Despite what some might claim, horror has never really been away, so it can't really 'be back', but even by the genre's standards, 2024 has been an excellent year.
With the likes of Longlegs, Terrifier 3 and The Substance impressing the critics and at the box office, and Oddity, Late Night with the Devil and more proving must-watch streaming hits, it's been a great year for horror fans.
And Nosferatu has now arrived to put the blood-soaked cherry on top.
The reimagining of the 1922 horror classic has long been a passion project for writer/director Robert Eggers. His years of developing Nosferatu have paid off with a seductive horror that seeps into your bones.
Anybody familiar with the original movie won't find too many surprises here, at least not in the structure of the plot.
We're still in the fictional German town of Wisborg, where Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) gets an assignment to visit Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), who is looking to buy a new house in town. Unfortunately for Thomas, the terrifying Orlok is an ancient vampire with designs on his wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp).
What to Read Next
What Eggers has done is centre Ellen's story so that she is no longer just the victim. She gets a new backstory – which plays out in an instantly captivating prologue – and plays a more active role in proceedings, even as society belittles her for her supposed 'hysteria'.
Nosferatu is still set in 1838, but these tweaks to the story give it a more modern edge. You might know where the story goes, yet here the story has an emotional undercurrent that elevates the tragedy during the final act.
Eggers has also fleshed out (pun intended) the inherent horniness of Orlok lusting after Ellen. "I am an appetite," he tells Ellen, and in one extraordinary sequence, he enters her body (spiritually, not physically) to deliver a possession scene distinct from the usual ones we see in exorcism horror.
Key to it is the fearless performance of Lily-Rose Depp, marking a career-best for her. It's a demanding, physical role and one that requires her to commit fully; one sequence where she's overcome with passion could easily have slipped into parody, but it remains compelling and believable.
She's matched by Bill Skarsgård, who disappears as Count Orlok. Eggers wanted a vampire who "embodies disease, death, and sex in a base, brutal, and unforgiving way," and found his perfect vessel in Skarsgård. It's a transformation that marries terrific prosthetics with the star's physicality and chillingly deep voice to unforgettable effect.
There are strong performances throughout Nosferatu, whether it's Willem Dafoe tucking into the melodrama with gusto or Nicholas Hoult's tormented and emotionally broken Thomas. But it's Depp and Skarsgård and their twisted chemistry that marks out the movie as something special.
The performances are matched by the astonishing technical craft that we've come to expect from an Eggers movie. Whether it's the impeccable period-specific production design or the gorgeous cinematography, which pays homage to the original movie in its moonlit sequences, it's a visual feast that needs to be devoured on the big screen.
Some horror purists might balk at the lack of outright scares, but Nosferatu is not a horror movie to let you off the hook with a cheap jump scare. It does still deliver one of the most effective jumps of 2024, yet it's honed more for the kind of oppressive atmosphere that seeps into your soul.
Nosferatu ends up being an excellent blend of the folk horror of The Witch and the grander scale of The Northman. In finally realising his passion project, Robert Eggers has treated us all to the best horror movie of the year.
Nosferatu is released in US cinemas on Christmas Day and in UK cinemas on New Year's Day.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
