‘Nosferatu’ and the Top Five Vampire Movies, With Robert Eggers!

‘Nosferatu’

Nosferatu 2024

Eggers's remake of the 1922 Murnau film, itself an unauthorized take on Stoker's Dracula. The three admire the craft (the Carpathian tracking shots, the driverless carriage, the last 30 minutes) more than they feel it; Chris found it faithful to a fault, Rob less twisty than Eggers's other work. Bill Skarsgård's Orlok is a decaying, mustachioed corpse who feeds from the chest and never breaks his lowered voice; Lily-Rose Depp's physical, possessed performance is the movie for all three. Nicholas Hoult plays Hutter. Produced by Chris Columbus.

Chris Ryan's Top Five Vampire MoviesNo. 1 first; two films tie at No. 4

The Lost Boys 1987

No. 1: Joel Schumacher's Northern California boardwalk town; Chris's first vampire love and the one he rewatches most.

Near Dark 1987

No. 2: Kathryn Bigelow's Southwestern travelogue, a Bonnie-and-Clyde couple falling in with roaming vampire criminals. Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton. His old No. 1; badly in need of a 4K restoration.

Only Lovers Left Alive 2013

No. 3 (shared with Rob): Jim Jarmusch's centuries-old lovers, Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, in a decaying Detroit.

Vampires 1998

No. 4 (tie): John Carpenter's Vampires, with James Woods as the Church's vampire hunter Jack Crow. A Saturday-afternoon-cable favorite, and Van Lathan's old No. 1.

30 Days of Night 2007

No. 4 (tie): David Slade's month of darkness in Barrow, Alaska. Danny Huston's fast, shark-toothed vampires; Josh Hartnett as the sheriff.

Twilight 2008

No. 5: Chris's defense of a fucked-up teenage love story in Forks. Robert Pattinson's Edward as the real Dracula.

Rob Mahoney's Top Five Vampire MoviesNo. 1 first

No. 1

Let the Right One In 2008

No. 1: Tomas Alfredson's Swedish story of two lonely kids, one a vampire, signaling to each other in a dead-winter apartment block. One of the few near-feel-good vampire movies.

No. 2

Bram Stoker's Dracula 1992

No. 2 (shared with Sean): Coppola going all-in on production design and costume, Gary Oldman going hard every second. Keanu getting worked over by the brides.

No. 3

Only Lovers Left Alive 2013

No. 3 (shared with Chris): the movie Rob recommends most; blood as a hallucinogen, Detroit in decay.

No. 4

Cronos 1993

No. 4: Guillermo del Toro's first film; a golden scarab, eternal life as a curse. An early flash of his creature design.

No. 5

Blade II 2002

No. 5: also del Toro, with the vampire clubs, motorcycle fights, and 'vampire government' that Rob loves. Snipes fully Snipesified.

Sean Fennessey's Top Five Vampire MoviesNo. 1 first; his 2024 list, separate from the 2022 one

No. 1

Fright Night 1985

No. 1: a teen comedy with gloopy practical gross-out effects, Chris Sarandon as the vampire next door. Sean rates the 2011 Colin Farrell remake as pretty good too.

No. 2

Bram Stoker's Dracula 1992

No. 2 (shared with Rob): revisited it for Megalopolis and was floored by the craft.

No. 3

Trouble Every Day 2001

No. 3: Claire Denis's film with Vincent Gallo and Béatrice Dalle, a Trojan-horse genre movie with an unnerving centerpiece kill; kin to The Addiction and Habit.

No. 4

Dracula's Daughter 1936

No. 4: watched for the first time the night before; a Universal sequel and an early, unmistakably crypto-lesbian vampire drama. Directed by Lambert Hillyer, 71 minutes.

No. 5

Martin 1978

No. 5: George Romero's little-seen Pittsburgh study of an alienated teen who thinks he's a vampire, maybe.

In conversation

Robert Eggers on

Nosferatu 2024

Eggers traces the film to a VHS he mail-ordered at 9 and a black-and-white silent stage version he directed in high school. He watched every Dracula movie but leaned on non-vampire influences (chiefly Jack Clayton's The Innocents); grounded Orlok's chest-feeding, iron stakes, and mustache in folklore and occult research; wrote it pre-COVID; and credits Chris Columbus's Hollywood-storytelling notes. The first of his films he was happy with out of the gate.

Also mentioned raised along the way

Other Nosferatu and Dracula versions on screen Nosferatu (1922)Nosferatu the VampyreDraculaShadow of the VampireThe Last Voyage of the DemeterRenfieldHotel TransylvaniaMorbiusBladeBlood for Dracula

More vampires, mentioned in passing The AddictionHabitLet Me InFrom Dusk Till DawnWhat We Do in the ShadowsThirstBuffy the Vampire SlayerA Girl Walks Home Alone at NightVampire's KissSinners

Eggers's other films and influences The WitchThe LighthouseThe NorthmanThe InnocentsThe Elephant ManThe SubstanceRumours

In passing MegalopolisAsteroid CityHereticWe Live in TimeCop LandTombstoneIn a Violent NatureTerrifierHome AloneMrs. DoubtfireMoana 2Avengers: EndgameThe Hunger GamesEternalsTerminator 2: Judgment DayChild's PlayCloak & DaggerBadlandsBonnie and Clyde

Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads

TV The IdolSalem's Lot (1979 miniseries)What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)Dracula (Netflix miniseries)

Ads/podcasts The McShay ShowThe Rewatchables