Scene from “Nosferatu.”
Focus FeaturesWhile Robert Eggers’ new version of Nosferatu naturally hearkens F.W. Murnau’s 1922 horror film classic, the director was happy to achieve things with his film that the famed German director could not more than a century ago.
Set mostly in 1838, Nosferatu follows Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), an enterprising real estate agent from Wisborg, Germany, who is ordered by his boss to travel to Transylvania in the rugged Carpathian Mountains to meet with Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), to help the enigmatic recluse sell his castle and find a new estate.
Before too long, however, Hutter discovers Orlok is a vampire obsessed with his wife, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), and he’s about to embark on a voyage to Wisborg to complete their union.
Playing theaters nationwide, Nosferatu also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Simon McBurney, Ralph Ineson and Willem Dafoe.
In a recent Zoom conversation, Eggers recalled researching Murnau’s work on the 1922 version of Nosferatu—starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok—which wasn’t easy to come by given that the film was made more than a century ago.
Luckily for the writer-director, a legendary German biographer was able to document Murnau’s mindset while he was making his film.
“It’s not super available—but it’s at most libraries and I acquired a copy—but Lotte Eisner, who was a famous film critic and expert on German expressionism wrote a biography on Murnau,” Eggers said. “In the appendix is a galley of the screenplay and it has Murnau’s notes in it, translated into English for the English edition.”
Robert Eggers on the set of “Nosferatu.”
Focus FeaturesEggers Was Able To Expand Upon The Voyage Of Count Orlok’s Ship
In addition to his direction of Nosferatu, Robert Eggers wrote the screenplay for the new version of the classic vampire tale, which is inspired by Henrik Galeen’s original Nosferatu script and Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.
One thing Eggers was fortunate to have while making his film that F.W. Murnau did not was a healthy budget to see his vision through.
“Nosferatu—the Murnau film—was a low budget affair and was unlike most of the films of the of the expressionist movement,” Eggers explained. “It was not shot all on a soundstage, although most of the interiors were.”
Because Murnau was strapped by financial limitations, Eggers was thrilled to see through for his film some of the director’s ideas that didn’t make the 1922 version—chief among them the arduous voyage of Count Orlok’s ship as it sails from Transylvania to Wisborg.
“In the script—where the ship is coming into Wisborg—what Murnau did was have it eerily drifting in like a ghost. It was so effective, memorable and iconic. It’s awesome and amazing what he achieved,” Eggers said. “But the intention was to have a crazy shipwreck during a crazy storm, which is what we were able to do.”
Narratively, Eggers said he was also happy to expand Thomas Hutter’s intentions a bit.
“I don’t know if it hit the cutting room floor [because Murnau] felt that it was less important, but something that’s very highlighted in my version is Thomas Hutter’s need for money,” Eggers said. “It was more pronounced in the screenplay in the film.”
Produced by Eggers, Chris Columbus, Eleanor Columbus, Jeff Robinov and John Graham, Nosferatu is playing in theaters nationwide.
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