2024's Nosferatu

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Let us just say that we absolutely loved 2024's Nosferatu! Lily-Rose Depp was amazing as Ellen and her performance brought a depth to the character that is a rare find. We loved is so much that we saw it multiple times in the local theater. It felt like a true throwback that did justice to the 1922 classic. As lovers of the dramatic high contrast visuals of baroque art and the emotion drawn from the lighting, we found the cinematography and deep contrasts an especially great treat.

Synopsis:

Robert Eggers' Nosferatu (2024) is a grim and elegant descent into gothic horror—a loving resurrection of a cinematic corpse that refuses to stay dead. Rather than simply updating the 1922 silent film, Eggers breathes new, cold life into it, delivering a film that is both reverent to its roots and terrifyingly modern in its emotional depth and aesthetic weight.

Cinematography:

The cinematography, led by Jarin Blaschke, is arresting. Shot on 35mm film, every frame feels like a painting pulled from a decaying storybook. Shadows creep like living things. Candles flicker as if fearing the darkness themselves. The film is steeped in chiaroscuro lighting, evoking the stark contrasts and stylized horror of German Expressionism while remaining grounded in Eggers’ signature realism. The gothic architecture, fog-choked forests, and damp cobbled streets are captured with claustrophobic intimacy. Blaschke doesn’t just light scenes—he sculpts them out of nightmare. The meticulous production design, led by Craig Lathrop, and Linda Muir's authentic costume design further immerse viewers in the 19th-century milieu.

Performances:

Bill Skarsgård is utterly transformed as Count Orlok. Gone is the polished seductiveness of modern vampires—this creature is pure rot and hunger, with a hunched, rat-like presence and eyes that burn with ancient misery. His movements are insectile and stiff, yet he commands every scene like a predator hiding behind etiquette. Lily-Rose Depp gives a mesmerizing performance as Ellen, grounding the story with a tragic sensitivity that never feels passive. Her arc from delicate dreamer to desperate savior is the emotional core of the film. Nicholas Hoult’s Hutter serves as the perfect contrast—naive, increasingly broken, and helpless in the face of forces he cannot comprehend.

Final Thoughts:

Nosferatu (2024) is horror done with reverence and patience. It’s not a film interested in jump scares or shock, instead it defers to building a slow, creeping dread that builds like a fever dream; which we love. Eggers leans fully into the mythic and the macabre, delivering a story where evil is less a monster to be defeated and more a curse to be endured. It’s not perfect—some may find its pace deliberate to a fault—but it is undeniably a work of craftsmanship and vision. It is simply a masterful blend of homage and innovation, honoring the original film's legacy while infusing it with contemporary sensibilities.