Nosferatu 2024 review

A remake of a movie 100+ years old is a remarkable feat. Not only does it have to respect modern mores and audiences tastes, but ideally it should still feel like the original.

Robert Eggers manages just that in the Nosferatu remake. With earnest nods to Murnau’s 1922 original, Eggers recalls enough of the past hundred years of vampire cinema to impress this reviewer. There is the coach ride to the lonely Transylvanian castle, through the frozen forest (much like Coppola’s 1992 version) ; the vibrant, almost OTT performance by Willem Defoe that is still believable and enjoyable; and of course the dialogue direction of Count Orlok himself: laboured, wheezy, commanding and supernatural all at once. It’s refreshing to see these risks taken and rewarded - so much vampire lore has been explored over the century that one can sense the inevitable fodder it will provide for future memes - but in the moment it plays as frightening and satisfying. The suspension of disbelief has been well achieved.

Eggers is not afraid of cliches either; if it works, it works, right? The eerie howling wind that precedes a spooky scene; the guttural bark of the vampire’s screech in a jump scare. I think he balances just right between giving a fresh take and giving the audiences what they love and expect.

Interestingly the film feels long; although the action never seems to lag. I like to think this is intentional, Eggers injecting some of the sense of time dilation and warping that vampires are said to be capable of when one is under their hypnotic spell.