Which is what Nosferatu does better than any other recent Dracula movie

In 2024, we don’t need to try to create vampires. They’ve been around for at least a century, and there’s a lot more going on: stories about vampires have saturated almost every media outlet in existence. However, ironically, we may have to work a little harder to do so in vampires recur – as in the most legendary bloodsucker of all: Dracula.

To be fair, it is not Dracula himself who is falling in popularity, but rather movies about him. Since his screen debut in the lost 1921 film The Death of Dracula, not a decade has passed without some iteration of the Count appearing in theaters, which is partly why the character has gone through so many different iterations. Like all fictional creatures that were built to last, Dracula endures by embracing change. However, there can always be too much of a good thing; the last few films that feature the Count prominently have failed to light up critics, fans, or the box office, and that may be because each one bends Dracula’s character so much that, well, he doesn’t quite feel like Dracula anymore .

This month “Nosferatu”, written and directed by Robert Eggers, at first glance appears to be another radical take on the character—it’s not Dracula per se, after all, but Count Orlak, with Eggers using a name coined by Henrik Gallin and F.W. Murnau for their version of Stoker’s 1922 novel, altered due to the film’s unauthorized status as an adaptation. However, Eggers’ film does not seek to separate itself from the previous Dracula; rather, it completely embraces the character and his story, so much so that it may very well be the best Dracula movie ever made.

One of the reasons that Dracula’s cinematic influence seems to have waned recently is because of his relationship with Universal Pictures. Although the studio doesn’t own the character, they tend to do so given how iconic and immortal Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of Count Bela Lugosi is in Tod Browning’s 1931 film Dracula. Universal went to great lengths to support their Dracula film, going so far as to license Hammer Films’ 1958 Dracula for international distribution. After the original Universal Monsters run and the Hammer run ended, Universal backed a film version of the then-new adaptation of Browning’s 1931 original Broadway play, which became John Badham’s 1979 Dracula. That same year, Werner Herzog directed Nosferatu the Vampire, distributed by 20th Century Fox, in which the names of all of Stoker’s characters were restored.

During the 1980s, vampires began to evolve into a more postmodern era, leaving Dracula feeling aged and childlike (the character’s biggest appearance came in 1987’s Monster Squad). 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula marked the character’s more adult ’90s appearance, but it was distributed through Columbia rather than Universal. After Miramax and New Line Cinema played with ultra-modern Dracula in the Dracula 2000 and Blade franchises, Universal tried to bring back their Dracula in 2004, handing over the reins to Stephen Somers and Van Helsing, marking the start of their troubles in an attempt to resurrect the character. Although the character wouldn’t leave movie screens for the next decade, Universal didn’t try again until 2014’s Dracula Untold, the film that would kick off their cinematic horror franchise, The Dark Universe, when b he was not efficient enough.

After that The “Dark Universe” proper also fell apartUniversal waited until 2023 to try to bring Dracula back with a one-two punch Renfield and “Demeter’s Last Voyage.” The films could not be more different in portraying the character; Nicolas Cage in “Renfield” is a bad boss/toxic boyfriend with fangs, and Javier Batet in “Demeter” is a mostly animal creature that feeds on its prey. Audiences didn’t connect with either the R-rated comedy Dracula or the violent monster Dracula, and perhaps that’s why this year’s Abigail, originally presented as a riff on Dracula’s Daughter, sought to distance himself from the character’s name and legacy.

Universal will finally (hopefully) have the last laugh with Eggers’ Nosferatu, as their division Focus Features is handling the film’s distribution. Instead of trying to subvert or completely reimagine the character of Dracula, Eggers and actor Bill Skarsgård decided to make their Count Orlak the quintessential Dracula. That’s not to say that Orlak’s film or image is one big homage or reference; Eggers is too original an artist for such laziness. Indeed, what he does with Nosferatu is pretty much what he did with his previous films The Witcher, The Lighthouse, and Midnight, which is take elements from a variety of historical and pre-existing sources. and use them in a new cinematic ragu.

So for Nosferatu, these sources are Stoker’s novel, various myths about vampire legends, Transylvania properand, of course, the premier Dracula motion picture of the last 100-plus years. The film features Murnau’s cold sharpness, Browning’s gothic majesty, Hammer’s Grand Guignol, Badham’s luxurious madness, Herzog’s contemplativeness, and Coppola’s eroticism and theatricality. In addition to building on the character’s cinematic legacy, Eggers and Skarsgård make Orlak a compellingly ambiguous figure, so it’s best to incorporate as many facets of Dracula into his portrayal as possible. He is a down-to-earth human with his own needs and desires, as well as a supernatural being whose abilities and influence are terrifyingly powerful. In other words, he’s both relatable and repulsive, a combination that makes for a fascinatingly compelling character.

Most importantly, “Nosferatu” does not seek to disrupt either Dracula or the myths surrounding him. The film has its own separate mythology about Orlak’s methodology and how it can be defeated, but it never feels like Eggers is winking at the audience or trying to justify outdated knowledge. That’s because his Nosferatu is a film made out of a genuine desire to explore the characters and themes of the story, not to mock, subvert, or start a new Dracula franchise. It’s an honest, creative interpretation, and as it turns out, that’s all Dracula really needs to become truly scary again.

Nosferatu is in theaters everywhere.