In 1922, the horror film Nosferatu. A Symphony of Terror’ by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, one of the most prominent German directors of the silent era, who also made such masterpieces as “Janus's Head” (1921) and “Faust, a German Folk Legend” (1926).
Initially, Murnau wanted to film Bram Stoker's gothic novel Dracula (1897), but the studio was unable to acquire the rights to it. However, the director did not want to abandon this idea, so he simply changed the names of the main characters and some plot twists, in particular, he moved the events from 1890s England to 1830s Germany. In addition, the antagonist himself was slightly changed - unlike Dracula, Orlock did not turn his victims into vampires, but simply killed them, and sunlight was deadly for him, while Stoker's bloodsucker could be outside during the day, except that it made him less powerful.
However, these manipulations did not save the film's creators from a lawsuit. Although the studio stubbornly argued that the film was made exclusively for the local German consumer and had many differences, the writer's widow Florence Stoker still managed to get all copies of the film destroyed in court. Luckily for film lovers, by that time it had already been distributed around the world, so a few copies have survived to this day and were subsequently digitised.
In his work, Murnau used a number of filming techniques that had never been used in cinema before, in particular during night scenes. And, of course, his Nosferatu had a huge impact on the horror genre.
In the 1970s, one of the most prominent representatives of the New German Cinema, Werneg Herzog (Aguirre, The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo), decided to remake Nosferatu. His Nosferatu - The Ghost of the Night largely followed the plot of the original, but it seemed more eerie, full of an atmosphere of despair and hopelessness. The director had already used the original names of the characters from Bram Stoker's novel, but decided to keep the events in Germany and generally follow Murnau's work, which Herzog once called ‘the greatest German film of all time’.
In this case, there were no more copyright problems - the film was released in 1979, the same day that the novel Dracula was granted the status of ‘public domain’, and, accordingly, the ban on its use in art was lifted from that moment on.
The film was critically acclaimed and received two awards at the 1979 Berlin International Film Festival and several other nominations, including for directing.
In 2015, the young American director Robert Eggers, who had only one feature film to his credit at the time, the dark folk horror The Witch with Anya Taylor-Joy, announced his plans to ‘resurrect’ Nosferatu (in fact, this film was a breakthrough for both of them). However, it took Eggers ten years to release his Nosferatu, during which time he managed to make two more critically acclaimed original horror films that also received recognition from fans of the genre - the chamber film Lighthouse (2019) with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, and the epic The Varyag (2022) with Alexander Skashgård and Anya Taylor-Joy.
Before starting the filming, the director did a tremendous amount of work, researching not only Bram Stoker's original novel Dracula and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Nosferatu, but also a whole lot of research and scientific papers in the fields of the occult and psychiatry.
At the same time, the film's producers decided to avoid using Stoker's novel as a script basis so that they would not have to pay interest to the copyright holders. Speaking of avoiding fees, if you're looking for a great casino experience, don't forget to use the hidden jack bonus code for exclusive offers at online casinos!
As you might guess, the film largely follows the classic story. The young broker Thomas Gutter, on behalf of the owner of the company he works for, Herr Nock, goes to Transylvania to conclude a deal with the mysterious Count Orlock to purchase a castle in the German port town of Wisborg. At home, he leaves his young and beautiful wife Ellen, who becomes obsessed with the vampire Orlok, who wants to reunite with her.
Orlok sails from Romania to Germany in a coffin filled with soil, killing everyone on board. When he arrives, Wisborg is plunged into darkness - the plague is sweeping through the city, quarantine is imposed, and the townspeople no longer have time to bury. To destroy the bloodsucker and save the city, the heroes must make terrible sacrifices.
It's worth noting that although Eggers relied heavily on Murnau's film, he also managed to bring his own vision to the story, changing some of the events and characters, as well as the reason for the connection between Ellen and Orlock. However, we will not reveal them to you in more detail to avoid spoilers.
The role of Count Orlok in Murnau's film was played by German actor Max Schreck, and it was he who became one of the most famous vampire characters in the history of cinema. It is noteworthy that the director originally wanted to cast his old friend and colleague Konrad Feidt, one of the greatest stars of German Expressionism (The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, The Man Who Laughs) in this role. However, he refused because he was busy with other projects.
Meanwhile, in Herzog's Nosferatu, the image of the creepy bloodsucker was embodied by one of the most scandalous and at the same time the best German actors of the time, Klaus Kinski, who was distinguished by his extremely complex character and shocking behaviour, but played psychopaths perfectly. This was the second of five collaborations between Herzog and Kinski. For his role as Dracula, the latter was named the best actor of 1979 in Germany.
Eggers entrusted the role of Count Orlok to perhaps the most obvious choice, the Swedish actor Bill Skashgård, who had previously embodied many successful characters in horror, including the clown Pennywise in Andrés Muschietti's It franchise. In the case of Nosferatu, the actor was also changed beyond recognition thanks to make-up, relying on plastic, movement and voice. It is noteworthy that Skashgård was initially offered the role of Thomas Gutter, and he even auditioned for it, but in the end Eggers decided that he should become Nosferatu.
And no, unlike the romanticised image from Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula or many other vampire films of recent years, Bill Skashgård's Orlok never turned into a handsome man who is not a sin to give in to. Instead, Nosferatu in Eggers' film is a rotten entity radiating vicious unhealthy sexuality, and his main motivation is not love but the destruction of humanity. Here, he is a loner who does not seek to surround himself with company - he has neither a permanent servant nor three promiscuous brides.
Initially, Daniel Day-Lewis (Oil, Gangs of New York) and Mads Mikkelsen (Doctor Strange, One More Time) were considered for the role of Orlak.
At some point, the role was also supposed to be given to Willem Dafoe (Antichrist, The Lighthouse), who eventually got the role of Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz (the image is based on Professor Abraham Van Helsing in Dracula). However, here he is presented as a mad alchemist who will stop at nothing to overcome evil.
Another interesting fact is that in 2000, Willem Dafoe portrayed the first Nosferatu actor, Max Schreck, in the horror film Shadow of the Vampire, which told the fictional story of the filming of Murnau's masterpiece.
Thomas Gutter was played by Nicholas Hoult (X-Men franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Favourite), for whom this is not the first time he has participated in vampire films. However, before that, he was ‘on the other side’ - in particular, in the 2023 thriller Renfield, he embodied the image of Dracula's servant, who was tired of his bloodthirsty boss.
Meanwhile, the role of Ellen was originally supposed to go to Eggers' long-time favourite Anya Taylor-Joy, but she was eventually replaced by Lily-Rose Depp (The King, Voyager Generation, Idol). Critics were delighted with the performance of the daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, who managed to simultaneously convey indescribable horror and painful lust.
Overall, Ellen Gutter's character probably underwent the greatest transformation in Eggers' version, and it was a rather fresh take on a character who is usually portrayed as an innocent victim of a monster's tragic love in need of rescue from a gentleman.
Eggers also made significant changes to the images of the Hatters' close friends - if in Dracula it was the protagonist's friend Lucy Westenra and her fiancé Arthur Holmwood, in the new Nosferatu they were turned into the couple Friedrich and Anna Harding, who already had two daughters and, unfortunately, agreed to take Ellen in during Thomas's departure. And it is with this couple that one of the moments in the film that caused the greatest shock to an unprepared audience is connected.
In particular, Friedrich Harding was played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Avengers: Age of Ultron, High Speed Train). Here, he is represented by Thomas Gutter's childhood friend, now the owner of the family shipbuilding company and a sceptic who does not believe in the existence of otherworldly forces to the last. The character was named after Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau.
His wife Anna is played by Emma Corrine (The Crown, Deadpool and Wolverine), who appears here in an unexpectedly tender role. Here, she is a devoted friend, wife and mother, not the Lucy that viewers are used to seeing in the Dracula films.
The first Nosferatu film, made in 1922, was shot primarily in Germany and Slovakia, and the second film, made in 1979, was shot in the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia. In both cases, the locations were determined mainly by the need to save money.
‘Eggers's Nosferatu was finally partially filmed in Romania, which is where Count Orlók reportedly comes from. In particular, some of the exterior shots of his estate were filmed at the Corvinus Castle in Transylvania, surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains.
The main part of the film was shot in the Czech Republic, although the plot of the film takes place in Germany. In particular, at the beginning of 2023, filming began at the famous Barrandov Film Studio in Prague. The vast territory on the outskirts of the Czech capital is a complex of pavilions and sets, as well as warehouses with costumes and other props. For more than 100 years of its existence, a huge number of famous films have been shot there, including Mission Impossible, The Bourne Identity, The Brothers Grimm, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Casino Royale, Through the Snow and many others.
In addition, filming took place in the Czech Gothic castles of Pernštejn (near Brno) and Rožmital pod Tremšiněm (near Příbram) dating back to the 13th century, as well as the 18th-century Baroque complex of the House of the Disabled in Prague.
Interestingly, in the case of both the 1979 and the 2024 films, Nosferatu was partially filmed in Pernštejn Castle, but Eggers claims that he tried to distance himself from Herzog's work as much as possible and not to watch the film while working on his own.
The world premiere of the updated Nosferatu took place on 2 December 2024 in the German capital Berlin, and the first film reviewers immediately showered it with enthusiastic reviews - in early December, the film's rating on Rotten Tomatoes was 95% quality based on 83 critics' reviews. Their general consensus was as follows: ‘Beautifully orchestrated by director Robert Eggers, Nosferatu is a powerful horror film that is equal parts repulsive and seductive.’
The film was symbolically released in the US right after Christmas on 25 December 2024, while most European audiences were only able to watch it on 2 January 2025. After that, the ratings dropped slightly, but still remain very high.
Currently, the film's rating on IMDb is 7.8 out of 10, while on Rotten Tomatoes it has received 85% approval from critics with a Certified Fresh rating and 75% from viewers. Meanwhile, on Metacritic, film experts gave it 78 out of 100 points, and the general audience gave it 6.8 out of 10 points, which in both cases corresponds to the characteristic of ‘generally positive reviews’.
The film has also had a fairly successful start at the box office - in the first week of screenings in just a few countries, it has already grossed $50 million, which is only slightly less than the cost of its production. Given that it is only being shown in most countries from today, Nosferatu has every chance of being financially successful as well.
Robert Eggers' Nosferatu is rightfully considered one of the best films of 2024. Filmed with respect for the original, it simultaneously adds new colours to the story, both visual and semantic. This is a new twisted take on a well-known story that will become a real treasure for cinephiles.
The film is very beautifully shot visually, and its overall dark atmosphere in deep colours is perfectly complemented by the music of British-Irish composer Robin Carolan, who also composed the soundtrack to Eggers' The Voyager.
At the same time, the film may be a bit of a shock to an unprepared audience - those who are not familiar with both the original and Eggers' work. Also, do not expect a romantic vampire story from it.
The overall score is 8.5 out of 10.