Horror fans should know their vampires and Nosferatu is certainly legendary. After viewing the 2024 “Nosferatu,” I watched two German films. Of the two German films (“Nosferatu: A Symphonie of Horror” and “Nosferatu the Vampyre “), I would only watch the 1922 film. To fully appreciate the artistry of Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” the 1922 silent film is really a must-see before you can fully understand Egger’s passion project.

Nosferatu: A Symphonie of Horror (Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Even though the film was released in 1922, it only entered public domain worldwide in 2019. I watched a grainy version and the opted for a colorized restoration which was available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Although I was not totally in love with the soundtrack, it’s worth streaming to see F.W. Murnau’s masterpiece and how it established some conventions for horror movies. Because “Nosferatur” was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, “Dracula,” the estate of Stoker sued. All the copies of the film were supposed to be destroyed, but luckily were not.

Set in Germany in 1838, Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim)  is sent to Transylvania by his boss to meet a new client, Count Orlok (Max Schreck), who wants to buy the house across from Hutter’s in the fictional German town of Wisborg. Hutter’s first red flag is the locals at the inn where he stops are terrified of Orlok. The second red flag is when Hutter gets to the castle, Orlok is too interested in his bleeding thumb after Hutter cut’s his thumb accidentally. The third one comes when he finds puncture wounds on his neck in the morning after sleeping at the castle. Then there’s Orlon’s interest in his wife whose portrait Hutter has brought with him.

Hutter is unable to leave until after Orlok has departed by packing his coffin in a coach. The coffins are shipped to Wisborg, but the sailors discover the rats and fall fatally ill. The plague is suspected. In Wisborg, there are more mysterious deaths blamed on the rats for bringing the plague, but Hutter’s wife, Ellen (Greta Schröder), reunited with Hutter, realizes the truth.

Nosferatu the Vampyre (Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht) ⭐️

While Roger Ebert added this to his Great Movies Collection, I’m not a fan. This was Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinsky’s second of five films they made together. The film combines the story of Stoker’s “Dracula” with Murnau’s “Nosferatu.” The year is 1850 and Jonathan Harder is a real estate agent in Wismar, Germany, employed by Renfield. He takes a four-week journey to Transylvania to bring documents to Count Dracula for his signature. At a local inn, the locals tell him not to go to the castle, but Harker journeys on. Although warned about vampires, he doesn’t quite believe in that superstition, even after meeting Dracula. His nights at the castle unsettle him and his wife Lucy has nightmares even though she is back home in Wismar. When Harker confirms that Dracula is a vampire, it is too late. Dracula leaves with coffins filled with the local earth and Harder is left imprisoned in the castle.

Harker escapes, but must be hospitalized due to his weakness from blood loss to the count and the injury he suffered in his escape.

Dracula slowly kills the crew of his ship but the ship manages to reach Wismar and hundreds of rats disembark. The investigation into the ship brings in Abraham van Helsing. Although her husband returns, he is weak and ill. Lucy learns how to defeat Dracula.

The film brings in a carnal sexual aspect to the sacrifice of Jonathan Harker’s wife, Lucy (Isabelle Adjani). Yet I found the whole film repellant, including Lucy’s sacrifice and her sexual enjoyment of it. Furthermore, according to Wikipedia, there was animal cruelty involved in the production.

Nosferatu ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Robert Eggers remake of the 1922 German film is a triumph of determination and artistry. Eggers who wrote and directed began this project in 2015, yet the leads, Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult and Bill Skarsgård, were announced in 2022. Hoult had just finished filming another Bram Stoker Dracula-inspired project, “Renfield,” in which Hoult plays the titular character, an English lawyer blessed with eternal life, but in servitude to Nicolas Cage’s count.

In the 2024 “Nosferatu,” Hoult is a new clerk in a real estate firm, working for Herr Knock (Simon McBurney). But his is not the first face we see on screen. A young Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) is visited in her bedroom by a shadowy figure who proclaims to her in an ancient language, “You are not for the living. And shall you be one with me ever, eternally?” And the young girl promises and seems to feel some sort of pleasure until we see the face of the creature.

This seems to be a dream, perhaps a premonition. It is, years later, a recurring nightmare even though her new husband Thomas Hutter (Hoult) makes her happy. They are both well-dressed and live in spacious quarters in Wisberg, Germany (1838), yet we later learn that Hutter has borrowed monies from Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who already has a wife, Anna (Emma Coorin), and two young girls whom we first see screaming like spoiled brats (“There is a monster in the room.”).

Hutter is late, but Herr Knock is indulgent, saying that this is “providence.” He says, “A new husband requires new wages.” Knock has noticed Ellen, saying she is “nonpareil” and “almost sylph.” Then he assigns Thomas an adventure. Thomas can climb out of debt and buy his wife a fine house and hire a maid, but to do so, he must leave his wife and go on a long six-week journey to meet with a Count Orlock. Knock explains the count wants an old house for retirement and “He has one foot in the grave so to speak.” The contract cannot be sent by post because, “He insists that we offer him an agent, in the flesh.” We will see more flesh of Herr Knock.

Ellen doesn’t want Thomas to leave. She has premonitions, but eventually controls her “melancholy” after throwing out the flowers he has brought as a peace offering. She bids him farewell. She’s left in the care of the Hardings, but that act of charity dooms the Hardings.

When Thomas finally reaches Transylvania, he’s greeted by the villagers who hope for money and dance and try to entertain him, but he doesn’t speak the local language. What’s worse is they learn he is going to meet Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) the next day. An old woman attempts to warn him that evening. Beware of the count’s shadow. Thomas witnesses some strange rite in the nearby grave that involves a young name girl on a white horse, a corpse and a stake. The next morning, the people of the inn have vanished and so has his horse.

Yet Thomas journeys on, alone, walking through landscapes of increasing desolation. He’s met with mysteries, yet journey on until late in the evening he meets the count in a cold ruined castle room lit by a vast fire. The voice of the count is ominous and low. The count wants to be addressed as “lord” and the honor of his blood demands it.

There are no bats, but plenty of rats. Thomas will recognize the danger after unwisely signing a contract written in a language he cannot understand and then, after the count has departed for Wisborg, attempt to save his wife and the threat to the city of Wisborg. In that endeavor, he will find an ally in Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz (Willem Dafoe), but the professor will understand better than Thomas what needs to be done. Depp’s mesmerizing performance teeters between the madness of melancholy and the guilt for bringing this curse upon her loved ones. The chemistry between Hoult and Depp deepen our sense of tragedy.

Jarin Blaschke’s (“The Lighthouse”) cinematography eases between monochromatic grays, somber landscapes with bare touches of color to sensual, subtle colors of a glowing home life. This morbid fairytale is well-imagined and story boarded. The transitions between color and black and white, the play of shadows and light illuminate the story, pleasing the eyes yet repulsing our minds. While at first the count isn’t a horrifying figure, he is a commanding presence. The makeup team must be credited, but that low, rumbling voice Bill Skarsgård employs sells the extreme arrogance and hypnotic presence.

Robert Eggers’s remake refreshes and reimagines Nosferatu for our current technology and sensibilities. I’m not a big horror fan. Although my husband and I were both fans of “iZombie,” we’ve totally bypassed the “Twilight” series. There’s little humor in 2024 “Nosferatu,” but there’s plenty of beautiful images and a wonderfully nuanced atmosphere of doomed love. Like “The Lighthouse,” Egger’s peers into the damaged psyche of individuals within a horror spectacle but also includes jump scares to add to the viewers confusion.

“Nosferatu” had its world premiere in Berlin, Germany on 2 December 2024. The film is scheduled to be released in the US on 25 December 2024.