Nosferatu is coming to make vampires scary again

There’s been no shortage of vampire movies and TV shows in the last couple of years. There was Renfield, Abigail, Interview with a Vampire, What We Do in the Shadows, and more, all exploring different genres (with varying degrees of success) through the lens of everyone’s favorite creatures of the night. But we haven’t had many truly scary vampires recently, and it seems like Nosferatu is here to correct that fact.

The latest remake of the classic German horror movie — itself an unlicensed adaptation of Dracula — comes from The VVitch and The Lighthouse director Robert Eggers, who seems to be leaning into the oppressively dark and creepy atmosphere of the original film.

The movie follows Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult, who was also in Renfield) and all the strange things that happen to him after he visits the castle of the mysterious and vampiric Count Orlak (Bill Skarsgård). In the original story, this includes (arguably) prompting the Count’s move to the city in pursuit of Hutter’s wife, who seems to have already been bewitched by the vampire.

The first trailer for the movie, which went online Monday, is all about establishing a mood, full of dark rooms and pitch-black castles. We see glimpses of Orlak’s castle, but the majority of the trailer is focused on the folks back in London, who seem to be eagerly anticipating his dreadful arrival. Of course, we don’t really get to see much of Orlak, better known as Nosferatu — only his silhouette, giving us a fantastically scary ending to the trailer.

The movie’s stacked cast also includes previous Eggers collaborators Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson, as well as Emma Corrin and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

In the grand tradition of counter-programming that has included movies like Wolf of Wall Street and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Nosferatu is set for release on Christmas Day. So you can take the whole family to meet the Count.