‘Nosferatu’ review: Robert Eggers’ sexy vampire story could use more bite

Nothing screams Christmas like a gothic tale of sex, disease, death and one very bitey undead Romanian.

A holy day on the Christian calendar hosts a most unholy nightmare – and welcome holiday counterprogramming – with “Nosferatu” (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters Christmas Day), writer/director Robert Eggers’ redo of the 1922 scary-movie classic inspired by Bram Stoker’s “Dracula." Visually sumptuous and surprisingly sensual, "Nosferatu" isn’t as wonderfully original (or bonkers) as Eggers' top-notch flicks “The Witch” and “The Northman,” but great turns from Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård sell its disturbing, otherworldly beauty-and-the-beast tale.

Eggers gets to do a lot with the artistry, since the plot is fiendishly straightforward. In the German town of Wisborg circa 1838, Ellen Hutter (Depp) has been privy to psychic visions and connected to another realm since she was a child, including communing with a monstrous figure. She’s got a seriously bad feeling about her new husband, rookie estate agent Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), taking a work trip to Transylvania.

Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox.

Who plays the vampire of the new 'Nosferatu?'

An enigmatic client named Count Orlok (Skarsgård) is moving to town and buying a decrepit property but can’t travel since he’s got “one foot in the grave,” Thomas’ boss Herr Knock (Simon McBurney) quips. To win a needed promotion, Thomas has to trudge his way to Orlok’s castle and get him to sign a contract. What he finds is a wheezy, terrifying figure with flesh falling off his bones who emits a hungry growl when Thomas accidentally draws blood with a bread knife.

Eggers keeps his Orlok in the shadows for a while until unveiling him in all his eerie glory. Other than a few visual nods, Skarsgård’s vampire is a departure from the infamous antagonist of the original “Nosferatu”: less Max Schreck, more zombie Vlad the Impaler. While Orlok's look doesn’t match the chill-inducing frights of Skarsgard’s Pennywise in “It,” the actor gives his villain a guttural voice that booms through cinema speakers. There's also hints of pitch-black humor (“Now are we neighbors,” he deadpans to Thomas in broken English) and a strangely posh quality as Orlok obsesses over Ellen.

Thomas fails to defeat Orlok on the creeper’s home turf, and the count leaves on a boat via sarcophagus for Germany, with many, many rats in tow. “He is coming,” Ellen warns best friend Anna (Emma Corrin) and her shipman husband Friedrich (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). As Orlok gets closer, she’s wracked by seizures and fits of demonic possession. The count finally arrives and brings a plague to town – Thomas also returns home and discovers how much Orlok has affected her.

Both Skarsgard and Depp are mesmerizing, especially together in scenes that palpably blend desire and repulsion. The movie hinges on Depp’s performance as she’s yanked between ecstasy and despair, crying and laughing at the same time while toeing a line between awful pain and euphoric delight, and Depp lets it all out in breathtaking fashion.

Come for the scares, stay for the 'Nosferatu' cinematography

“Nosferatu” drags in its second half, as Thomas, Friedrich and helpful scientist Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe) grab wooden stakes and go Orlok-hunting. (Playing a disgraced professor really into the occult, Dafoe is completely in his element here and having a ball.) Eggers’ film makes up for its flaws with a feast of horror-movie splendor, like how it oozes an old-school Universal Monsters vibe taking the viewer to Orlok’s castle. The cinematography is incredible as Eggers harnesses a foreboding atmosphere: One gorgeous sequence where a ghostly unmanned carriage comes to get Thomas at a snowy forest crossroads is just flooring in its execution.

Nothing commits to preternatural style like an Eggers movie. One guy eats a pigeon’s head. Depp goes all-in on the evil. And Skarsgård is freaky enough that you can’t stop looking at his bushy mustache and open head wounds, even when he’s sucking blood out of someone’s chest (a folklore-inspired change from the usual necking).

While “Nosferatu” might be a variation on some themes, this revamp admirably takes its enjoyable eccentricity to the grave.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Nosferatu' review: Robert Eggers’ revamp mingles sex and death