He is coming.
That’s the ominous refrain throughout the first trailer for “Nosferatu,” writer-director Robert Eggers’ forthcoming take on the classic vampire tale.
And he has not arrived yet – the teaser builds anticipation by not revealing the monster, Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård). Instead, characters talk about him and show how his malign power still influences them from a distance. It’s an eerie trailer that showcases Eggers’ gift for creating a terrifying atmosphere.
Focus Features describes the film as “a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.”
“Nosferatu” is a retelling of F.W. Murnau’s legendary 1922 silent film of the same name, which is itself a German Expressionist take on “Dracula.” It is the second remake of “Nosferatu,” after Werner Herzog’s 1979 film “Nosferatu the Vampyre.” (Fun fact: Willem Dafoe, who plays vampire hunter Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz in “Nosferatu,” was nominated for an Oscar in 2000 for playing Max Schreck, the actor and possible actual vampire who played Count Orlok, in “Shadow of the Vampire,” a thriller dramatizing the making of 1922’s “Nosferatu.”)
In addition to Skarsgård and Dafoe, the film’s cast includes Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, the object of Orlok’s obsession; Nicholas Hoult as Ellen’s husband Thomas (Hoult previously starred in “Renfield,” another unorthodox take on “Dracula”); Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Thomas’ friend Friedrich Harding; Emma Corrin as Anna Harding, Friedrich’s wife, who has her own relationship with Orlok; Simon McBurney as Herr Knock, Orlok’s human helper; and Ralph Ineson as Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, the director of a hospital.
Robert Eggers made his name in 2015 with the highly influential A24 folk horror film “The Witch” (which also starred Ineson). He followed that up with the psychological horror film “The Lighthouse” in 2019 (which also starred Dafoe) and the historical action thriller “The Northman” in 2022 (which starred Bill Skarsgård’s brother Alexander). His films are known for their gothic aesthetic and attention to historical detail, including in the dialogue.
“Nosferatu” opens in theaters on Christmas Day 2024.
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