Everyone say thank you to Robert Eggers for making Christmas at the movies that much more fun for the weirdos. The filmmaker behind "The Lighthouse" and "The Northman" cast a shadow over the 2024 holiday slate with his chilly re-imagining of the classic F.W. Murnau vampire film "Nosferatu," itself an illegal adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" novel. It was a massive hit with audiences and critics alike, pulling in an incredible box office haul to sweeten the forbidden deal. Indeed one of the reasons why there was so much intrigue around the film was the mystery behind its central villain.

The lanky bloodsucker known as Count Orlok had previously been played by Max Schreck in 1922 ("Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror"), Klaus Kinski -- albeit as Count Dracula -- in 1979 ("Nosferatu the Vampyre"), and Willem Dafoe in 2000 ("Shadow of the Vampire"). Each performance brought something new to the table, but a...