Robert Eggers shared his terrifying take on “Nosferatu,” offering up the atmospheric first look at his remake of the famous vampire film to theater owners at CinemaCon this week. In the trailer, Lily-Rose Depp, playing a devout young woman, prays earnestly by candlelight. “Come to me, come to me, hear my call,” she intones before a hand reaches out to grab her neck.
And we’re off, with Eggers’ camera sweeping across wintery villages, dilapidated castles filled with secrets, and rats scurrying across cobblestones, portending some kind of primeval force that’s about to cast a shadow over everything (yes, there’s a literal shadow creeping across the screen at one point). The movie evokes the best of classic horror — it’s moody, unsettling and also eerily beautiful. But it’s not just artful. There’s also blood gushing from necks (it’s a vampire movie, after all) and gangs of stake-wielding villagers hoping to use folklore to battle these unseen forces.
“Does evil come from within us or from beyond?” Depp asks at another part of the trailer. Based on the footage, the answer in “Nosferatu” appears to be from both places.
In addition to Depp, the film stars Bill Skarsgård, trading in Pennywise’s clown makeup for Count Orlock’s razor-sharp fangs (he’s glimpsed from the back, hunching over in a bat-like crouch), as well as Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin. It also reunites Eggers with Willem Dafoe, who was featured so memorably as a crusty former sailor in “The Lighthouse” and who also appeared in the director’s previous film, “The Northman.” The viking epic starred Skarsgård’s brother, Alexander Skarsgård, as a Norse warrior with impressively low body fat and formidably chiseled abs.
“Nosferatu” is based on the 1922 German Expressionist masterpiece that was directed by F. W. Murnau — the making of that movie inspired 2000’s entirely fictitious “Shadow of the Vampire,” which, wait for it, starred Dafoe in an Oscar-nominated turn as a real-life bloodsucker enlisted to play the role of Orlock. He plays a vampire killer, here. “Nosferatu” was also remade in 1979 by Werner Herzog as “Nosferatu the Vampyre,” featuring his frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski, chewing scenery, nubile necks and anything in sight as the titular vampire. Isabelle Adjani and Bruno Ganz co-starred in the film, which has become a cult favorite.
The footage was shared by Focus Features during its parent studio, Universal’s CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas. “Nosferatu” will hit theaters on Dec. 25, 2024, because nothing gets moviegoers in the holiday spirit like watching a vampire try to satiate its blood lust. Eggers also directed 2015’s “The Witch,” an atmospheric horror hit that was set in 1630s New England.
