Nosferatu is a terrible remake, and Robert Eggers is wasting his talent

Releasing a gothic vampire film in 2024 is a challenge that requires strong justification—unless, as a filmmaker, you genuinely have fresh insights to express about the subject and can connect your retelling of an old story with the pulse of the present era.

But the 2024 version of Nosferatu is not such a film. Rooted in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, this adaptation offers almost no new perspective on the original story, no contemporary reinvention, and no stylistic innovation that surpasses its predecessors. Watching it left me feeling disappointed and frustrated—it’s a pointless waste of the director’s talent, the actors’ efforts, and my own time as a viewer.

After The VVitch and The Lighthouse, we are all familiar with Robert Eggers' strengths: he is a filmmaker capable of using modern technology to reconstruct the essence of classical horror films, creating a sense of atmosphere and texture unlike most contemporary cinema. The VVitch felt like a colorized remake of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Day of Wrath, while The Lighthouse seemed like a long-lost silent film from the 1930s, both in aesthetic and storytelling. Watching his films is like stepping through a time tunnel into a world where visuals, pacing, and character mannerisms are entirely removed from the present day. This is Eggers' core competency and the unique brand he has built within the industry.

However, with The Northman and Nosferatu, Eggers' weaknesses are becoming increasingly apparent. He is more and more obsessed with constructing a world detached from reality, while paying less and less attention to character development and performances. He fixates on meticulously recreating period-accurate set designs and art direction but seems uninterested in telling a compelling, well-structured story with a unique perspective. This imbalance between visuals and narrative is glaringly evident in Nosferatu. The film’s aesthetic is undoubtedly exquisite, yet its story and thematic substance are utterly hollow.

The plot is familiar to the point of redundancy, but for the sake of completeness, let’s summarize it once more: real estate agent Thomas and his wife, Ellen, share a deep bond, but financial obligations force him to travel to Transylvania to meet the mysterious Count Orlok and finalize an important property transaction. Little does he know, it is a trap—the vampire Count has already set his sights on Ellen from afar, intending to drain her youthful essence.

As both writer and director, Eggers makes only one significant alteration to the original premise: in Stoker’s novel, Count Dracula is the predator hunting a young female protagonist, while in Eggers’ version, Count Orlok is summoned by Ellen’s premature sexual awakening. He becomes an omnipresent shadow in her psyche, but also provides her with sensory gratification through remote telepathic connection. Under this premise, the 2024 Nosferatu attempts to frame itself as a story about female sexual awakening: the once-feared Count is no longer a relentless hunter but merely a tool for the protagonist to satisfy her desires.

Yet the execution of this premise is paper-thin. As mentioned earlier, Eggers devotes most of his passion to crafting the film’s visuals, treating characters as little more than moving set pieces. Despite Ellen being positioned as the film’s central figure, her presence is actually rather limited, and Eggers' characterization of her is haphazard at best. Midway through the film—after the introduction of Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz—she is almost entirely absent from the narrative, rendering the film’s supposed theme of female awakening meaningless.

As for the film’s connection to the modern era? It’s virtually nonexistent. Stoker’s Dracula is deeply intertwined with themes of disease, death, and eternity—everlasting themes, to be sure. But the question is: does Eggers’ rendition of these themes resonate with our contemporary experience of disease, death, and eternity? The answer is a resounding no. Today’s audiences will struggle to find any meaningful connection between their lived realities and the world portrayed in this Nosferatu. Some might argue that a film doesn’t need to draw such connections, but to me, if a director insists on retelling a story we’ve already heard countless times, then they must provide a compelling reason for doing so.

Ultimately, Nosferatu is a profoundly disappointing remake. It exemplifies the conservatism of today’s film industry: unless a project belongs to an established franchise or serves as a remake of a previous success, it is unlikely to secure funding. It also highlights Eggers' stagnation as a filmmaker: he is content with lavishly packaging a fantastical, classical world but remains unwilling to dig deeper into the story’s thematic core or challenge his audience with meaningful expression. Eggers remains one of Hollywood’s most visually gifted directors, but if he continues down this creative path, he will never reach the heights of his idols—Dreyer, Murnau, or Żuławski. And that is a tremendous waste of his talent.

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