Along with earning rave reviews, the film was an unexpected box office smash hit.

Accessible to watch via the service NOW, the movie comes from writer-director Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse, The Northman, The Witch) and takes place in Wisborg, Germany, in 1838.

The story follows estate agent Thomas Hutter (typically great Nicholas Hoult) and his new wife, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp).

Soon into their marriage, Thomas accepts a job from his employer (Simon McBurney) to travel to a remote castle in Transylvania's Carpathian Mountains. This is to sell a stately home in Wisborg to the reclusive, eccentric Count Orlok aka Nosferatu (an unrecognisable Bill Skarsgård).

Though Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) warns him not to go, after having experienced dark foreboding dreams, Hutter dismisses her concerns and sets off to meet Orlok, soon finding himself plagued by terrors.

While her husband is away, meanwhile, Ellen stays in Wisborg under the care of friends Anna and Friedrich (Emma Corrin and Aaron Taylor-Johnson), where her health starts to deteriorate rapidly.

Called to help, Dr. Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson) and his old mentor and expert on the occult, Prof. Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe, having a blast), start to suspect that Ellen may have some strange connection to Nosferatu, whose name comes from an archaic Romanian word meaning "the offensive one".

Released in Irish and UK cinemas on New Year's Day 2025, JOE noted at the time that Eggers was the perfect Hollywood filmmaker to tackle this story.

After all, he is well-known for his love of folklore and his obsession with rendering the past as beautifully but as authentically as possible onscreen, as evident in his previous films.

In our review of Nosferatu, we praised Eggers for finding new ways to compel viewers and send chills up their spines, even when working with quite familiar material.

We wrote:

"Scenes play out like gothic paintings come to life. Big important choices, like the look of the at-first hidden-from-sight Nosferatu, break from tradition but feel right.

"In fact, the best parts of Eggers' Nosferatu are the tweaks he makes to the classic story. Making Ellen more of the lead character with this hidden mystery adds intrigue, while also amplifying some of the underlying themes of the source materials - women's role in society, repressed sexuality, class concerns, etc.

"It helps that Depp gives an absolutely star-making turn, managing to always have Ellen be a character you root for, even as she delivers several dread-inducing monologues and performs some incredibly terrifying acrobatics during her scenes of possession.

"Also brilliant is the addition of characters Anna and Friedrich, two ordinary, likeable people caught up in the horror who keep you glued to the screen in the hope that they and their family can somehow survive what's coming."

We also had one minor note of criticism, however, which you can read below:

"Because of how successful these changes on the fringes made by Eggers are, you almost wish he had been less faithful to what had come before in a broader sense.

"While the finale of the 2025 Nosferatu is a triumph of pacing, performance and staging, there is undeniably a feeling of inevitability that sets in for those who have seen either the Murnau or Herzog version of the story.

"That said, there is enough new and inventive in Eggers' take on the vampire classic that makes this still a must-see. And for those that aren't hugely familiar with Nosferatu or Dracula, you're in for a treat," we concluded.

Nosferatu (2025) earned generally glowing reviews from critics, with the movie currently holding an 84% Rotten Tomatoes score.

The film also grossed over $180 million at the box office on a reported budget of just $50 million,

Following this runaway success, the gothic horror is streaming in Ireland and the UK via the service NOW.