Robert Eggers' latest film, Nosferatu, tells the story of the embodiment of evil being so obsessed with a woman that it will stop at nothing (and sacrifice everything) to have her.
Boasting a star-studded cast led by Bill Skarsgard, Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, and Willem Dafoe, Nosferatu was released on Christmas Day and promised to be a fresh take on a horror classic.
The Dark Fantasy is Eggers' fourth feature film, joining his critically acclaimed lineup that includes other horrors such as The Witch and The Lighthouse.
After moving away from horror while making his Viking epic titled The Northman, Eggers found instant success returning to the genre with Nosferatu after it grossed $40 million worldwide in its 5-day opening.
Calling to the Darkness
Anyone who knows the story of Nosferatu from the 1922 film knew loosely what to expect with Eggers' version of the gothic horror. One aspect fans probably weren't expecting, though, was for Lily-Rose Depp's Ellen Hutter to call out to Bill Skarsgard's Count Orlok in the opening moments of the film.
In the 2024 movie, a younger Ellen essentially awakes Count Orlok, and, in a way, summons him after seemingly finding nothing to comfort her. So, while not intentionally breathing life into the physical manifestation of evil, that is exactly what Ellen did in that opening scene.
Another important aspect of the opening scene is the fact that Ellen begins to almost levitate and be filled with Count Orlok's spirit.
Things especially begin to take form when she is lying on the ground outside and, after a well-timed jumpscare showcasing Orlok's face for the first time, begins to have her first convulsion, since those become an important plot point throughout the film.
Thomas' Journey to Count Orlok's Castle
After the opening scene, on-screen text reveals that viewers are now seeing events that are years later set in 1838 Germany. Ellen has married a man named Thomas Hutter and seems truly happy.
However, Thomas was trying to get an official position at a local real estate firm. When he gets there, it is revealed to him that he has been given an assignment - to travel to a little-known country and sell a house to a nobleman. If he can sell the house, then he gets hired on with the firm.
Ellen begs him not to leave her there by herself. As was revealed in the opening scene, Ellen has always felt alone, and the last thing she needed was to actually be left alone for a prolonged amount of time.
Thomas does leave, but he decides to take Ellen to stay with Aaron-Taylor Johnson's Friedrich Harding and his wife, Anna (played by Emma Corrin).
Since Ellen is there with the Hardings and their children, Thomas goes off to Transylvania to find Count Orlok's castle.
On his way, Thomas encounters what appears to be a sacrifice. It seems to be a vision at first, but after he wakes up with mud on his feet, Thomas knows it is real.
In hindsight, it seems like the village may have been sacrificing women (who coincidentally look similar to Ellen) to Count Orlok so that he would leave the village people alone.
Thomas eventually makes it to Count Orlok's castle and is welcomed by the Count. Orlok leads Thomas to a dark room with a fireplace and a table and says that they need to sign the agreement as soon as possible.
After Thomas tries to make a bit of conversation, Orlok essentially scares Thomas into signing the contract. He also asks Thomas about his locket, which has a picture of Ellen in it. After looking at the locket, Orlok keeps it.
Thomas Tries To Kill Orlok and Escapes the Castle
After staying at the castle for much longer than he wanted and having more visions, Thomas became suspicious of Count Orlok and began snooping around the castle. It is also important to note that the reason for Thomas' suspicions also stemmed from mysterious marks on his chest, which viewers know are bites from Orlok.
After finally making his way into a dark corridor, Thomas finds something truly sinister - a sarcophagus that has an inverted heptagram on it.
Thomas grabs a rod of some sort to prepare himself and then opens the sarcophagus to find Count Orlok. After thinking for a brief moment, Thomas tries to stab the rod in Count Orlok, but Orlok stops him.
Thomas and Orlok then get into a sort of cat-and-mouse chase, with neither really winning. However, if Orlok wanted to kill Thomas, he probably could have.
Orlok essentially reveals that he is going to make the journey to Germany to take Ellen for himself, and Thomas is not going to let him do that if it is the last thing he does.
He eventually falls off of a ledge on the side of the castle into a river below, but does survive and begins to make the journey home.
On his way, he meets ladies from a kind of church who perform a ritual on him and pray for him, and it miraculously heals him.
Thomas and Ellen Reunite and Meet Professor Albin
Thomas finally makes his way back to Germany, luckily before Orlok makes it there himself. He reunites with Ellen and the Hardings and also gets to meet Ralph Ineson's Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, a character who has been taking care of a mysterious man who is actually worshipping Count Orlok.
That man eventually escapes Sievers' care by killing one of the other people taking care of him to prepare for the arrival of his master.
Speaking of Orlok, he is coming to Germany by boat. It is revealed that he is on a boat, and it is implied that he has stuffed himself in a wooden box in the ship's hull.
However, after one of the crewmen goes down and opens the box, he finds nothing but thousands of rats. Count Orlok is still there, just not in the box, as he reveals himself moments later and kills all of the ship's crew.
Meanwhile, Ellen and Thomas get to meet Willem Dafoe's Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz, who reveals himself throughout the second half of the film to be quite helpful when it comes to devising a plan to beat Count Orlok.
Orlok Arrives in Germany
After a pretty big fight between the Hardings and the Hutters, the main characters discover that a ship has crashed nearby and that thousands of rats are now roaming free across the city.
These are described as plague rats, and they are carrying the disease of Count Orlok. Everyone they bite gets infected with his disease. One interesting note about the rats is that they seemingly leave the same pattern of teeth marks on people's skin that Orlok does.
Now that the rats are running rampant across Germany, people are in a panic, and it is especially affecting Friedrich. He is trying to do anything he can to help save his family.
At the same time all this is going on, it is revealed that the contract Thomas signed with Orlok wasn't simply for a house. It was also for Ellen. He signed her over to Orlok, essentially giving her to him.
It is also revealed around this time that Ellen is more or less possessed by Orlok. At the beginning of the movie when she awakened him and he appeared to her, he basically put some of his spirit or soul into her. That is why she was always having convulsions and even talked in a different voice sometimes.
One night, Orlok appears to Ellen again. He tells her that she has three nights to willingly give herself to him or he will kill everyone and everything.
Orlok's most prominent killing spree comes on the second night when he sadly kills Friedrich and Anna's two little girls before also killing Anna. This obviously devastates Friedrich, who ultimately can't overcome his grief. However, he eventually gets the plague himself and dies at his wife's and daughters' graves.
Thomas, Professor Franz, Dr. Sievers, and Ellen devise a plan to kill Orlok. However, the real plan to beat Orlok is come up with by just Franz and Ellen, and they don't tell the others because they know they won't go along with it, especially Thomas.
The plan Franz and Ellen come up with is for her to actually give herself to Orlok, that if she lies with him, it will completely kill him. However, in the process, she has to be prepared to die too.
Ellen Makes the Ultimate Sacrifice
On the third night, Franz, Sievers, and Thomas all go to find Orlok at his house. Thomas thinks that they can kill him in his sarcophagus, or destroy the sarcophagus so that he has no place to rest.
When they get there, they actually end up killing the man who had been worshipping Orlok the whole movie. Orlok probably instructed him to stay in the sarcophagus and he would have followed him blindly.
Meanwhile, Orlok came to Ellen in her room, and she willingly gave herself to him. After the two engaged in intercourse, Orlok also bit into her chest and began sucking her blood.
After an entire night of sacrificing herself to Orlok, he did die a brutal death. However, since Orlok had been sucking her blood for so long, she also died.
Ellen was the one responsible for saving everyone from Orlok's wrath and his plague. She was the hero everyone needed and made the ultimate sacrifice.
As if the film wasn't poetic enough, the final shot featured Orlok still on top of Ellen, with the two locked in some final embrace, tying together their fates and characters for eternity.
Nosferatu is playing in theaters worldwide.
