What Nosferatu Does Better Than Every Other Recent Dracula Movie

In 2024, we don’t need to try to create vampires. This has been happening for at least a century, and it’s still happening: vampire stories have saturated almost every existing media. Oddly, though, we may have to work a little harder to succeed THE vampires breed – as in the most legendary leech of all: Dracula.

In fairness, it may not be Dracula himself whose popularity is waning, but rather movies about him. Since his screen debut in the lost film “The Death of Dracula” in 1921, barely a decade has passed without an iteration of the Count appearing in theaters, which is part of the reason why the character has undergone so many diverse iterations. Like all fictional creations designed to last, Dracula endures by accepting change. Yet there can always be too much of a good thing; the latest films featuring the Count have failed to shine with critics, fans, or the box office, and perhaps that’s because each of them bends Dracula’s character enough that, well , he doesn’t fully feel like Dracula. more.

This month “Nosferatu”, written and directed by Robert Eggers, would seem to be another radical take on the character at first glance – after all, it’s not Dracula per se, but Count Orlok, with Eggers using the name created by Henrik Galeen and FW Murnau. for their 1922 version of Stoker’s novel, altered due to the film’s unauthorized status as an adaptation. However, Eggers’ film does not seek to distance itself from previous Draculas; rather, it fully embraces the character and his story, so much so that it could very well be the ultimate “Dracula” film.

One reason Dracula’s cinematic influence seems to have waned recently has to do with its relationship with Universal Pictures. Although the studio does not hold sole ownership of the character, they tend to act the way they do, given how iconic and immortal Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of the Count is in Tod Browning’s 1931 “Dracula.” Universal went to great lengths to keep his Dracula active, going so far as to license 1958’s “Dracula” from Hammer Films for international distribution. After the initial Universal Monsters cycle and the Hammer cycle ran their courses, Universal backed a film version of the new adaptation of the original Broadway play that Browning adapted in 1931, becoming 1979’s “Dracula,” directed by John Badham. The same year, Werner Herzog directed “Nosferatu the Vampire”, distributed by 20th Century Fox, in which all of Stoker’s characters had their names restored.

During the 1980s, vampires began to evolve into a more postmodern phase, which left Dracula feeling outdated and child-like (the character’s most prominent appearance was in 1987’s “The Monster Squad”) . 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” marked the character’s emergence in the more adult ’90s, but it was distributed by Columbia, not Universal. After Miramax and New Line Cinema toyed with an ultra-modern, hip Dracula in the “Dracula 2000” and “Blade” franchises, Universal attempted to bring back its Dracula in 2004 by handing the reins over to Stephen Sommers and “Van Helsing” . which marks the start of their misfortunes in trying to resurrect the character. Although the character never left the big screen over the next decade, Universal didn’t try again until 2014’s “Dracula Untold,” a film that would have launched their horror cinematic universe franchise, “Dark Universe,” if it hadn’t underperformed.

After the “Dark Universe” also collapsedUniversal waited until 2023 to try to bring back Dracula, with the double of “Renfield” And “The Last Journey of Demeter.” The films couldn’t be more different in their portrayal of character; Nicolas Cage in “Renfield” is a toxic bad boss/boyfriend with fangs, and Javier Botet in “Demeter” is a mostly animal creature feeding on his prey. Audiences didn’t connect with an R-rated Dracula comedy or a realistic monster Dracula, and perhaps that’s why this year’s “Abigail,” originally billed as a riff on “Dracula’s Daughter”, sought to distance itself from the character’s name and legacy.

With Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” Universal will finally (hopefully) have the last laugh, as the film is distributed by one of their divisions, Focus Features. Instead of trying to subvert or completely reinvent the character of Dracula, Eggers and actor Bill Skarsgård decided to make their Count Orlok the most typical Dracula yet. This is not to say that the film or the portrait of Orlok is a great homage or a reference; Eggers is too much of an original artist for such laziness. In reality, what he does with “Nosferatu” is pretty much the same thing he did in his previous films “The Witch”, “The Lighthouse” and “The Northman”, which is to take elements from ‘a variety of historical and pre-existing sources. and use them in a new cinematic stew.

So for “Nosferatu”, these sources are Stoker’s novel, various myths about the vampire legend, present-day Transylvaniaand of course, the major “Dracula” motion pictures of the last 100 years. The film features the austere coldness of Murnau, the gothic grandeur of Browning, the Grand Guignol of Hammer, the opulent madness of Badham, the contemplation of Herzog, and the eroticism and theatricality of Coppola. In addition to building on the character’s cinematic heritage, Eggers and Skarsgård make Orlok an extremely ambiguous character, the better to include as many facets of Dracula as possible in his portrayal. She is a grounded person with her own needs and desires, while also being a supernatural creature whose abilities and influence are terrifyingly powerful. In other words, he’s both approachable and repulsive, a combination that makes him a fascinating and compelling character.

Most importantly, “Nosferatu” does not seek to overthrow Dracula or the myth surrounding him. The film has its own distinct mythology about Orlok’s methodology and how he can be defeated, but it never feels like Eggers is winking at the audience or trying to justify an antiquated tradition. That’s because his “Nosferatu” is a film made with a genuine desire to explore the characters and themes of the story, rather than mocking, subverting or starting a new Dracula franchise. It’s an honest and creative interpretation, and it turns out that’s all Dracula really needed to become truly scary again.

“Nosferatu” is in theaters around the world.