Nosferatu (2024) is an American Gothic horror film written and directed by Robert Eggers, inspired by F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent classic and the wider Dracula tradition. The film follows Ellen Hutter, a haunted young woman whose life is overshadowed by a supernatural connection to Count Orlok, an ancient vampire whose obsession with her brings death and plague to the fictional German town of Wisborg. Lily-Rose Depp plays Ellen, Nicholas Hoult plays her husband Thomas Hutter, and Bill Skarsgård appears as Count Orlok, with Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson and Simon McBurney in major supporting roles. Eggers’ version is a highly stylised Gothic tragedy, built around obsession, disease, sexuality, death and spiritual dread, with a visual world that draws on silent horror, German Expressionism, folklore and period detail.
Nosferatu was filmed mainly in the Czech Republic, with additional location work in Romania. Barrandov Studios in Prague served as the production’s main base, where much of Wisborg and many of the film’s interiors were built as large practical sets. Production designer Craig Lathrop created an extensive studio-built version of the fictional German port town, including streets, houses and interiors designed to feel like a 19th-century Baltic/Hanseatic environment rather than a modern city dressed for filming. Prague and the surrounding Czech regions also provided several real locations: Invalidovna in Prague, Rožmitál pod Třemšínem Castle, Pernštejn Castle, Libochovice Chateau, Prachov Rocks and Big America Quarry are among the places connected to the production. Count Orlok’s castle is a composite of several locations and sets. The exterior was filmed at Corvin Castle in Hunedoara, Romania, while courtyard and gatehouse material was filmed at Pernštejn Castle in the Czech Republic, a location that also connects the film to Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre from 1979. Other parts of Orlok’s world, including castle interiors and the road leading toward the castle, were created through studio construction and controlled location work. This gives Nosferatu a deliberately artificial but deeply physical location identity: real castles, cemeteries, quarries and Gothic buildings are combined with large handmade sets to create a decaying Europe of plague, superstition, old stone, mud, shadow and supernatural corruption.
Corvin Castle
Corvin Castle appears in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, The Nun, Nosferatu, BloodRayne, and several older historical productions filmed in Romania.
Pernštejn Castle
Pernštejn Castle has been used in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, Nosferatu, Van Helsing, Journey to the Christmas Star, Borgia and Wanted.
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