Horror fans have been in raptures over the first trailer for writer and director Robert Eggers’ take on Nosferatu, 102 years after the original, already dubbing it ‘a masterpiece’.
The gothic horror film, which was originally an unauthorised rip-off adaptation of Dracula back in 1922, has built in its own reputation and mythology in the intervening century.
Original director F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is now considered a classic example of the German Expressionist era, despite its dodgy origins and low-budget approach, and made a star out of lead actor Max Schreck.
Schreck’s bald head, bat ears, peg-like teeth and clawed nails have become an iconic image in cinematic history, as has the moment his vampire casts a shadow climbing the stairs.
For Eggers’ updated version, it’s IT and The Crow actor Bill Skarsgård who will portray the fearsome Dracula-esque bloodsucker, barely glimpsed so far in the trailer, alongside a cast including Lily-Rose Depp – a replacement for Anya Taylor-Joy – Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Willem Dafoe.
‘I waited 102 years for this…’ joked fan @sauravanand27 as the new Nosferatu’s trailer was released, while @Northdracula added: ‘I am dying to see my lord Nosferatu return after one century of rest.’
‘#1 Trending 102 years later!’ pointed out @Stumme-40203 as fans rushed to watch the first teaser of the film, expected to be released on Christmas Day.
Of course, this is not actually the first time Nosferatu has been touched since 1922, with Werner Herzog writing and directing his own version, Nosferatu the Vampyre, in 1979, which starred Klaus Kinski – although that was now the best part of half a century ago.
There was also E. Elias Merhige’s Shadow of the Vampire, released in 2000, which was a fictionalised behind-the-scenes look at the making of Nosferatu, starring John Malkovich as filmmaker Murnau and one Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck, who starts to scare the crew with his take on Orlok.
Fans have been tickled to see Dafoe once more in a Nosferatu-themed film, although this time he plays Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, after successfully collaborating with Eggers on The Lighthouse in 2019.
However, it seems The Northman filmmaker Eggers is very much inspired by Murnau, original screenwriter Henrik Galeen and Dracula as opposed to anything else that has come since – and that was something excited viewers can already sense.
‘Kind of speechless. A modern remake of a classic that doesn’t look absolutely awful, and treats the source material and intelligence of its potential audience with respect? Is that actually possible today? It just might be so,’ praised @JMurdochNZ on YouTube, calling it an ‘absolutely excellent trailer’.
‘Robert Eggers would be the ideal guy to recreate this masterpiece, in my opinion. I haven’t felt this enthusiastic about a film in a very long time,’ chimed in @Aeibijoso, while @THELarvious shared: ‘That shot of the giant black hand encapsulating the town is EPIC. Robert Eggers is about to deliver a masterpiece, I already see it.’
‘Dude, I got CHILLS when I saw that scene of the hand casting its shadow over the town/city! I was actually HOPING we’d get a scene like that. Eggers is a genius!’ agreed @frisbyart.
Others also praised the atmosphere and shadow play by Eggers calling it ‘genuinely scary’.
‘Robert Eggers is like a filmmaker from the past, very few make films like he does nowadays. I’m really looking forward to seeing this,’ posted @travisbickle2004.
Eggers himself has also promised that his Nosferatu will deliver the terror fans are hoping for.
‘There hasn’t been an old-school gothic movie that’s actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of audiences will find this one to be the case,’ he told Empire magazine.
The movie’s brief official synopsis from Focus Features reads: ‘Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.’
Nosferatu’s trailer sees Depp’s Ellen Hutter confess to Dafoe’s professor that her dreams ‘grow darker’ as we hear the refrain ‘He is coming’ repeated by various characters as rats flood the streets.
The terror then ramps up with glimpses of a church in flames, and Depp tearing her dress to shreds and crying and vomiting blood as two little girls scream.
Orlok/Nosferatu is only seen in shadows and from behind as his head begins to turn slowly, teasing how his look could be completely altered from the traditional iteration.
Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson and Simon McBurney round out the cast.
Nosferatu is set to release in UK cinemas on December 25.
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