Bill Skarsgård Plays Orlok as a Tragic Beast in Eggers’ Reimagining of Nosferatu

Robert Eggers has spent his career building horror films around dread, and Nosferatu (2024) is his most assured statement yet. It is a remake of F. W. Murnau’s 1922 classic, filtered through Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and it plays like a fever dream that never quite breaks. The film runs 133 minutes and moves at a slow, deliberate pace that feels less like pacing and more like a trance. It is a film about obsession, loneliness, and the terror of being wanted by something that should not want you.

The central relationship is between Ellen Hutter, played by Lily-Rose Depp, and Count Orlok, played by Bill Skarsgård. Ellen is a young woman who prays for a companion, and her prayer opens a psychic link to the Nosferatu. The film presents this link as a genuine bond, not a curse. Orlok is drawn to her, and she is drawn back. It is a strange, almost tender dynamic, and Eggers plays it with a restraint that makes the horror feel more intimate.

Skarsgård is the reason the film works. He plays Orlok as a man trapped, a nobleman who made a pact with the Devil and now exists as a creature of darkness. His performance is not a campy monster; it is a sad, doomed man whose humanity is slowly stripped away. The scene where Orlok sleeps in a coffin in a crypt, naked and decayed, is a quiet moment of horror that stays with you.

Nicholas Hoult plays Thomas Hutter, a real estate agent who is sent to Transylvania to sell the decrepit Grünewald Manor to Orlok. He is a man trying to climb the ladder at the Knock brokerage, willing to take on any task. His journey is a slow spiral into fear, and Eggers tracks it with a patience that pays off. The sequence where Thomas arrives at a Transylvanian hamlet, is shunned, and then witnesses Roma exhuming and staking a corpse is a masterclass in mounting dread.

The supporting cast is strong across the board. Emma Corrin plays Anna Harding, Thomas’s friend and Ellen’s confidante, with a warmth that grounds the film’s supernatural chaos. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Friedrich Harding, a skeptical shipbuilder who sees the vampire threat as superstition. Ralph Ineson plays Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, the doctor who tries to treat Ellen with conventional medicine. Willem Dafoe plays Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz, the Swiss philosopher who understands the strange psychic connection between Orlok and Ellen.

The film draws on both the 1922 Nosferatu and Stoker’s novel, and Eggers weaves the two together with skill. The plot follows Thomas’s trip to Transylvania, Orlok’s purchase of the German property, and the subsequent plague that sweeps through Wisburg. The film’s tagline, “Succumb to the darkness,” captures the fatalism of the story. There is no escape from the Nosferatu, only a slow descent into horror.

Eggers has always been a filmmaker who trusts atmosphere over spectacle, and Nosferatu is his purest example of that approach. The film is shot in a deliberately old-fashioned way, with a muted color palette and a lighting scheme that recalls the Expressionist horrors of the silent era. The production design is meticulous, from the decaying manor to the shadowed streets of Wisburg. The sound design is minimal, letting the silence do the work.

The film’s success is not just critical; it is commercial. On a $50 million budget, it grossed $182 million worldwide, becoming Eggers’ highest-grossing film. It premiered in Berlin on December 2, 2024, and reached theaters in the United States on December 25, distributed by Focus Features. The film earned Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

The film’s flaws are small. The middle section drags slightly, and some of the exposition is heavy-handed. But the strength of the performances carries the film through its slower patches. The final act, where Ellen falls under Orlok’s influence and the plague arrives in Wisburg, is a masterful build to a climax that is both tragic and horrifying.

Here is how the film’s key elements rank:

1. Performance — Skarsgård’s Orlok is the standout, a performance that elevates the entire film.
2. Atmosphere — Eggers creates a world that feels genuinely haunted, from the Transylvanian hamlet to the decaying manor.
3. Plot — The story is a slow burn, but it rewards patience with a satisfying payoff.
4. Technical craft — The cinematography, production design, and sound design are all excellent.
5. Pace — The film is slow, and some viewers may find the middle section tedious.

Nosferatu is a film about obsession, loneliness, and the terror of being wanted by something that should not want you. It is a remake that respects its source material while making it its own. It is a film that demands attention and rewards it.

Trailer, via Focus Features.

Bill Skarsgård · horror · Nosferatu · remake · Robert Eggers