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Nosferatu - Why Do Audiences Keep Coming Back for an Updated Classic?

Let Baylor's expert on film and horror movies help if you're covering

Jan 9, 2025

2 min

James Kendrick, Ph.D.


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It's the latest take on an old classic.


Nosferatu took the Christmas box office by storm and might be the first time a vampire movie dominated the traditional holiday cinema season that's usually family friendly and purposely 'PG'.


Even the critics agree that this new take on an old classic was worth the 'bite'.



An adaptation of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent nightmare (which itself was based on Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula and remade once before, in 1979, by Werner Herzog), Nosferatu recounts the tale of a most devious Count: Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), who strives to reach Europe’s shores by purchasing an aged manor house by way of a deal solidified with real estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult). Yet Orlok isn’t interested in seeing Germany’s tourist sights—his true goal is reuniting with Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), Thomas’ bride, who called out to him as a girl and, in doing so, created a wicked bond that strengthens by the day.

As imagined by Eggers and Skarsgård, the vampiric fiend is a towering figure of corruption and carnality who both resembles his predecessors and is a unique monster in his own right, and his reign of terror plays out via a series of lush, hypnotic set pieces that resound with unnerving malice and profane perversity.  January - The Daily Beast



Horror movies have always had a certain allure for audiences, but there a re a few questions to ask:


  • What does this story have that makes it possible to be remade over and over and still stay entertaining?
  • What is it about vampires in particular that are linked to romance?
  • As well, why do we pay money to be scared and why is this genre so popular and lasting?


If you're covering this particular film or movies in general - then let us help with your questions and stories.


James Kendrick is a professor and undergraduate program director in the Department of Film & Digital Media at Baylor University, where he teaches about film theory/aesthetics, the history of motion pictures, media and society, the films of Steven Spielberg, violence in the media, and horror film.


James Kendrick is available to speak with media. In fact, Nosferatu is James' favorite movie, so simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview time today.


Connect with:
James Kendrick, Ph.D.

James Kendrick, Ph.D.

Professor, Film & Digital Media, Undergraduate Program Director

Expert on Spielberg films, cult & horror films, post-Classical Hollywood film history & new cinema technologies

Violence in filmsCinema and new technologiesMedia censorship and regulation

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