Eggers sets his long-gestating variation on the Nosferatu property in 1838, when a newly-married Thomas Hutter is sent to Carpathia in order to secure a property deal with the aged and reclusive Count Orlock that puts both bride and groom on a terrible path of fate. The ever-reliable Nicholas Hoult performs well as the eager Hutter, with an unrecognisable Bill Skarsgard giving the sparingly-used Count an effectively other-worldly feel and strong work from Simon McBurney, Willem Dafoe and Lily-Rose Depp. Blending the occult and the sexual undercurrents works well here, giving this curious love story a strange romanticism. The film's slightly colour-drained look gives it an old, classic feel, with the mostly wintry chilly blue-tinted settings almost nodding to black-and-white at times. Its period world-building is very impressive, allied to a consistently unsettling score/soundscape and gorgeous use of wide landscapes that contrast well with claustrophobic intimate shots. Offering the director's signature style, with interesting use of camera and artfully-constructed hallucinatory moments, this is in some ways Eggers's most mainstream so far with a bleak, dread-filled iteration of a familiar tale.
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