive upgrade, and the bevy of strong performances like Bill Skarsgård near-inhuman performance as Count Orlok, Willem Dafoe’s wild alchemist Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz, and Lily Rose-Depp’s breathtaking Ellen Harker. Both Nosferatu films are fantastic, but I’m interested in diving into how Eggers’ version builds on the original film, both stylistically and thematically:
