With the property becoming the most popular it’s been in over 20 years, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror‘s Doug Jones shares his thoughts on the close release between it and Robert Eggers’ upcoming remake. Both movies serve as different interpretations of Henrik Galeen and F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film of the same name, itself an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Where Eggers’ Nosferatu is a somewhat reimagined version of the original film in the filmmaker’s unique style, A Symphony of Horror is a shot-for-shot remake utilizing practical sets and CGI to put Jones and the rest of his cast in the original film.
During an interview with Screen Rant to promote the October 18 release of his version, Jones shared his thoughts on Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror and Eggers’ movie releasing within two months of each other. The star, who plays Count Orlok in the shot-for-shot remake and was reflecting on the prior actors who played him, began by acknowledging it to be a “very confusing time” with the two adaptations coming out so closely to one another:
And you’re right, so many beautiful performances, and Willem Dafoe killed it, I think. He was fantastic. And I can’t wait to — Honestly, I know this is a very confusing time, that we’re coming out two months before the Robert Eggers version with Bill Skarsgård in the same role, and I’m a big fan of Bill’s.
Rather than express a sense of competition between them, though, Jones was very enthused at the dual release of the Nosferatu movies, expressing his eagerness to get to see Eggers’ film and his hope that both movies will inspire audiences to revisit the original silent film. See what Jones said below:
I’m a big fan of Robert Eggers, and I can’t wait to see their movie as well, and I think Bill Skarsgård is going to also kill it. But we all have our own spin on that original tale, and I think the fans out there, hopefully, will want to see all of them and celebrate this tale, this fable of Nosferatu in whatever version comes out. And hopefully there’s audience enough for all of them.
What This Means For The Nosferatu Movies
The Two Are Different Enough To Attract Different Audiences
To Jones’ credit, the way Eggers and writer/director David Lee Fisher are approaching their Nosferatu movies is different enough to allow the possibility for different audiences to want to watch them. Where the former is striving for a purely horrific take on the unofficial Dracula adaptation, Fisher is instead aiming to recapture the German expressionist atmosphere of Murnau’s classic silent film. As with any genre, but in particular that of the horror genre, there is certainly room for both films to succeed.
Beyond the differences in audiences, there have been a variety of prior examples of movies with similar or the same premises and subjects released within a short amount of time together, known as twin films. Some examples over the years have included Deep Impact and Armageddon, Volcano and Dante’s Peak, and Disney’s Pinocchio and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Check out some of the most prominent recent examples of twin films in the chart below:
|
Title |
Second Title |
Release Year |
Similarities |
|---|---|---|---|
|
No Strings Attached |
Friends with Benefits |
2011 |
Romantic comedies about casual, sexual relationship between friends turning romantic. |
|
Olympus Has Fallen |
White House Down |
2013 |
Action thrillers about the White House being taken hostage, and one person working to save it. |
|
A Quiet Place |
Bird Box, The Silence, Arcadian, etc. |
Various |
Post-apocalyptic thrillers about monsters hunting people with one of five senses. |
|
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? |
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood |
WYBM (2018); ABDITN (2019) |
Movies focused on Mr. Rogers, though Neighbor is a documentary, while Neighborhood is a biopic. |
|
Pinocchio |
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Pinocchio: A True Story, Pinocchio and the Water of Life (2023) |
2022 |
Different adaptations of Carlo Collodi’s classic children’s book. |
|
Elvis |
Priscilla |
Elvis (2022); Priscilla (2023) |
Films exploring Elvis’ life, albeit the latter focused on Presley’s titular ex-wife. |
|
Reality |
Winner |
Reality (2023); Winner (2024) |
Biographical dramas about the American whistleblower Reality Winner. |
Interestingly, the dual release of the Nosferatu movies also continues a recent trend of multiple Dracula adaptations being released either in the same year, or within a year of each other. In 2023, both the Nicolas Cage-starring horror-comedy Renfield and horror movie The Last Voyage of the Demeter hit theaters to generally mixed responses from critics and bombing at the box office, all while Eggers’ Nosferatu was in the works, as well as Luc Besson’s Dracula: A Love Tale and Chloé Zhao’s sci-fi Western take.
Our Take On The Multiple Nosferatu Movies
It’s A Great Time To Be A Sort Of Dracula Fan
As a general fan of the vampire subgenre, and Bram Stoker’s iconic character, I couldn’t be more thrilled to have two different Nosferatu movies coming out within the same year. Though a classic in the eyes of critics, the original silent film is far too underappreciated by modern audiences, so to have different filmmakers reviving it for today is a real treat that I hope draws people to visiting Murnau’s original.
