He is 1.80 meters tall four, with an oval-shaped face, deep-colored eyes and looks that could – and often do – kill. He’s the sexiest man of 2024. No, not die-hard doofus John Krasinski, who won Peopleis this year’s title, but the shambling, towering, blood-sucking villain in Robert Eggers’ NosferatuCount Orlok. (Whether “alive” applies here or not is in the eye of the beholder.)

Horror novels popularly characterize vampires as irresistibly attractive, both on the page and on the screen. dusk‘s sparkling gloom, too Interview with the vampireThis is a tragic guy the Vampire Diaries‘ Brooding, arguing sibling types, bladeare sassy wannabe vampire gods (or Blade himself, if pale goth men don’t let you see through). Regardless of the variations, vampires are primed to awaken our thirst, allowing them to quench their thirst without the hassle of hunting. We also associate other monsters in the classic horror canon with carnal instincts, like werewolves, but bloodsuckers seem to have a monopoly on the erotic temptation of good looks.

Nosferatua remake of the legendary 1922 vampire film, which in turn was an unofficial adaptation by Bram Stokers Draculapartly tends towards this image: Orlok’s victims cannot ward off his presence. At best, they can merely tolerate his influence, as Eggers’ leading lady Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) has done for most of her life, when Nosferatu begins in earnest. The film begins with Ellen in her youth, crying and lonely enough to ask a “guardian angel” for assistance; a spirit of comfort; a spirit of some heavenly sphere; anything.” Orlok is certainly one of those things! Ellen’s request set off his alarm, waking him from “an eternity of darkness,” and so he responds, slightly grumpy at the inconvenience.

“You are not for the living,” Orlok booms to Ellen, invisible except for his silhouette, cutting against a row of sheer white curtains as they flap in the wind. “You are not for humanity.”

Perverse!

Moments later, Eggers shows us what kind of party we’ve come to as Ellen lands in front of her family’s sprawling estate. She vows to Orlok to be one with him “forever and ever.” Then, lying in the dirt, she begins to wail and pant with pleasure, only to be abruptly cut short when the Count suddenly appears above her and wraps one of his grubby claws around her throat. He is bulky and misshapen, his mustache is smeared with blood, and his hairline is exaggeratedly uneven, adding to his asymmetry. He roars. Ellen screams. She didn’t think the man of her dreams would look like this.

Orlok is played by Bill Skarsgård, best known for his role as Pennywise the Dancing Clown It: Chapter One And Chapter Two. Like Orlok, Pennywise is a living nightmare. In contrast to Orlok, Pennywise can be thwarted by everyday expressions of will. He feeds on fear. (Children too.) If you control your fear, he will shrink into an ear of corn. But Orlok continues to feed You. He doesn’t care what you think about his appearance, behavior, or diet. If your heart is what he longs for, he will have your heart. It’s typical for vampires to reach for the throat, but Eggers, inspired by recorded folklore, embraces the atypical: Skarsgård’s Orlok pins people down and instead slurps blood straight from their chests.

The good news for the squeamish is that the effect isn’t as disgusting as you might imagine. The bad news is that it’s worse. By far one of the most effective aesthetic appeals Eggers has conjured in any of his films; This, coupled with the effects and makeup that transform Skarsgård from a man into a shuffling, mangled carcass, seemingly shedding his flesh with every passing moment, is fundamental to Nosferatuas a work of horror cinema. In “Orlok,” Eggers and Skarsgård reach new depths of visceral sensation. The character is inherently terrible and repulsive to look at.

But we can’t turn away. On the one hand, the typical Eggers viewer knows that he is not in for a carefree visit to the cinema; Raw amazement is a central part of the appeal of The witch And The lighthouseand has a background in The Northmanis bullish myth-making. If you don’t like that Orlok speaks with a fluid, raspy bass and alveolar trill, or that he represents a clear rejection of “pretty vampire” clichés, then a revisit to Eggers’ work may be in order. He makes impeccably constructed films about ugly subjects in which terrible fates befall even the most innocent characters. This also applies to The witch how it is inside Nosferatu. But none of Nosferatu’s shocks and shudders match the film’s most horrific revelations: that Orlok cannot be rejected by Ellen, her husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), or her friend Anna (Emma Corrin), and that, moreover, they like it.

Orlok visits Thomas and Anna both in due course in different, captivatingly frightening sequences. But Skarsgård invokes the contrasting element of submissive desire in these scenes, alongside Hoult and Corrin, who respond to him with fear, yes, and with the same joy that Depp expresses in the introduction. They are exposed. You are helpless. In their weakened state, they enjoy these sensations, in stark contrast to the reality of their characters’ circumstances.

From a creative perspective alone, Orlok is a standout achievement in 2024 horror: something that shouldn’t be, vile and hideous and absolutely terrible in every fiber of character conception. But just as importantly, he is the greatest modern embodiment of vampiric appeal, even if he doesn’t look it. Sexual instead of hot, dominant and undeniable, Nosferatu crowns the year 2024 by scaring and frightening viewers. That’s what they’ll expect. You could not Expect the film or Orlok itself to uncomfortably upset you.

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