When Will Nosferatu Land In Cinemas?

Directed by Robert Eggers, Nosferatu has been in the works since 2015, when the burgeoning filmmaker set out plans to follow his directorial debut, The Witch (2015; starring Anya Taylor-Joy), with a vampire horror. In the end, The Lighthouse (2019; starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe) and The Northman (2022; starring Defoe and Taylor-Joy again along with Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman and more) would come first.

Now Eggers’ fourth film, Nosferatu is somewhat of a passion project: as a teenager, he directed his high school’s performance of the Nosferatu play, citing his experience as the catalyst for him to explore a career in filmmaking. But as rumours have swirled and stars have entered and departed proceedings, anticipation from everyone else has only grown, and it’s expected to make a splash at the box office this festive season. Here’s what to know before you book your cinema tickets.

Nosferatu: Plot, Cast, Release Date & More

Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen Hutter in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU. (Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features)

What Is Nosferatu About?

Set in 1838 Germany, Nosferatu centres on a young woman named Ellen Hutter, who is plagued with nightmares and being stalked by an ancient Transylvanian vampire, Count Orlok. Take a look at the trailer below for a taste of the action.

While more emphasis is on Ellen than in previous works, the plot is, of course, very familiar…

What Is Nosferatu Based On?

Nosferatu is based on a 1922 silent German film entitled Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (or Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens) – which in turn was based on Bram Stoker’s seminal 1897 novel, Dracula. The latter has been adapted countless times, with Count Dracula becoming pop culture’s archetypal vampire, and Van Helsing, in turn, the quintessential vampire slayer. But when F. W. Murnau adapted Stoker’s then 25-year-old novel in 1922, it was quite the controversy: the filmmakers and production company, Prana Film, never obtained the rights to adapt Dracula. Though Stoker had passed away in 1912, his family and his estate sued the production, with a court ruling all copies of the film must be destroyed. Luckily for all parties, a few copies survived, and Nosferatu grew into the seminal horror film it is now regarded as today.

Nicholas Hoult stars as Thomas Hutter in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU. (© Focus Features)

Nosferatu Vs Dracula

When adapting Dracula into Nosferatu in the early 1920s, the focus was on the German market. Indeed, Prana Film was a small silent film studio with limited international reach – so the expectation was that only German audiences would get to watch the film. As a result, Stoker’s original Dracula setting – British beach town, Whitby – was changed to a fictional north German harbour town called Wisborg. Character names were also changed: Count Dracula became Count Orlok (aka Nosferatu, ‘the bad one’ in Romanian), Jonathan Harker became Thomas Hutter while his wife Mina becomes Ellen, and Van Helsing becomes Dr Bulwer – a reference to English occult novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

Intriguingly, both have had an impact on our archetypal vampires of the day: Dracula turns his victims into vampires, while Orlok merely kills them; sunlight kills Orlok while Dracula can walk openly in daylight, weakened but not killed by the sun; Orlok is pasty and corpse-like while Dracula blends in with humans.

Ralph Ineson stars as Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, Willem Dafoe as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Friedrich Harding and Emma Corrin as Anna Harding in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU. (© Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features)

Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok

While Count Dracula seduces his victims by being an elusive European gentleman, Count Orlok is more hyperbolic: pasty white skin, pointy ears, an undead look. Under Eggers’ direction, however, Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok diverges once again: into a traditional folklore vampire. ‘The folk vampire is not a suave dinner-coat-wearing seducer, nor a sparkling, brooding hero,’ Eggers says, referring to the 21st century’s most famous vampire, Edward Cullen. ‘The folk vampire embodies disease, death and sex in a base, brutal and unforgiving way. This is the vampire I wanted to exhume for a modern audience.’

Lily-Rose Depp stars as Ellen Hutter and Emma Corrin as Anna Harding in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU. (© Focus Features)

The Cast

Bill Skarsgård leads a star-studded cast as vampire Count Orlok. He is joined by:

• Nicholas Hoult as Thomas Hutter
• Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter
• Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Friedrich Harding
• Emma Corrin as Anna Harding
• Willem Dafoe as Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz
• Ralph Ineson as Dr. Wilhelm Siever
• Simon McBurney as Herr Knock

Depp’s performance is being praised by critics, while the model-turned-actor has shared her ‘obsession’ with the film. ‘This one in particular was big for me, because my brother and I were super obsessed with Dracula when we were younger,’ Depp said in an interview with Natalie Portman for Interview Magazine. ‘My brother used to dress up like Dracula when he was a kid for school.

‘I’m a fan of horror with a soul,’ she added. ‘[And] I’m a sucker for a crazy love story. If you were to remove the supernatural, demonic element, it could be this girl caught between the good guy and the bad guy.’

Nicholas Hoult stars as Thomas Hutter in director Robert Eggers’ NOSFERATU. (© Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features)

Where Was Nosferatu Filmed?

Nosfertu was filmed in the Czech Republic, mainly at 14th century Rožmitál pod Castle, the 13th century Pernštejn Castle and the baroque Invalidovna building in Prague. For additional exterior shots, more medieval-feeling filming took place, including at Lübeck in Germany and at the 15th century Corvin Castle in Romania. One of the largest castles in Europe, Corvin Castle is situated in the historic region of Transylvania, which is where Count Dracula originally hails from in Dracula. It’s thought to have inspired Stoker’s writing, and is likewise thought to be where Vlad the Impaler, Prince of Wallachia was held prisoner – Vlad being another source of inspiration for Stoker, though the writer is not thought to have been aware of the connection.

Release Date

In the UK, Nosferatu will land in cinemas on 1 January 2025. In the US, it will land in cinemas on 25 December 2024.