NosferatuCredit: UniversalIts interesting to trace back the roots of vampire lore in modern culture. Stories of blood-sucking demons predate modern sensibilities, of course, but it was Bram Stokers Dracula that inspired how we think of vampires more than any other work of literature or art. Stokers novel was published in 1897, and just 25 years later the German silent film Nosferatu was released.Despite the story drawing from Transylvanian and other Eastern European folklore, as well as the legends of historical figures such as Vlad the Impaler, there were enough similarities between Dracula and Nosferatu that Stokers estate sued. Its not hard to see why.Both stories feature a CountDracula and Orlok respectivelyresiding in a mysterious castle in a distant land. In each story, a young clerk visits the vampire in his castle and narrowly escapes with his life. In both, the vampire then makes a voyage to the more civilized west, terrorizing the citizens thereWhitby, in England and Wisborg in Germanywhile attempting to seduce a beautiful woman. Dracula and Orlok are each slain, though in different ways. The former is stabbed through the heart, the latter by daylight after being tricked by Ellen, played in Robert Eggers Nosferatu by Lily-Rose Depp. In Bram Stokers Dracula, daylight only weakened a vampires powers, but in Nosferatu it is fatal.There are other differences, of course. Dracula is handsome and charming, a seducer of women. He is the origin of the sexy vampire. Orlok is a hideous monsterand while he is very much a seducer of women in this retelling of Nosferatu, it is never sexy. Orlok is grotesque and monstrous at every turn, a towering husk. Bill Skarsgrd is absolutely marvelous in the role, his breath ragged, his thick Romanian accent at once menacing and more than a little preposterous. It is Ellens bloodher mystic connection to the Otherthat draws Orlok to her, ever since she was a girl, in this rendition of the classic.Nicholas HoultCredit: Focus FeaturesBack in 1922, Stokers estate sued German director F.W. Murnau and won, citing copyright law. But, like Orlok, it was not so easy to kill the film. Copies had already made it to America, where public domain laws were much less strict, and it quickly became a cult classic. Along with Dracula, Nosferatu is one of the most influential pieces of art that shapes our notion of vampires today, inspiring filmmakers and novelists, artists and fans ever since. Eggers version is the fourth Nosferatu, but the film I thought of most while watching was Francis Ford Coppolas Bram Stokers Dracula, which Ive seen much more recently than any version of Nosferatu.Read More: Todays Wordle #1289 Hints, Clues And Answer For Sunday, December 29thThis is a better film, mostly because of the cast. Coppola chose Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder as his leadsboth of whom struggled enormously with their accentsonly salvaging this casting disaster by picking Gary Oldman for the titular role, and topping that off with Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing. (Ive enjoyed Reeves and Ryder in many other films, but they were not cut out for Dracula).Eggers leans heavily into both gothic and body horror in Nosferatu, but rounds that out with plenty of camp and homage to the original and its remakes. Its genuinely funny at times, but filled with enough creepiness (and a couple good jump scares) to keep things frightening.Simon McBurneyCredit: Focus FeaturesIts also a brilliant period piece, with an enormous amount of attention to detail. When the young clerk, Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) makes his way to the Carpathians to bring Count Orlok his property deed, he comes to an inn where hes surrounded by gypsies (or Roma, if were being politically correctthey are referred to as gypsies in the film). They dance around him, laughing at his foreign awkwardness. Inside the inn, wrinkled faces stare up at him grimly from the shadows. The mood is oppressive. An old woman begs him in her foreign tongue not to go to the castle. From this point on, his journey becomes dreamlike, soon descending into a waking nightmare.Ellens entire life has been a nightmare, haunted by Orlok and his diabolical lust. When shes left by Hutter, soon after their honeymoon, she descends into a madness that confounds her friends and the local doctor, Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson). Shes given ether and tied to the bed. Its only when Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz (Willem Dafoe) is brought to see her that anyone even believes her maladies could be of a supernatural variety.Willem DafoeCredit: Focus FeaturesCinematographer Jarin Blaschke, who worked with Eggers previously on The Lighthouse, The Northman and The Witch, returns here and brings some of his best work yet. The film weaves between color and black and white, between deepest shadow and rainswept Victorian streets. Hutters approach to the castle finds him in a black forest that looks almost more like a surrealist painting than a real place.Orlok is left mostly shrouded, his hulking frame bound in furs and shadow. Sometimes, he is only shadow, long taloned fingers creeping across a wall or curtains, or down Ellens face and figure. Ellens madnesspossession, ratherdrifts between screaming terror and uncomfortable eroticism, which is actually a pretty good way to sum up Nosferatu, which is never sexy in the way so many vampire stories are, but is heaped in sexual menace.The score, by Northman composer Robin Carolan, is as lovely and intense and menacing as the rest of the film, veering between creepy music box melodies and thundering orchestral pieces, filled with forlorn and foreboding strings and haunting choral accompaniments, sweeping between haunting dread and wistful melancholy (you can listen to all 51 tracks on Spotify).Admittedly, this is not a film for everyone. For fans of Eggers previous work, there is much here to bite off and chew, but to newcomers it might be overly strange or too slow or simply confusing. Those unaccustomed to the horror genre may find it altogether too disturbing. The tone may not resonate with everyone. At times it feels almost like a stage play or a melodrama, the way that classic films often do, though I believe this is intentional.As far as Im concerned, Nosferatu is an elegantly macabre masterpiece that pulls all the right levers of horror and period drama, a throwback to an older era of cinema with just enough modern sensibilities, body horror and sex to make it as provocative as it is unsettling. Go see it on the biggest screen you can find.Have you seen Nosferatu? What did you think? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.