Nosferatu (2024 film)

Nosferatu is a 2024 American Gothic Fantasy horror film written and directed by Robert Eggers. It is a remake of the film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), itself inspired by Bram Stoker's novel Dracula (1897). It stars Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, and Lily-Rose Depp. The supporting cast includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney, and Willem Dafoe.
Development began in 2015, when Eggers planned to make it his second film; he described it as a passion project, but eventually opted to delay its production. Skarsgård and Depp were cast in lead roles in September 2022. Filming took place primarily at Barrandov Studios in Prague between February and May 2023.
Nosferatu had its world premiere in Berlin on December 2, 2024, and theatrically released in the United States by Focus Features and internationally by Universal Pictures on December 25. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $180.9 million worldwide on a $50 million budget, becoming Eggers's highest-grossing film. At the 97th Academy Awards, the film earned nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
In the early 1800s, a young girl named Ellen pleads for a supernatural being to ease her loneliness. Her cries awaken a mysterious creature who makes her pledge herself to him eternally and seduces her before forcing himself on her.
In 1838, Ellen has married Thomas Hutter, and the couple live in the German town of Wisburg. Thomas accepts a lucrative commission from his employer, Herr Knock, to sell the decrepit Grünewald Manor to the reclusive Count Orlok. Ellen, disturbed by a pleasurable dream of marrying Death, begs Thomas to stay, to no avail. He leaves her in the care of his wealthy friend Friedrich Harding and his wife Anna, along with their two young daughters Clara and Louise.
Arriving at the Carpathians in Transylvania, Thomas is surrounded by the local peasantry and seemingly shunned for associating with Orlok. He manages to secure a night at the inn by paying twice the rate and is warned by an old woman not to visit Orlok. That night, he witnesses a group of Roma exhuming and impaling an alleged vampire's corpse with a stake, making the corpse expel blood. The following morning, he finds the village deserted and his horse gone. He continues on foot until an unmanned carriage carries him to Orlok's castle.
Upon their meeting, the strange and menacing Orlok forces Thomas to complete the property sale. Orlok demonstrates preternatural abilities that unsettle Thomas. When he accidentally cuts himself during dinner, he blacks out and awakens to find a bite mark on his chest. The following night, Orlok demands Thomas' locket, containing a lock of Ellen's hair, and does not give it back. He then coerces Thomas into signing a document written in occult script, which Orlok implies is the contract for selling the manor. Thomas, becoming increasingly sick and fearful, demands to leave, but Orlok rebuffs him and demands he remain and recover before departing. After awakening to find yet more bite marks on his chest, Thomas attempts to escape the castle and instead ends up in a crypt where he finds the Count asleep in a coffin, his body naked and decayed. He attacks him with a pickaxe, but Orlok awakens and pursues Thomas. Thomas escapes Orlok and his wolves by falling into a river beneath the castle, from which he is recovered and cared for by Eastern Orthodox nuns at a nearby church. They explain that Orlok was a solomonar, who became a vampire after making a pact with the Devil himself. Meanwhile, Orlok sets sail for Wisburg inside his coffin on a ship with plague-carrying rats, killing the crew during the voyage.
Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, unable to treat Ellen's frequent sleepwalking and seizures, consults with his former mentor, Albin Eberhart von Franz, a Swiss scientist ostracized for his occult beliefs. Von Franz believes Ellen is under the spell of a demonic, plague-bearing vampire called the Nosferatu. Knock is institutionalized after killing and eating sheep raw. Sievers and von Franz search Knock's office, believing he serves the Nosferatu, who they discover is Orlok.
Thomas returns to Wisburg as Orlok's plague ravages the populace. Knock escapes, killing a porter, and escorts Orlok to Grünewald Manor. Orlok appears to Ellen and confesses that, while he is incapable of love, her pledge has intertwined their destinies and made his desire to possess her insatiable. The document he tricked Thomas into signing is revealed to void the Hutters' marriage. Knowing that his bond with Ellen cannot be sustained by force, Orlok says she must willingly submit to him within three nights, else he will kill Thomas and allow the plague to consume Wisburg. Ellen later has troubled sex with Thomas after confessing her past with Orlok. Orlok retaliates by killing Anna and her children. Driven mad with grief, Friedrich dies from the plague while violating his wife's corpse.
Von Franz's research suggests that the Nosferatu can be destroyed by a fair maiden's willing sacrifice. Knowing only she can stop the plague, Ellen conspires with von Franz to keep Thomas away. Thomas, von Franz, and Sievers go to Grünewald Manor, where they accidentally kill Knock after finding him sleeping in Orlok's coffin. Realizing von Franz's deception, Thomas rushes back to save Ellen as von Franz destroys the vault. Ellen summons Orlok to her bedroom and re-pledges herself to him, allowing him to feed on her until sunrise, when the sunlight kills him. Thomas returns and holds Ellen's hand as she dies, while von Franz confirms that her sacrifice has freed them from the plague of Nosferatu.
In July 2015, the remake of Nosferatu (1922) was announced with Robert Eggers writing and directing. Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen were slated to produce the film for Studio 8. In November 2016, Eggers expressed surprise that the Nosferatu remake was his second planned film, saying, "It feels ugly and blasphemous and egomaniacal and disgusting for a filmmaker in my place to do Nosferatu next. I was really planning on waiting a while, but that's how fate shook out." During an interview with Den of Geek around the release of The Lighthouse (2019), Eggers revealed that although he had dedicated a lot of time to bringing the story into the 21st century, he did not know when or if it would happen. He said that he "spent so many years and so much time [...] it would be a real shame if it never happened".
Eggers's early fascination with Nosferatu ignited a passion for filmmaking that would shape his career. He became inspired by both Henrik Galeen's screenplay and Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, and with high school classmate Ashley Kelly-Tata adapted the story for the stage, performing it at their school. Their production caught the eye of Edouard Langlois, who invited them to transfer it to New York City's Edwin Booth Theatre. Eggers stated that "[v]ampirism and Dracula is the thing that I've been thinking about and looking at for a long time". "I had read Montague Summers as a teenager, and many other authors of vampire lore, but I think, until I set out to make Nosferatu, I was still too contaminated by the cinematic tropes. And so, you're infusing things you're reading with cinematic tropes that aren't there. In doing the research to write this script, I needed to be disciplined to forget what I knew. And then, you start looking at the really early vampire accounts, and you're like, 'They're not even drinking blood, they're just strangling people, or suffocating people, or fucking them to death.' And that was really interesting." He also decided to let Orlok drink from the victims' chest instead of their neck, as old folklores often imagined vampires drinking blood from the chest right above the heart.
The character of Orlok is partially inspired by Vlad Dracula, the 15th-century Voivode of Wallachia, whom the original Dracula was named after. Eschewing the monstrous appearance of Murnau's Orlok or the Anglo-literary vampire appearance, Eggers preferred the appearance of a folk vampire, claiming that "there's never been a version of Dracula or Nosferatu dressed like a Transylvanian nobleman with authentic Hungarian attire from the 16th century." The count was written more like an undead corpse, instead of looking sexy or as an actual monster, an element from early vampire myths. Costume designer Linda Muir sought inspiration from the Transylvanian military from around 1560 to the mid-1600s, incorporating pieces of clothing such as dolman, mente or kolpak into Orlok's costume. Eggers explained that Orlok was given a mustache because "there’s no way this guy can’t have a mustache". In old Transylvanian culture, all men who could grow a mustache, would have a mustache. According to prosthetic makeup effects designer David White, Orlok's physique was partially influenced by Ötzi, a natural mummy discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps: "[Eggers] really wanted the feeling of Orlok having had all life sucked from him, every last drop of blood." Conceptualizing Orlok as an ancient Romanian count, Eggers made the decision to have him speak a reconstructed form of the Dacian language in the film, while Romanian and Romani are spoken by other Transylvanian residents. The film also makes a nod to director Victor Sjöström's silent classic, The Phantom Carriage (1921). Eggers also explored the work of French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and his findings on so-called hysteria and took inspiration from Andrzej Żuławski's films Possession (1981), The Devil (1972), and The Third Part of the Night (1971).
In August 2017, actress Anya Taylor-Joy was cast, reteaming with Eggers after The Witch (2015); she was still attached to the project in 2020, though her specific role had not been announced. Harry Styles had been cast to star opposite Taylor-Joy, but dropped out of the project in 2021 citing scheduling concerns.
Eggers initially considered several talents to play the role of Count Orlok, including Daniel Day-Lewis and Mads Mikkelsen. Finally, on September 30, 2022, it was announced that Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård would star in the role of Count Orlok, whom Eggers had also had in mind for the film adaptation years earlier. However, before he was offered the role of the film's titular vampire, Skarsgård had originally auditioned for and been offered the role of Thomas Hutter. After many failed attempts to make the film, Skarsgård's portrayal of Pennywise in It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019) attracted popularity, aiding the recasting decision. The addition of actress Lily-Rose Depp, replacing Anya Taylor-Joy, was also announced on September 30, 2022. Nicholas Hoult was in talks to join the cast after several negotiations to play Thomas Hutter on October 7, 2022.
Willem Dafoe joined the cast in January 2023, re-teaming with Eggers after The Lighthouse and The Northman (2022); Dafoe had not only previously portrayed Max Schreck/Count Orlok in Shadow of the Vampire (2000), but had been slated to play the role again for Eggers. Emma Corrin would join the cast the following month. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Simon McBurney, and Ralph Ineson were announced as joining cast at the start of production in late February 2023. Romanian TikTok personality Bunica Gherghina was cast as the elderly lady at the Transylvanian inn. Additionally, the film features around 5,000 trained rats.
Nosferatu was shot on 35mm film in color by cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, adopting a desaturated look using special filters. Principal photography began in the Czech Republic on February 20, 2023, with filming taking place at Barrandov Studios in Prague by March. Later that month, the crew was shooting on location at the 14th-century Rožmitál pod Třemšínem Castle in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem, Pernštejn Castle and Prague's Invalidovna complex, a Baroque building registered as a national landmark. Some exterior shots were captured in Corvin Castle in Romania. Filming wrapped on May 19, 2023.
To prepare for playing Count Orlok, Skarsgård lost a significant amount of weight and, refusing to have his voice digitally modulated, worked with the Icelandic opera singer Ásgerður Júníusdóttir to lower his vocal range and character, incorporating Mongolian throat singing into his lines, and spent up to six hours a day having prosthetic makeup applied. Skarsgård likened his experience to "conjuring pure evil". Hoult said he felt "real fear" when wolves on set had to be restrained before filming chase scenes with him. The film makes use of several custom-made props, some of which were kept by the actors after filming. Eggers gifted Depp the prop of Ellen's locket, and Hoult kept and framed Orlok's prosthetic penis worn by Skarsgård in the film.
The scene of Hutter's arrival in the Transylvanian village was captured in one shot. The sequence is made up of nonprofessional Romani actors, musicians and dancers, and features an appearance by Czech musician and actor Jordan Haj. Roughly 30 takes were filmed of what Eggers said was all "very carefully choreographed and rehearsed ahead of time in a warehouse in Prague". The village set was built outside of Prague, and was based on the crew's studies of vernacular architecture museums in Romania and Transylvania.
VFX supervisor Angela Barson, cites the goal of the visual effects team was to digitally match the dark gothic aesthetic across 253 shots, or 90 of the 132 minutes of screentime. She worked closely with Production Designer Craig Lathrop to work out which sets would be locations, or builds and where VFX would take over. And Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke to make sure all the plates were framed, lit and captured to give the best possible final result. This is editor Louise Ford's fourth feature with Eggers.
The score is provided by British-Irish film composer and music producer Robin Carolan. Carolan made his film scoring debut in 2022, working with Eggers on the soundtrack for The Northman; on Nosferatu, he intentionally moved away from the typical horror score, focusing on capturing the story's melancholic and tragic elements. He also credited his obsessive listening to Sky Ferreira's 2019 single "Downhill Lullaby" for putting him "in a certain mood" for some of Ellen's scenes.
With "Goodbye" and "Increase thy Thunders", the first two pieces of music from the film were released by Back Lot Music in late September 2024. The full soundtrack album with a total of 43 pieces of music is scheduled to be released on vinyl and two CDs by Sacred Bones Records and Waxwork Records. At the helm as conductor is British-born Daniel Pioro. Carolan and Eggers struggled to perfect their sound, a process marked by their meticulous attention to detail, which Carolan describes as "almost telepathic".
Nosferatu had its world premiere on December 2, 2024, at the Zoo Palast cinema in Berlin, Germany. The film was released in the United States by Focus Features and internationally by Universal Pictures on December 25, 2024. The film was shown in IMAX, as well as in Dolby Cinema, and screened in 35mm in some theatres, including Grauman's Chinese Theatre in California.
The film was released on digital platforms on January 21, 2025. An extended version was also released on Blu-ray.
Nosferatu grossed $95.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $84.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $180.2 million. It became Focus Features' second highest-grossing domestic release and third highest-worldwide.
In the United States and Canada, Nosferatu was released alongside A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, and The Fire Inside and was originally projected to gross around $25 million from 2,992 theaters in its five-day opening weekend. After making $11.55 million on its first day and $7.6 million on its second, estimates were raised to $42 million. It went on to debut to $21.7 million in its opening weekend (and a total of $40.8 million over the five days), finishing in third behind Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King. In its second weekend, the film made $13.1 million, finishing third again. It made a respective $6.9 million and $4.1 million in its third and fourth weekends, dropping out of the box office top ten in its fifth after adding $2 million.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 84% of 352 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Marvelously orchestrated by director Robert Eggers, Nosferatu is a behemoth of a horror film that is equal parts repulsive and seductive." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 59 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the movie an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale.
The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney praised the direction, screenplay and performances, calling the film "exciting, repulsive and beautiful", and added that "It's thrilling to experience a movie so assured in the way it builds and sustains fear, so hypnotically scary as it grabs you by the throat and never lets go." IndieWire's David Ehrlich similarly praised the direction and singled out Depp's performance before stating that "like all of Eggers' films, of which Nosferatu is the richest and most fully realized, it draws a spellbinding power from the friction it finds between historical social mores and the eternal human thirsts they exist to keep in check." John Mulderig at Catholic Review noted, "Film buffs will easily recognize that the atmospheric horror yarn Nosferatu (Focus) is both a variation on and an homage to the eponymous 1922 ... foundational film[;] however, the newcomer is both artistically flawed and, ultimately, morally unbridled. ... [']Nosferatu eventually goes off the ethical rails altogether as it moves toward a conclusion bogged down by the muddled metaphysics espoused by Von Franz.