The new film by Robert Eggers, Nosferatu, finally showed its first images in an impressive trailer, allowing us to get a better idea of the project. The film, remake of Nosferatu, the vampire (1922) by FW Murnau is freely adapted from Dracula by Bram Stoker and shares many similarities with the novel.
Lily Rose-Depp (who replaces Anya Taylor-Joy after her departure from the film due to scheduling problems), Willem Dafoe (in the role of an eccentric vampire hunter), Nicolas Hoult and Aaron Taylor-Johnson will thus face the terrifying Count Orlok, played by Bill Skarsgård. Robert Eggers reunites with frequent collaborator Willem Dafoe and offers Bill Skarsgård a new opportunity to drastically transform himself with a nightmarish role, after playing the clown in That (2017).
The images bear witness to the gothic aspect sought by Robert Eggers, who has built an already impressive filmography in just three films: The Witch (2015), The Lighthouse (2019), et The Northman (2022). Nosferatu is a project in the making for many years and will be released in French theaters on January 1, 2025.
The story follows the visit of a young notary in the Carpathians to the disturbing Count Orlok, a bloodthirsty vampire determined to settle in a town in Germany and spread terror there. To counter it, Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz tries to understand its true nature.
Nosferatu and Dracula?
Connections between the films Nosferatu and the book Dracula date back to the beginning of the 20th century: in 1920, the filmmaker FW Murnau adapted the book without obtaining the exploitation rights and changed various elements starting with the names of the characters (Dracula became Orlok) and the location of the action (from England to Germany), to avoid a trial (the film will still be the subject of legal action by Bram Stoker’s widow).
A masterpiece of German cinema and the first adaptation of Dracula (although unofficial), Nosferatu, the vampire marks the 7th art and becomes an important aesthetic and thematic reference in cinema and culture. In 1979, Werner Herzog also produced a first remake, Nosferatu, ghost of the nightand gives the characters their original names: the count is indeed Count Dracula and the young notary clerk is indeed Johnathan Harker.
Now, Robert Eggers is set to deliver his own iteration of Nosferatu and many shots in the trailer show its first references: Murnau’s film, Herzog’s film, but also the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola with a rather grandiose approach to the count’s residence.
Nosferatu Eggers way also preserves the names of the Nosferatu of Murnau, as well as the place of his action in a German town. Certain iconic shots are recreated (the extended shadow of the vampire, his presence in the door frame), but Robert Eggers will inevitably add his own obsessions and themes to the film.
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Nosferatu has always marked horror cinema with its repulsive approach to the vampire, with its whitish complexion, cadaverous fingers and prominent rat teeth.
Symbol of pestilence (he arrives with endless rats), illness and death, he also stands out from certain films Draculawhich sometimes treat the vampire with an overly romantic and novelistic approach even though the character created by Bram Stoker is only a representation of evil: there is no love story, only control, violence , and blood.
