PHOTO BY AIDAN MONAGHAN / FOCUS FEATURES

When a story has been told innumerable times, it can be tempting to reinvent the tale. This is certainly the case with “Dracula,” the gothic novel that has risen to mythic status over the course of two centuries; we now expect to see it subverted (as in 2023’s postmodern “Renfield”) or told in narrow focus (“The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” also released last year).

It’s a bolder choice, then, to tell a familiar tale in straightforward fashion — and add so much style and atmosphere that even a direct take becomes definitive.

“Nosferatu” began life as an unlicensed retelling of “Dracula”; the groundbreaking 1922 silent film was deemed to infringe upon Stoker’s rights and ordered to be destroyed. Thankfully, it survived and was remade in fine fashion by Werner Herzog in 1979. A full century after its first incarnation, “Nosferatu” now haunts the screen again, rendered in brilliant contrast and constant menace by the modern gothic director Robert Eggers.

The result is not just a fine film. It may be the best cinematic “Dracula” ever made.

The beats are familiar; Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) is haunted by a supernatural menace while her soft-willed husband, Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), travels to Transylvania to conduct business. He encounters the cadaverous Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), who drifts around an imposing, labyrinthine castle. A damned ship brings the Count to England; at the behest of a mad professor (Willem Dafoe), a desperate plan for survival is set into motion.

This “Nosferatu” is a sublime triumph of design, exceeding even the successes of Eggers’ memorable films “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse.” Every frame is sinister; every color seems dulled by shadow. The film’s performances are exemplary, as Skarsgård calls on his experience as the sinister clown Pennywise to give a turn that does not seem fully human.

The magic, however, is in the unrelenting, hypnotic evil that Eggers manages to suffuse into the film. The visions presented here are dreadful, yet inexplicably enticing. Most incarnations of the vampire, from Bela Lugosi’s genre-defining creation to Gary Oldman’s reimagining, make the monster handsome and charming; here, Orlok is unflinchingly repellant and yet no less seductive.

I can’t explain how it’s done, but it’s done perfectly. The film is essential, in two senses of the word: it is required viewing, and it is a chilling example of the elemental power of film.

My Rating: 10/10

“Nosferatu” will play in Pittsburgh theaters beginning Dec. 25.