Review: Nosferatu (2024)

Robert Eggers recreates the 1922 horror classic with beauty and reverence. Is that enough to justify yet another retelling of this story?

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When I reviewed the original 1922 Nosferatu a couple of years ago, I praised the film's visual style, particularly the framing of each scene and the use of light and dark, while bemoaning a very slow pace that was not helped by an overly familiar plot. Remarkably, the 2024 remake of Nosferatu has those precise strengths and weaknesses, perhaps only heightened by the subsequent century of technological advancement and our expectations as an audience. Helmed by Robert Eggers of The VVitch fame, the retelling's greatest inspiration from the original film is clearly in the visual direction. The cinematography, the sense of composition, the use of shadow, all combine to make each and every frame a work of art. It's truly a stunning movie to look at. Of course, that is only one element of a cinematic experience - how do the rest of the elements support the overall presentation?

The performances in Nosferatu are all very good, with each actor leaning into the formality and severity you might expect from characters populating a 19th-century German town. Bill Skarsgard, our current reigning scream king*, cuts an imposing figure as the titular villain, combining the disfigured hideousness of Max Schrek's version with the more dashing and cosmopolitan versions of Dracula we have seen across the years. He sells the impossible age and hunger of the creature with a wheezing baritone, and I would say it is a strong portrayal if not as instantly iconic as his interpretation of Pennywise. Willam Defoe, as is typically the case, steals the show with his turn as the sort of consultant on occult matters that we've seen in countless supernatural horror films. His appearance came at the perfect time for me, just as my interest was starting to wane a bit due to the methodically paced action. His character is subtly more animated and informal than the rest, and Defoe adds a real spark to movie. Yet, with the runtime exceeding two hours, I could have used a few more sparks along the way.

While Nosferatu was first put to film more than a hundred years ago, the story that serves as its inspiration, Bram Stocker's Dracula, dates back even further to 1897. Eggers adaptation is impressive in the way it modernizes the story while remaining remarkably faithful to the 1922 version, to the extent that I think that faithfulness may have hurt the film a bit. I covered the unexpected deviation to the classic monster design, and of course Eggers expanded on the silent film with additional scenes and dialogue, doubling down on the thematic elements of lust and sexual repression, but I keep going back to the fact that this story has been told countless times at this point. I didn't expect, or really even want, a major plot alteration, but I think the movie would have gotten a lot of juice out of some more action or different modern horror techniques. Eggers is the perfect director for this project to replicate the moody, mildly surrealistic creepiness of the original, but he is not necessarily equipped, or at least willing, to offer a new take on the classic. As such, I found myself very much appreciating every scene, but rarely if ever investing in them.

* i.e. the distaff version of "Scream Queen" that I just coined to recognize Skarsgard's excellent and ubiquitous work in the horror genre. Of course now that I'm thinking on it, our foremost example is possibly Dan Stevens instead. Further research is required, coronation pending.