The Damned vs Nosferatu: When Critical Acclaim Isn’t Enough

I recently watched The Damned (2024) after being intrigued by its trailer. Like many, I remembered how Nosferatu’s marketing captured attention and achieved remarkable success.

Both of them were released in the same year. Although I forgot about The Damned after watching the trailer and watched the complete film just now, why did one fade while the other became immortal?

I present to you my case, ‘The Damned vs Nosferatu,’ to analyze what made Nosferatu iconic while The Damned remained obscure. I will clarify the core factors behind their divergent legacies.

Plot details of The Damned (2024)

Directed by Thordur Palsson (The Valhalla Murder series 2019 and short film Brothers 2015), The Damned is based on Norse mythology about a draugr- a type of hostile undead creature seeking vengeance that is a massive threat to the living.

Set in the 19th Century, the film shows Eva (played by Odessa Young), whose only purpose is running the fish station on an isolated Icelandic coast amidst a cruel winter. She, with her crew, faces a crucial, decisive situation one day, whether to rescue the shipwrecked people in the sea.

They choose otherwise and eventually face the deadly consequences of their choice and guilt, in the form of a draugr, who is here to punish them.

The film is evidence of their psychological manifestation that turns into a never-ending haunting, obviously resulting from the isolated, desperate circumstances of the location.

Plot details of Nosferatu (2024)

Nosferatu (2024) by Robert Eggers is a remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name. It was a book adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

The film follows a young couple in Germany during the 1920s. Thomas Hutter (portrayed by Nicholas Hoult) needs to travel to Transylvania to close a deal with Count Orlok (played by Bill Skarsgard), but the Count has other plans.

The count brings plague to Hutter’s hometown as he is already obsessed with Hutter’s wife, Ellen (played by Lily-Rose Depp). A gothic tale of obsession and horror turns into a tale that shows Eggers’ reflective direction.

The primary difference between The Damned and Nosferatu

The core difference between their popularity is the films’ promotion and directors.

The promotion

Nosferatu adopted a high-budget and high-profile strategy when it comes to its marketing. It remains Eggers’ highest-grossing film worldwide after its global release on December 25, 2024.

The trailers highlighted the well-known cast with Bill Skarsgard, who sent some serious chills down our spine with his previously terrifying role as Pennywise in It films. Johnny Depp’s daughter, Lily-Rose, is a popular name accompanied by Nicholas Hault (recently played Lex Luthor in Superman 2025).

High public buzz, celebrity events, podcasts, and appearances on talk shows gave the star cast prominence and an additional public interest before the film’s release.

On the other hand, Thordur Palsson’s The Damned did not use any publicity with a large-scale marketing budget. Box-office earnings were modest with a medium rating on IMDb.  

The world premiere depended heavily on festival screenings only, rather than a worldwide or US/UK release. There were no large-scale events, appearances of the cast on talk shows, or merchandise campaigns for The Damned when compared with Nosferatu.​

The directors

Robert Eggers is a highly acclaimed horror director who has given us masterpieces like The Lighthouse (2019), The Northman (2022), and The Witch (2015), my personal favorite. He already has an established reputation for meticulous period realism by capitalizing on his signature detailed direction that brings atmospheric intensity.

Eggers brought a modern touch to a classic Gothic vampire tale that outclassed with a visually striking aesthetic. Both Nosferatu and The Damned used heavily desaturated bluish-grey hues, not completely black and white colors, for the film, but Nosferatu’s monochromatic expressionist look stood out —all thanks to Eggers.

Thordur Palsson penned the original story for The Damned, which was a survival-driven story. It remained far from a grandiose spectacle but had extreme, insidious, and subtle tones.

The isolated landscapes and moral dread, combined with pensive haunting scores, gave a brilliant horror blend that wasn’t expected from a director with currently less exposure.

The Damned relied on a folk-centric narrative with modest indie production that gave it a low-key rollout. Palsson’s minimalist storytelling style did create the required unsettling atmosphere, but on a tighter commercial stage.

The Damned vs Nosferatu based on ratings

It also depends on the number of critics who gave ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. For example, The Damned gained only 77 critics’ ratings while Nosferatu got 347 critics’ reviews.

	IMDb	Rotten Tomatoes (critics)	Rotten Tomatoes (audience)
The Damned (2024)	5.7	90%	47%
Nosferatu (2024)	7.2	84%	73%

To back my case, here is one of JoBlo’s critics’ reviews for The Damned:

“The Damned fully utilizes its time period and setting to deliver a story that resonates even in modern times.” [Source]​

Did The Lighthouse (2019) make the impact first that The Damned missed?​

Did The Lighthouse steal the spotlight from The Damned? Did The Damned try to follow in its footsteps—and fail because of it?​

To some extent, yes. Robert Pattinson’s The Lighthouse made a distinct impact in the horror film space that The Damned might have failed to replicate.

Why do I say the word “replicate”? The Damned is similar to The Lighthouse (2019)- another Robert Eggers film that earned an IMDb rating of 7.4 and a 90 percent RT critics rating.

The Lighthouse had the same isolated sea location with two men falling into madness, masculinity, and guilt. The film also earned an Oscar nomination for cinematography.

It proved that a minimalistic horror film with aesthetic and daring narrative, showing only two men, could be both intellectually rich and commercially successful.​

Conversely, The Damned is a slow-burning folk horror in a bleak period setting that, despite having the same themes as The Lighthouse, did not entice the audience as such. The viewers chose the vampire over the critics’ rave for The Damned, possibly due to the lack of a bold directorial identity and its late timing.  

Wrapping up…

The Damned was helmed by a lesser-known director and had almost no promotion, which generated less anticipation among the audience. It only hit a limited number of critics and did not bag any mainstream box office earnings despite being similar to the Oscar-nominated The Lighthouse.

Nosferatu had a critical trust, a strong following for Robert Eggers, knowing that an artistic directorial identity would be seen soon after we watched its trailer. Eggers’ name drew attention right from scratch, making it an immortal horror legend.