Willem Dafoe is a "crazy vampire hunter" in new look at Nosferatu

A new look at Nosferatu is here, and it shows Willem Dafoe looking absolutely terrifying, surrounded by flames. 

The picture comes courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, and, speaking to the publication, director Robert Eggers revealed that Dafoe is playing a "crazy vampire hunter" named Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz. The character also exists in F.W. Murnau's 1922 movie on which Eggers' is based, but the director has indicated that he's dialled up the character to the more unhinged version we see below. 

"[Eggers] gets better and better and better, gets more articulate, more on top of it," Dafoe said recently of the film. "He's so clear when he works. It opens in December of next year, which is a long time away. Trying to be an optimist, I think the studio must feel very strong about it, because that's quite a tough slot, so I'm excited about that. I saw some footage when we were shooting, and I can honestly say, visually, it was like unlike anything I have seen… The look of it and how it was shot was extraordinary."

Interestingly enough, Dafoe also described his character as "kind of a Van Helsing type of character," which tracks with what Eggers has revealed – Van Helsing, of course, is the vampire hunter from Bram Stoker's Dracula (the '22 Nosferatu movie is also an unofficial take on that novel). 

Eggers' Nosferatu stars Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney, and Dafoe. 

The film's official logline promises a "a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake." Sounds suitably spooky. 

Nosferatu arrives on December 25, 2024 in the US, just in time for one creepy Christmas. In the UK, it's out on January 3, 2025. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates to get planning the rest of your theater trips.