Vampire stories have been a staple of cinema for as long as there have been motion pictures. Whether they have been scary, funny, romantic or just plain dumb, audiences can’t seem to get enough of the blood suckers. The great-granddaddy of all these films is the 1922 classic silent, NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR, by filmmaker F. W. Murnau. The story is based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror, “Dracula”, but screenwriter Henrik Galeen tweaked a few things in the story (such as changing the count’s name to Orlok) to try to avoid copyright infringement. The ruse didn’t work and Stoker’s widow sued and won. The court ordered that all copies of Murnau’s film be destroyed but a few still survived and it’s possible to see the film today. Auteur filmmaker Robert Eggers’ (the hugely underrated THE LIGHTHOUSE; THE NORTHMAN) latest film, NOSFERATU, is arguably less a remake of the original than it is an homage to both Murnau’s work and Stoker’s story.

It’s 1838 in Germany and Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult, RENFIELD) has been summoned by his employer, Herr Knock (Simon McBurney, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING) to close a deal with a client who wishes to purchase a dilapidated manor in their town of Wisburg. Hutter is all too eager to please as he is newly married to Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) and he’d like to provide her with a comfortable life, much like their friends, Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, KRAVEN THE HUNTER) and Anna Harding (Emma Corrin, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE; TV’s THE CROWN) have. The problem is that the client, a Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård, BOY KILLS WORLD), is reclusive and he insists on signing the paperwork at his castle in Transylvania. It means that Thomas will have to travel there and back on horseback, a journey that will take six weeks in total. This news doesn’t sit well with Ellen, who for years has had visions of being married to Death. Though she fears for Thomas’ life if he goes, he still does.

There is no mistaking that NOSFERATU is a Robert Eggers movie. It’s very dark (literally) and moody, and the production design is impeccable right down to the real Romani extras. If you think Hoult looks more than a little nervous as Orlok’s wolves are chasing Thomas, he says he was. Although the film is billed as a horror, don’t expect to be scared out of your seat. The jump scares are few and far between, and that’s okay. Eggers instead builds tension through his use of lighting, music and imagery. A lot of rats were used in the production though they may have been CGI. All his actors were up for challenge and each of them puts in an impressive performance. Eggers regular Willem Dafoe, who plays disgraced doctor and occultist Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz, dives right into the deep end, delivering his lines with snow-capped mountains of emotion. In Eggers’ last film, THE NORTHMAN, the filmmaker tapped Alexander Skarsgård to play his central character. This time, Eggers went with younger brother Bill, who seems to relish taking on complex characters. Fortunately, he doesn’t disappoint here either. It’s been reported that Skarsgård spent six months with a vocal coach to hone his voice down to a lower register that would be more fitting to the character. He also spent up to six hours a day in the makeup chair putting on all the prosthetics he needed to look like someone who has been undead for a while. Curiously, Hoult took home Orlok’s penis after the production wrapped up. Make of that what you will.

NOSFERATU is Eggers’ most successful film to date, taking in over US$178 million at the box office so far. It currently sits at #3 in Focus Features top performing films but it will most certainly take over the top spot in the next few weeks as the film continues to roll out around the world. That means we’ll be sure to see another Robert Eggers-Focus Features collaboration in the future and I, for one, will be looking forward to that.

NOSFERATU opened in Hong Kong’s cinemas yesterday (February 27). Fear not and go see it!

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