Nosferatu (2024 film)

The supporting cast includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney, and Willem Dafoe.

Development began in 2015, when Eggers planned to make it his second film; he described it as a passion project, but eventually opted to delay its production.

Thomas accepts a lucrative commission from his employer, Herr Knock, to sell the decrepit Grünewald Manor to the reclusive Count Orlok.

He then coerces Thomas into signing a document written in occult script, which Orlok implies is the contract for selling the manor.

Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, unable to treat Ellen's frequent sleepwalking and seizures, consults with his former mentor, Albin Eberhart von Franz, a Swiss scientist ostracized for his occult beliefs.

Orlok appears to Ellen and confesses that, while he is incapable of love, her pledge has intertwined their destinies and made his desire to possess her insatiable.

Thomas, von Franz, and Sievers go to Grünewald Manor where they accidentally kill Knock after finding him sleeping in Orlok's coffin.

Thomas returns and holds Ellen's hand as she dies, while von Franz confirms that her sacrifice has freed them from the plague and Nosferatu.

"[6] During an interview with Den of Geek around the release of The Lighthouse (2019), Eggers revealed that although he had dedicated a lot of time to bringing the story into the 21st century, he did not know when or if it would happen.

Nosferatu actually came about because Murnau and his producers decided to make a film about Dracula but without using Bram Stoker's 1897 novel in order to avoid paying royalties.

"I had read Montague Summers as a teenager, and many other authors of vampire lore, but I think, until I set out to make Nosferatu, I was still too contaminated by the cinematic tropes.

The count was written more like an undead corpse, instead of looking sexy or as an actual monster, an element from early vampire myths.

[12] Eggers also explored the work of French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and his findings on so-called hysteria[10] and took inspiration from Andrzej Żuławski's films Possession (1981), The Devil (1972), and The Third Part of the Night (1971).

[18] In August 2017, actress Anya Taylor-Joy was cast, reteaming with Eggers after The Witch (2015);[19] she was still attached to project in 2020, though her specific role had not been announced.

[22][23] Eggers initially considered several talents to play the role of Count Orlok, including Daniel Day-Lewis and Mads Mikkelsen.

[24] Finally, on September 30, 2022, it was announced that Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård would star in the role of Count Orlok, whom Eggers had also had in mind for the film adaptation years earlier.

After many failed attempts to make the film, Skarsgard's portrayal of Pennywise in It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019) attracted popularity, aiding the recasting decision.

[31] Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Simon McBurney, and Ralph Ineson were announced as joining cast at the start of production in late February 2023.

[36][37] Principal photography began in the Czech Republic on February 20, 2023,[38] with filming taking place at Barrandov Studios in Prague by March.

[44][45] To prepare for playing Count Orlok, Skarsgård lost a significant amount of weight and, refusing to have his voice digitally modulated, worked with the Icelandic opera singer Ásgerður Júníusdóttir to lower his vocal range and character, incorporating Mongolian throat singing into his lines,[46] and spent up to six hours a day having prosthetic makeup applied.

Eggers gifted Depp the prop of Ellen's locket,[48] and Hoult kept and framed Orlok's prosthetic penis worn by Skarsgård in the film.

[3][4][60] In the United States and Canada, Nosferatu was released alongside A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, and The Fire Inside and was originally projected to gross around $25 million from 2,992 theaters in its five-day opening weekend.

The website's consensus reads: "Marvelously orchestrated by director Robert Eggers, Nosferatu is a behemoth of a horror film that is equal parts repulsive and seductive.

"[66] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 59 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[61] The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney praised the direction, screenplay and performances, calling the film "exciting, repulsive and beautiful", and added that "It's thrilling to experience a movie so assured in the way it builds and sustains fear, so hypnotically scary as it grabs you by the throat and never lets go.

"[68] IndieWire's David Ehrlich similarly praised the direction and singled out Depp's performance before stating that "like all of Eggers' films, of which Nosferatu is the richest and most fully realized, it draws a spellbinding power from the friction it finds between historical social mores and the eternal human thirsts they exist to keep in check.

... [']Nosferatu' eventually goes off the ethical rails altogether as it moves toward a conclusion bogged down by the muddled metaphysics espoused by Von Franz.

Writer-director Robert Eggers had adapted Nosferatu into a play in high school.
Corvin Castle , located in Transylvania , is used as Orlok Castle in the film.