Robert Eggers’s remake of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 Horror silent film, Nosferatu debuted in theaters on December 25th, 2024. The film stars well-known actors such as Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlock, Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, and Nicholas Hoult as Thomas Hutter. Where fans of the 1922 cult classic have been waiting for over a century for its appearance.
The film follows the story of a vampire, Count Orlock (Skarsgård) who grows obsessed with the wife of an estate agent, Ellen Hutter (Depp). The film starts with Thomas Hutter (Hoult) being tasked to travel from England to the count’s mansion where he is met with disturbing details of Count Orlock from the townspeople who have witnessed the horrors of Orlock. Thomas later grows aware of his past and tries to flee his mansion, but ends up getting trapped attempting his escape. Orlock starts his journey to England while plaguing the people on his way. Meanwhile, Ellen has consistently been haunted by visions of Orlock. The resolution of the film results in a tragic act of sacrifice that leaves the audience devastated by the sudden turn of events.
While most of the main themes from both the original and novel were still kept in the remake, there were many new additions to the film, including how Ellen is introduced to Count Orlock. In the 1922 version, Count Orlock finds out about Ellen through a picture of Ellen in Thomas’s locket, while in the remake Ellen calls out for Orlock in search of companionship. Reading Movies: Film Literacy teacher, Mrs. Monera explained, “In the first iteration of it, Orlock sought her out and he had seen Ellen from her husband…In this movie, the idea is that she summoned him.” Another minor difference is the additional characters, Anna Harding (played by Emma Corrin) and Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz (played by Willem Dafoe).
The original film by F.W. Murnau’s 1922 Horror silent film, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror was initially inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, where many of the main themes were enacted in the film. After the production of the 1922 Nosferatu, Bram Stoker’s wife, Florence Stoker sued the company for copyright infringement where all prints of the film were set to be destroyed. However, by then, it was pointless since the film already gained a large following from people all over the world.
Nosferatu continues to be one of the most influential films even after one hundred years of support from across the globe.
