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Nosferatu Reviews Praise Vampire Reimagining as "Macabre Masterpiece" & Robert Eggers' Best Film Yet
Does this modern reimagining hold a flickering Gothic candle to the 1922 classic?
Does writer-director Robert Eggers' (The Witch, The Northman) updated take on Nosferatu (now with sound!) hold a flickering Gothic candle to F. W. Murnau's 1922 original that pretty much spawned every vampire movie ever made? According to the first official reviews, it most certainly does, with critics falling under the supernatural spell cast by Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) and her emaciated gentleman caller, Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård).
Nicholas Hoult (Renfield), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (The Fall Guy), Emma Corrin (Deadpool & Wolverine), Ralph Ineson (The First Omen), Simon McBurney (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation), and Willem Dafoe (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) round out the cast.
As of this writing, the Focus Features film holds a near-perfect score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Head below to see why!
What are critics saying about Robert Eggers' Nosferatu?
"As much as Skarsgard’s fearsome Orlok, the movie belongs to Depp, whose performance is a revelation. Their scenes together are electric, bristling with a conflicting rush of revulsion and desire, trance and lucidity, resistance and fated surrender. Depp gives Ellen’s delirium a tragic gravity, deepening once she acknowledges the mystical forces within her that sparked the vampire’s obsession. She can switch in an instant from weak and vulnerable to demonic, and the stylized physicality of her seizures is breathtaking." -David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
"Ellen and Count Orlok make for one of the more morbid visions of Beauty and the Beast, but that also applies to Eggers’ visual language and storytelling. It’s so impeccably crafted, boasting production design and values rarely seen in horror like this, without sacrificing the taboo-pushing, visceral horror in the process. It’s operatic and dramatic, bold and revolting, with a powerful final shot for the ages. And Eggers’ Nosferatu happens to be set over Christmas. That all but ensures this macabre masterpiece is destined to become a new holiday horror classic." -Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting
"This dark, feral concept of the prince of darkness — the foul-smelling, putrescent incarnation of death, literally rotting and bringing with it vermin, plague and pestilence — is the bedrock of Robert Eggers’ very modern update. It’s adult in its themes and concept, but at the same time it’s also a surprisingly enjoyable Christmas treat for goths graduating from Tim Burton and looking for a drop of the harder stuff. It’s only Eggers’ fourth film in a highly idiosyncratic and so-far somewhat niche career, but Nosferatu might be the best showcase for his dark obsessions yet, and it’s certainly the most commercial." -Damon Wise, Deadline
"Like Murnau, Eggers has made a timely film about the spread of corruption and decay, and there’s an eerie peculiarity to both of these plague-infested movies arriving soon after a pandemic (Spanish flu, Covid). Will this Nosferatu also mirror the first by surviving for decades to come? Time will tell but, right now, you’d do well to invite it in." -Jamie Graham, Empire
"It's made with the most modern filmmaking technology but feels like an artifact from another century, like one of those inscribed tablets that adventurers find in a tomb and insist on translating aloud even though there's a drawing of a terrifying demon on it. It reminded me of being a child and seeing the original The Exorcist and feeling as if I was seeing a documentary record of evil, one that was itself cursed, and that I should not even be looking at, because by looking at it, I ran the risk of releasing that evil into the world." -Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
"I've seen nearly every Dracula adaptation you can think of and know the story inside and out, yet Nosferatu managed to take me by surprise. But most of all, it scared me. It scared me the way a particularly bad nightmare does. The type of nightmare that's so powerful it ultimately jolts you awake and has you grasping at the sheets, desperate to escape its ethereal snare. The type of nightmare that doesn't quite fade away even when you return to the waking world, even when you turn on all the lights, even when the first rays of dawn creep in through the windows. Nosferatu isn't just a great horror movie, it's one of the best movies of the year." -Chris Evangelista, Slash Film
"In Robert Eggers’s Nosferatu, the vampire is reincarnated. He has shed his sparkle, his languid melancholy, his cobweb-speckled absurdity. He comes for you now – yes, you – as the murmuring voice in the dark, the one that calls your desires perverse and your soul unnatural. This creature feeds on shame, of both the faithful and the faithless ... Nosferatu not only revitalizes a classic monster, it reminds us why they matter at all." -Clarisse Loughrey, The Independent
"Horror fans needn't worry, though: Nosferatu has its share of gruesome shocks. And after so many years of cool teen vampires, it's refreshing to see a horrible old vampire again. But what really separates Eggers' Nosferatu from the flock is how deeply it explores the images and themes of vampire lore. There aren't many Dracula films that give you so much to sink your teeth into." -Nicholas Barber, BBC
"Indeed, this is one of the most lovingly made horror films in some time, with Eggers likely having set out to create a definitive version of the tale. It’s long been his passion project, and you can tell. For me, this is up there with the best films of the year, and probably the only horror film I’ve seen recently that sent a true chill up my spine. Of all the films I’ve seen this year – and there have been a lot – this one seems to have the best chance of becoming a classic. " -Chris Bombay, JoBlo
"Nosferatu is Robert Eggers' finest work, given how it both boldly stands on its own as a gothic vampire drama and astutely taps into the original texts — F.W. Murnau's silent classic and Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. This resplendent horror remake keeps the broad strokes of these vampire legends intact, but refashions them into a terrifying, candle-lit tale of bodily autonomy — or lack thereof — that challenges previous versions of the story (and their conceptions of female sexuality) and in which Lily-Rose Depp delivers a harrowing performance opposite Bill Skarsgård's unsettling, corpse-like villain." -Siddhant Adlakha, IGN
How can you watch Nosferatu in theaters?
Nosferatu swoops into theaters everywhere on Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25. Tickets are now on sale right here!
In addition to writing and directing this longtime passion project, Eggers also served as producer alongside Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Chris Columbus, and Eleanor Columbus. And yes, that is the same Chris Columbus who directed Home Alone and the first two Harry Potter movies.
Looking for more bloodsucking action? Head on over to Peacock for Renfield, Abigail, Dark Shadows, The Vampire Diaries, Vampire Academy, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Let the Right One in, Vampire in Vegas, and more!
