By Bob Grimm

Director Robert Eggers keeps rolling with Nosferatu, a long-gestating take on the classic vampire tale. 

This film is not only one of the year’s best horror films, but one of the greatest genre films you will ever see. In fact, I do believe this is the best vampire film I’ve ever seen. I’ll go ahead and put Mike Flanagan’s wonderful miniseries Midnight Mass in the competition, but I’ll give Nosferatu the edge—and I LOVE Midnight Mass. 

Eggers proves with this, his fourth film, that he’s an unparallelled masterpiece-maker when it comes to horror, with his best competition being Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar). Eggers’ debut, The Witch, was an instant classic, and The Lighthouse is just as masterful. That’s the best horror movie involving a lighthouse ever made, no question.

Nosferatu gives him the chance to completely goth out. The film is set in 1838, and it’s a technical marvel. Every costume, every building and every seamless use of computer trickery creates a very realistic and super-creepy setting. I didn’t live in Germany in 1838, but if I had, I bet it would’ve looked like this, and I surely would’ve wanted to get the fuck out. 

The look and the sounds of Eggers movies … I just marvel at every frame, every hiss, every click. The man is a genius, and with Nosferatu, he gets to fulfill a lifelong dream that started when he was a kid watching the original on VHS.

That 1922 black-and-white film by F.W. Murnau and Werner Herzog’s 1979 color remake were both unofficial, modified versions of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Eggers continues that trend. You will see parallels—and some elements blatantly lifted—from Stoker’s classic in Nosferatu’s plotting. You will also see some of the same castle locales that Herzog used in his ’79 film.

As far as screen vampires go, Count Orlok (played by Max Schreck in the original and Klaus Kinski in the ’79 version) has always been the creepiest. Orlok makes Bela Lugosi and Gary Oldman’s vampires look like Bob Ross. 

This time out, Orlok is played by Hollywood’s current creepiest actor, Bill Skarsgard, the man who plays Pennywise in the It movies. His Orlok is a different beast altogether; I won’t share too much about his appearance. 

When Count Orlok sucks blood in this movie—out of chests, mind you—it’s one of the most  disturbing things you will ever see in a horror movie. He just looks wretched, and it sounds like somebody is shooting a high-powered blood hose into his gullet … a sloshy yet strong blood vacuum. I used to get psychosomatic pains in my neck with vampire movies when they’d sink their teeth in. (OK, I have some issues.) Don’t even get me started on what I went through watching and hearing this horror. 

Lily-Rose Depp has a star-making turn as Ellen (a role originally intended for Anya Taylor-Joy, who had to back out due to scheduling conflicts). Depp’s performance lends itself to The Exorcist in ways, because this is as much a possession movie as it is a vampire film. Her emotional range makes this one of the year’s best performances, and what she does physically cements that position. 

Nicholas Hoult—having a banner year with this, The Order and especially Juror #2—is “scared guy” personified as Thomas, the poor sap who travels to Transylvania to get Orlok to sign a deed for a house. When Hoult gets scared, his expressions will tear you apart. One has to wonder what Eggers was doing to him to get those expressions; he looks like he’s about to shit the top of his head through his ass. 

Supporting turns by Willem Dafoe as Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz (Nosferatu’s version of Van Helsing) and Simon McBurney as Knock (this film’s Renfield) add to a cast that also includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin and Ralph Ineson setting the screen on fire. 

There were just a few movies that made me feel like I was seeing something wholly unique and original this year. Nosferatu is one of those films, which is high praise, considering it’s a remake. I have tremendous respect for the other takes on the Nosferatu story—hell, they’re classics—but this one is superior in almost every way. 

As great as Nosferatu is, it’s not even the year’s best movie. Stay tuned.