Spoilers for Nosferatu (2024) is forthcoming.

In both Murnau's and Eggers' Nosferatu, Orlok is captured by Ellen Hutter, just as Dracula was with Mina Harker. In both films, Ellen defeats the vampire by luring him into her bedroom, keeping him so busy feasting on her blood that he doesn't see the sun rise to strike him. Ellen dies, but so does Orlok, and the plague she brought is removed. Compare that to Stoker's Dracula, where Harker, Van Helsing and co. they hunt down Dracula, stabbing and beheading him.

In the aforementioned Screen Rant interview, Eggers added that Ellen's sacrifice gives his story extra power:

“One thing I really liked about Murnau is that it ends with the female protagonist being the heroine. I thought it would be potentially more exciting if the entire film was told through her eyes, as it has the potential to be more emotional. and psychologically complex than an adventure story about a real estate agent As scary as a horror film is - and it is, there are even jumps - it is gothic. romance, and it's a story of love and a story of obsession."

Francis Ford Coppola's extravagant Dracula made the Count (Gary Oldman) and Mina (Winona Ryder) into real, reciprocated lovers - Mina was the reincarnation of Dracula's lost love, Elizabeth, you see. Eggers' Nosferatu similarly gives Orlok and Ellen a backstory, but not a truly romantic one.

In keeping with Eggers' comments about centering the film around Ellen, the new Nosferatu opens during her childhood. Ellen, her face barely peeping out of the darkness, prays for a companion to ease her troubles; Orlok responds to her call like a bad Samaritan, amplifying her melancholy rather than healing it. As Ellen later explains, she only drove Orlok away when she met her true love, Thomas, but Orlok never forgot her. Thomas Hatter isn't called to Orlok's castle by accident; no, the vampire wants him dead so he can get Ellen back.

The ending of Eggers' Nosferatu hits the same beats as Murnau, but As Roxanne Hadady wrote in Vulture, gains new power as a woman who destroys her abuser by owning her sexuality. Depp, at least, revealed that Ellen is an "incredibly powerful" character to play (through Deadline):

“Ellen's perspective is one we've never seen in such a central way, and Rob made a deliberate choice to make Ellen's perspective central. And we see the story really unfold through her eyes, which I think was such a beautiful thing and an honor for me to play."

I love Coppola's Dracula and all its romantic passion, so I'm not saying Eggers' approach is inherently better. But when a story is over 100 years old, you have to try something different every time you retell it. Eggers didn't call the film "Dracula," but his "Nosferatu" is an effective amalgamation of the two modern, competing characterizations of the vampire: monstrous predator and obsessive lover.

Nosferatu is now playing in theaters.