Nosferatu

15 | ★★★★✩

This is not the first attempt to recreate F.W. Murnau’s silent and expressionistic 1922 version of Bram Stoker’s terrifying Dracula novel. The shadow of Count Orlok’s gnarly fingers with dagger nails is one of the last century’s most iconic cinematic images.

Just over 100 years later, this new take by American director Robert Eggers drips with German gothic horror and further launches the career (if any more help were needed) of Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of Johnny and Vanessa Paradis.

'As Ellen, Lily-Rose Depp is never quite wholly a victim' (Photo: Focus Features)

Depp’s Ellen is the object of Count Orlok’s desire but she has married the upstanding Visburg estate agent Thomas Hutter (an earnest Nicholas Hoult) who, honeymoon over, has been despatched by his boss Knock to close the deal on a mansion sale. Little does Thomas realise that Knock (Simon McBurney) is devoted to serving Orlok who is also the vampire of Elen’s portending nightmares.

Visually, Eggers’ film takes inspiration from Marnau’s black and white original. Most scenes are rendered in a slightly colourised monochrome and shot with more grainy shadow than light.

Willem Dafoe is the inevitable torch-bearing demon hunter in Nosferatu (Photo: Focus Features)

However, audibly the new film is as far from the silent movie as it is possible to get. Ambient sound is played at ear-splitting levels. When Ellen cuts a locket of her hair for Thomas to carry with him to Orlok’s castle, the snip has the volume of a scythe smiting a sheaf of wheat. Jump scares abound and are all the scarier for the cacophony of orchestral screams that accompany them.

Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård is used to playing ugly. Past roles include Pennywise of the It films. But here you can almost smell the decaying skin of his Orlok, a bent body with a landscape of volcanic skin. A duvet of live rats covers him while asleep.

Nicholas Hoult plays upstanding Visburg estate agent Thomas Hutter (Photo: Focus Features)

As Ellen, the excellent Depp is never quite wholly a victim. As much as she loathes and fears this blood-sucking lord, she is consumed also by a guilty sexual pleasure.

For the weak of heart there is solace to be found in the film being unable to quite escape the conventions of its forbears. Willem Dafoe’s Professor is the inevitable torch-bearing demon hunter. And there is unintended comedy when, still believing that Orlok is a genuine customer, Hutter says that it is his good fortune they will be neighbours after Orlok moves in. One imagines that Assad’s new neighbours in Moscow feel similarly enthusiastic.