This vampire is based on the Strigoi of Eastern European folklore. Not a beast, not a seductive gentleman, not even the Prince of Darkness himself, but a corpse possessed by an evil spirit from beyond. It could be anyone of any lineage, in this case a count whose time should have ended several hundred years ago. When communicating telepathically, he speaks an approximation of Dacian, an ancient language that predates Romanian. Not much of the language is still known, so the gaps are filled with Latin and other archaic words from the region.
I definitely get the impression of great supernatural power from his ability to curse or blind individuals and large populations alike, compel others to do his bidding without uttering a word, and manipulate his victims' perceptions of time and space. Despite being a vessel more than the source of evil itself, he still feels omnipresent, seemingly able to phase in and out of the physical plane. His very presence sickens people before he even bites them. A far cry from Herzog's vampire having to carry his own coffins around at night (though that might have been cool to see here if done right).
I was also expecting something closer to the 1922 original, but in hindsight, what can really be done that we haven't seen before? It could easily have turned out like this...
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...which is a great makeup worn by the very talented Doug Jones, but it also looks like something you'd see opening any Halloween mask catalog in the last 20 years. After Schreck, Kinski, Oldman (in his bat form), and Dafoe, there's not much left to do that wouldn't have felt generic in a different way.
I'm not surprised Eggers decided on something more rooted in history; it's the only unused strategy for telling a story that, well, is very much used.