"Nosferatu" - Review

The year is 1838, and in the quaint German town of Wisborg, a young banker by the name of Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), recently married and needing to provide well for his odd wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), accepts a job to deliver papers to a reclusive count by the name of "Orlok" (Bill Skarsgard), who seeks a home in Wisborg. But all is not as it seems: the people in the shadow of Orlok's castle seem scared and strange, others enthralled by him, Ellen has got nightmares up and down her walls, and under the care of both her physician Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson, naturally) and family friends the Hardings (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin) all seems awry...

From the description of "Robert Eggers remakes Nosferatu" you get exactly what that implies: a big, grand, Gothic enterprise with a focus on the folksy-occult horror, some gore, some disgusting sound design and a use of the period details to enhance the experience and make you go "oooh, man I wish we got more period horror". There are good moments and homages to the original, clearly a love letter of sorts (for the record: I adore the 1922 F.W Murnau "Nosferatu" and still find it a chilling, striking visual affair with some nightmarish imagery and a haunting atmosphere, it holds up remarkably well) to the film (two characters are named after Murnau, the famous long shadow shot is replicated as a grip over the city itself), without feeling like either part is backing down. Willem Dafoe appears in the final act, and absolutely steals the show and relishes the material, and I did not know I wanted buddy cop adventures with him and Ralph Ineson until I got them. It's well constructed and features strong performances across the board, and a strong throughline about hunger and lust, and the perversion of it, all about the looming and creeping encroachment of his evil, like a shroud upon the city, with a couple of neat little notes on the buttoned up roles for women in society at the time. The stuff with Dafoe is excellent, cannot stress it enough, and one of my little goblin-boys Nicholas Hoult gets put through the fucking wringer.
But that's just it.
It's "Nosferatu" done by Robert Eggers.
I could be watching Murnau's original (still weird to say...). It's all nicely made, but I wasn't particularly gripped or spooked.
I don't know, I felt cold on it.