The runtime for Robert Eggers’ 2024 Nosferatu remake is revealed, and it sets a record for the horror franchise. Eggers established himself as a premiere horror director with his acclaimed film The Witch (2016). He later veered into dark fantasy with The Lighthouse (2019), while maintaining his sure hand at portraying psychological disintegration. After venturing into epic historical fiction with The Northman (2022), Eggers is back in the horror game with his upcoming Nosferatu remake, starring Bill Skarsgård as an otherworldly bloodsucker.

With the film set to unleash its gothic horror goodies on Christmas Day, the runtime for Eggers’ take on Nosferatu has now been revealed (via Fandango), and at 2 hours and 12 minutes, it’s longer than either previous Nosferatu movie by a considerable margin.

What This Means For Eggers’ Nosferatu

Murnau Needed Less Than 90 Minutes

F.W. Murnau crafted the original Nosferatu, a loose adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with the monster renamed for legal reasons. A classic of German Expressionist cinema, Murnau’s film is a visually stunning and atmospheric nightmare. It’s not a very long nightmare though, clocking in at 1 hour and 21 minutes. Given that most silent movies had short runtimes, it’s no surprise that Murnau’s film comes in at under 90 minutes.

Following in the footsteps of Murnau, German New Wave filmmaker and latter-day object of internet obsession, Werner Herzog, in 1979 crafted his own reworked Dracula story, Nosferatu the Vampyre. Starring frequent Herzog collaborator (and sometime enemy) Klaus Kinski, the film is hypnotically paced, but ultimately not overly taxing on the viewer’s patience, as it clocks in at 1 hour and 47 minutes. Eggers’ Nosferatu is 25 minutes longer than Herzog’s film, and almost an hour longer than Murnau’s.

Eggers’ Nosferatu isn’t just longer than previous versions of the story, but also longer than many other recent vampire movies. A handful of vampire movies were released in 2023 and 2024, and all are less than 2 hours. This includes titles like Abigail (1 hr, 53 minutes), The Last Voyage of the Demeter (1 hr, 59 min), Renfield (1 hr, 33 min), and Salem’s Lot (1 hr, 53 min). It should also be noted that none of these movies were particularly successful, suggesting a lack of interest in vampire stories will be what might hurt Nosferatu, not its runtime.

Eggers’ Past Movies Suggest Nosferatu’s Runtime Won’t Be A Problem

Critical Response To Eggers’ Filmography Explained

Though Eggers is still a relatively niche filmmaker in the grander scheme of audience interest and recognition, his name has come to be associated with a particular tone and quality when it comes to movie-making. Eggers, it could be argued, has not made a bad movie. All of his previous works have been well-received critically, suggesting that Nosferatu will earn its runtime.

As seen in the chart above, The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman are all at about the same level in terms of their Rotten Tomatoes critics’ scores. The audience scores do fluctuate more and are noticeably lukewarm, but they are all still generally positive. When it comes to runtime, there’s quite a bit of variation in Eggers’ past movies, with The Northman currently representing the longest of the bunch at 2 hours and 17 minutes. That film’s 90% Rotten Tomatoes score, however, would suggest that this film wasn’t hampered by its long runtime.

The Northman
isn’t just Eggers’ longest film, but also his most expensive, boasting an estimated budget of $90 million.

Our Take On Nosferatu’s Runtime

No Good Movie Ever Feels Too Long

Movies have become increasingly long in recent years, with even comic book films often clocking in at well over the two-hour mark. 2 hours and 12 minutes might be a little lengthy for a fright film, in an era where most horror directors try to keep it under 2 hours, but it’s not an egregiously long runtime compared to something like IT Chapter 2 (2019), which extended to an absurd 2 hours and 49 minutes.

Eggers no doubt had good reason to push beyond the 2-hour mark in telling his version of a vampire story. If his take on Nosferatu is indeed compelling, those 2 hours and 12 minutes will fly by. On the other hand, for such an unsettling film as Nosferatu appears to be, less is usually more when it comes to runtime. Asking viewers to sit still and be scared for over 2 hours is usually not a great idea, as the psychological tension of horror tends to disperse the longer the film goes on.

There are some classic long horror movies, of course, notably The Shining and Rosemary’s Baby, but it’s generally better to keep things tight when trying to scare an audience. Eggers has plenty of skill at unnerving his audience, however, and his Nosferatu looks like another unique and creepy experience.

Source: Fandango