Weirdest Horror Western of All Time is Now Available for Free

Summary

• A new remake of Nosferatu by Robert Eggers is scheduled for release later this year.
• But 45 years before that, another version of a classic story was released, Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampire.
• The movie is a great elevated horror that is now available to stream for free.

Nearly half of today's movie industry is made up of remakes and reboots. The same goes for horror films. While such a trend has existed for about as long as the genre itself has been in cinema, especially given Hollywood's love of adapting foreign scripts into an American context in the '00s, there doesn't seem to have been such a heavy concentration of horror remakes as there has been since the 2010s.

And in late 2024, we will have a new remake from one of the best young horror filmmakers, Robert Eggers. This time, he's working on a reimagining of F. W. Murnau's famous German expressionist film Nosferatu, which in turn was inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula. Given Eggers' creative power, we should expect a highly original take on the iconic original.

The task will be far from easy, however, as Eggers' film will have to compete with another remake, Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre. Despite the recycling of previous plots, it's hard to call this film a full-blown remake, as it's a spectacular reimagining with an emphasis on eerie cinematography and a dark tone that permeates both the atmosphere of the film and the fates of the characters themselves.

Nosferatu the Vampyre is the kind of horror that never gets old, and now that it's available for free, it's a good time to watch it more than ever.

When Horror Goes Beyond Screamers

The 1979 film could be described as inspired by Bram Stoker's novel and the 1922 German silent film, rather than copying them. Unlike F.W. Murnau's film, which failed to secure the screen rights to Dracula, Herzog's film captured the moment when Dracula entered the public domain, thus merging the two stories. In doing so, he provides his own perspective, offering a more dramatic and therefore more terrifying outlook at the fate of Count Dracula and his victims.

The story revolves around Jonathan Harker, played by Bruno Ganz, and his wife Lucy, played by Isabelle Adjani, known to horror fans since Possession. Dracula, on the other hand, is played by Herzog's perennial antagonist, Klaus Kinski. In the film, Lucy gains much more independence, not only because of her willingness to make sacrifices for the townspeople and her lover, but also because of a certain compassion for Dracula, with whom she develops a kind of twisted and tragic sexual tension.

At the same time, there are no scares in the film; its creepiness is based on a sense of hopelessness: Jonathan was doomed to become a vampire, Lucy was doomed to sacrifice her life, and Dracula was not only suffering for centuries, but lonely and tormented by his animal instincts.

Where to Watch the Movie?

The movie is available for free streaming on all kinds of services!

For example, you can watch it on Freevee, Amazon's free-to-use platform that relies on advertising for its revenue. That's why you don't even need a basic subscription to Prime Video — all you need to do is visit the Prime website or download the dedicated Freevee app to your devices.

The series is also available on other ad-supported streaming services, including Tubi, Peacock, Pluto TV, Crackle, The Roku Channel, Shout! TV and Redbox. The movie is also available to Fubo TV subscribers (subscription price is $79.99 after free trial).

For those who don't want to waste time watching commercials or sign up for a subscription, all three episodes are available for rent or purchase. On Prime, the rental price is $3.59 for HD quality and the purchase price is $12.99. You can do the same on other platforms, including the Microsoft Store, Google Play, Vudu, Apple TV, and more.