In 2024, we don't need to try to make vampires happen. They've been around for at least a century, and they're still happening a lot: vampire stories have saturated almost every medium in existence. Strangely, though, we might have to work a little harder to do it on the vampire will happen again - as in the most legendary bloodsucker of all: Dracula.

In truth, it may not be Dracula himself whose popularity is declining, but rather the opposite movies about him. Ever since his screen debut in the lost 1921 film The Death of Dracula, barely a decade has gone by without some iteration of the Count hitting theaters, which is partly why the character has undergone so many different iterations. Like all fictional creations built to last, Dracula endures by embracing change. However, there can always be too much of a good thing; the last few films prominently featuring the Count have failed to light up critics, fans, or the box office, and that may be because each one bends the Dracula character far enough that, well, he doesn't quite feel like Dracula. more.

This month "Nosferatu", Written and directed by Robert Eggers, it looks like another radical take on the character - after all, this isn't Dracula per se, but Count Orlok, with Eggers using the name created by Henrik Gallin and F.W. Murnau. for their version of Stoker's 1922 novel, changed due to the film's unauthorized status as an adaptation. However, Eggers' film does not want to set itself apart from the previous Draculas; Instead, it completely embraces the character and his history, so much so that it could very well be the ultimate Dracula movie.

One of the reasons Dracula's cinematic power seems to have diminished recently is his relationship with Universal Pictures. Although the studio does not have commercial ownership of the character, they tend to act as they do, given how iconic and immortal Bela Lugosi's portrayal of the Count is in Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula. Universal did everything to keep its Dracula active, going so far as to license Hammer Films' 1958 Dracula for international distribution. After the initial Universal Monsters cycle and the Monsters cycle ran their courses, Universal backed the film version of the then-new adaptation of the original Broadway play that Browning had adapted in '31, becoming 1979's Dracula, in directed by John Badham. That same year, Werner Herzog made Nosferatu the Vampire, distributed by 20th Century Fox, in which all of Stoker's characters were renamed.

During the 1980s, vampires began to evolve into a postmodern phase, making Dracula feel dated and childlike (the character's biggest appearance was in 1987's Monster Squad). 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula marked the character's appearance in the older '90s, but it was distributed through Columbia, not Universal. After Miramax and New Line Cinema toyed with an ultra-modern, hip Dracula in the Dracula 2000 and Blade franchises, Universal tried to bring their Dracula back in 2004 by handing the reins to Stephen Somers and Van Helsing. which marks the beginning of their travails in trying to resurrect the character. Although the character never left the silver screen for the next decade, Universal didn't try again until 2014's Dracula Untold, a film that would have launched their Dark Universe horror film franchise if it hadn't been under-executed.

After the And the Dark Universe itself fell apartUniversal waited until 2023 to try to bring back Dracula, with the one-two punch of "Renfield" and "Demeter's Last Voyage." The movies couldn't be more different when portraying the character; Nicolas Cage in "Renfield" is a bad boss/toxic guy with teeth, and Javier Botet in "Demeter" is a mostly animalistic creature that feeds on its prey. Audiences didn't connect with an R-rated comedy Dracula, nor a hard-hitting monster Dracula, and perhaps for this reason this year's Abigail originally set as a riff on "Dracula's Daughter", tried to distance himself from the character's name and legacy.

With Eggers' Nosferatu, Universal will finally (hopefully) have the last laugh, as the film is distributed by their division, Focus Features. Instead of trying to subvert or completely reinvent the character of Dracula, Eggers and actor Bill Skarsgård decided to make their Count Orlok the best Dracula ever. That's not to say that the film or Orlok's portrayal is one big homage or reference; Eggers is too original an artist for such laziness. Indeed, what he does with Nosferatu is pretty much what he did in his previous films The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman, which is to take elements from various historical and pre-existing sources. and use them in a new cinematic stew.

So for Nosferatu, those sources are Stoker's novel, various myths about the vampire legend, the real Transylvaniaand of course, the main movie "Dracula" features of the last 100 years. Murnau's cold acuity, Browning's gothic majesty, Hammer's Grand Guignol, Badham's sumptuous madness, Herzog's contemplativeness, and Coppola's eroticism and theatricality are present in the film. In addition to drawing on the character's cinematic heritage, Eggers and Skarsgård make Orlok a convincingly ambiguous figure, the better to incorporate as many aspects of Dracula into his portrayal as possible. He is a down-to-earth person with his own needs and desires, while also being a supernatural being whose abilities and influence are terrifyingly powerful. In other words, he's both relatable and repulsive, a combination that makes for a fascinatingly compelling character.

Most importantly, Nosferatu doesn't try to debunk Dracula or the myths surrounding him. The film has its own particular mythology about Orlok's methodology and how he can be defeated, but it never feels like Eggers is winking at the audience or trying to justify an outdated creed. That's because his Nosferatu is a film made out of a genuine desire to explore the characters and themes of the story, rather than mocking, or subverting, or starting a new Dracula franchise. It's an honest, creative interpretation, and as it turns out, that's all Dracula really needed to be truly scary again.

Nosferatu is in theaters everywhere.