‘Nosferatu’ Director Robert Eggers On His Fresh Take Of Horror Classic

Anyone familiar with Nosferatu writer-director Robert Eggers’ work shouldn’t be surprised that his new horror film starring Bill Skarsgård takes place in a period setting.

After all, the last thing the acclaimed filmmaker of The Witch, The Lighthouse and The Northman wants to do is to get an opportunity to remake an iconic horror film, only to squander what made the original film great by setting the action in the modern day.

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“It just doesn’t really interest me and it’s not enjoyable,” Eggers told me in a recent Zoom conversation. “If I did [make it modern], I don’t get to build another world to transport the audience to. I mean, imagine trying to make a composition on a cell phone. It’s just a horrible notion. It’s not that it can’t be done but it’s not inspiring [to me].”

Nosferatu opens in theaters nationwide on Christmas Day. The film is directed by Eggers from his own screenplay, which is inspired by the original Nosferatu screenplay by Henrik Galeen and the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Set in the 1800s, Nosferatu follows the terrifying plight of Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a real estate agent from Wisborg, Germany, who is tasked to travel to Transylvania in the Carpathian Mountains to meet with Count Orlok (Skarsgård), who is looking for a new estate.

While visiting the count at his decrepit castle in Transylvania, Thomas shockingly discovers that Orlok is a vampire who has long been infatuated with his wife, Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) and will stop at nothing until their ill-begotten union is complete.

Nosferatu also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Simon McBurney, Ralph Ineson and Willem Dafoe.

Bill Skarsgård Was Robert Eggers’ Only Choice To Play Count Orlok

Released in 1922, the black-and-white silent movie classic Nosferatu was directed by F.W. Murnau and starred Max Schreck in an iconic performance as Count Orlok.

Per The Guardian, Nosferatu also has an unusual historical significance because of a copyright infringement suit filed by Bram Stoker’s widow, Florence Balcombe, which resulted in an order that all prints of the film be restored. Some prints survived, of course, resulting in grainy versions that were released in the public domain and but have were restored in later years.

No matter the quality of what exists of the film today, piercing through the celluloid is the indelible creepy image of Schreck and his slender 6-foot 3-inch frame as Orlok. So, to recapture Schreck’s unnerving visage, Robert Eggers said he only had one person ever in mind—6-foot 3 1/2-inch Bill Skarsgård—to embody his new version of the iconic vampire.

Skarsgård, of course, previously helped recreate another legendary horror figure, Pennywise the Clown, in director Andy Muschietti’s two-part film series of Stephen King’s IT. However, Eggers noted, it wasn’t Skarsgård’s work in Pennywise’s clown makeup that sparked the filmmaker’s the flame to cast the veneralble actor as Orlok.

“It was [Bill’s role] as Jordan Pennywise, but in IT: Chapter Two, when he played Pennywise as a middle-aged human man instead of a clown,” Eggers recalled. “It just had a kind of darkness and depth that I really believed.

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“So, that’s when I emailed or texted Bill and said, ‘Let’s talk about Orlok.’ I really wanted to work with Bill since I met him almost 10 years ago,” Eggers added. “I cast him in The Northman in a supporting role but because of COVID, it didn’t happen. He was always on my mind.”

Naturally, inventive prosthetic makeup effects helped transform Skarsgård into a zombie-like vampire in Nosferatu, but the character is not solely defined by his looks.

Under the auspice of Eggers, Skarsgård created an otherworldly low and gravelly voice for Orlok that has just as much impact as the character’s looks.

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“The Nosferatu screenplay will come out pretty soon and his voice is described like that in the script,” Eggers explained. “So, Bill started working on the voice and was sending me recordings and I would say, ‘A little more of this and a little less of that.’ Eventually, I hooked him up with a friend of mine who’s an opera singer to help lower his voice in octave, and give it like, the most power that it can by going as deep as possible.”

While the look that Eggers and his makeup effects crew created for Skarsgård was a high priority for Nosferatu, just as important were the vampire’s Gothic surroundings.

As such, Eggers said, 60 practical sets were constructed for Nosferatu and existing historical structures were utilized as well.

“We wanted to shoot in a castle in Transylvania, but they’d been restoring it and it looked too nice,” Eggers recalled, noting how the interior didn’t have the dilapidated look he was going for.

“So, we used the exterior we built the castle’s interiors on a soundstage,” Eggers added. “[It took] an enormous time with trying to make everything very detailed, but we were trying to do as much stuff practically as possible.”

Eggers noted there is “plenty of CG” in Nosferatu, but not only as a secondary tool.

“The wolves and are entirely practical, the rats are predominantly practical streets of Wisborg are practical,” Eggers said. “CG is used to fix things and extend things and it’s not obvious … In the places where you would expect things to be CG, we do them practically.”

Also practical is Count Orlok’s ornate sarcophagus, which in a creative move by Nosferatu’s studio, Focus Features, has made a collectible in the form of a popcorn tin for moviegoers to buy. In another crafty move, Focus Features is selling full-scale replicas of the sarcophagus for $20,000 a piece.

As for the original Orlok sarcophagus, Eggers said he passed on asking for the set piece for his personal collection. Instead, he opted for some holiday decorations featured in Thomas and Ellen Hutter’s abode.

“I live in a small fat in London, so,no,” Eggers said with a laugh, explaining why he didn’t ask for the sarcophagus prop.

“But, I kept some of the Christmas tree ornaments that are on our Christmas tree this year,” Eggers added with smile.

Rated R, Nosferatu opens in theaters nationwide on Christmas Day.

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