The Early 19th Century Plot
In the early 19th century, the count plans to buy property in the fictional German port town of Wisborg with the help of a submissive secret acolyte. He tricks an innocent realtor, Thomas Hutter (played by Nicholas Hoult), into making the perilous journey to his castle to oversee the document signing. The count's intention is to set the seal on his imperial expansion through the ecstatically obscene blood-conquest of Thomas's demure young bride, Ellen (played by Lily-Rose Depp), for whom he has a telepathic passion. Ellen is haunted by her sleepwalking and nameless sexual yearnings.Thomas's friends, the Hardings, are played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin. The local physician Dr Sievers is portrayed by Ralph Ineson, and Thomas's creepy employer, Herr Knock, is played by Simon McBurney. Willem Dafoe plays occult expert and vampire-hunter Professor Von Franz, a heterodox outsider and freethinker who is the only one they can rely on.
Any adaptation of Nosferatu faces the decision of how far to lean into black comic horror and absurdity. Herzog did it marginally, and Eggers follows suit by giving Dafoe's professor a bizarrely long pipe. Dafoe's occasional appearance in the side of the frame has a touch of Marty Feldman's charm. The film also uses macabre comedy to mimic an uneasy giggle of fear and pre-empt possible derision.
The Visuals and Production
The film is handsomely produced and shot, with excellent performances. Skarsgård's vampire is opaque and gruesome but may not be as scary as expected. Murnau's creation took the vampire into a more fabular realm, and Eggers's version is more stylised and studied. There is less sense of the vampire's weakness becoming dangerous, and the psychological subtlety is transferred to Ellen's Freudian ordeal.She is attracted yet disgusted by the vampire but realizes the need to reconcile her competing instincts. This is an elaborate and detailed love letter to the original, showing intelligent respect and faithfulness.