Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu may be bringing horror to the holidays this Christmas, but it looks like we’ll be getting another bite of what awaits with the film next week. On Friday, Focus Features shared a short bit of bizarre footage on social media that, if you look closely, teases 9/30/2024 — Monday, September 30th — suggesting the trailer for the eagerly anticipated film is imminent. The footage was paired with an equally chilling caption: “‘Til you bid me come, shall you watch the world become as naught.”
Eggers’ Nosferatu is a fresh take on the 1922 silent film of the same name and tells a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire that is infatuated with her, an infatuation that causes untold horror in its wake. Nosferatu stars Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney, Willem Dafoe, and Bill Skarsgård as the chilling vampire, Count Orlok. Hoult has previously spoken about the “terrifying” transformation Skarsgård underwent to play the character.
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“He’s terrifying, it’s not Bill,” Hoult said. “That’s what’s so worrying about it. He gives a truly transformative performance where there is not anything of Bill left and it’s scary and intimidating. His voice, his physicality, I mean the makeup he has, it’s really a wonderful character, and he did beautiful character work with it.”
Skarsgård himself has also spoken about playing Count Orlok, describing how the Nosferatu role took a major toll on him.
“It took its toll It was like conjuring pure evil,” Skarsgård said. “It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me.”
He continued, “He’s gross. But it is very sexualized. It’s playing with a sexual fetish about the power of the monster and what that appeal has to you. Hopefully you’ll get a little bit attracted by it and disgusted by your attraction at the same time. I do not think people are gonna recognize me in it.”
Skarsgård is just the latest actor to take on Count Orlok. As was noted above, Eggers’ film is a fresh take on the 1922 classic Nosferatu, an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Interestingly, while the original Nosferatu changed many details of the story, Stoker’s heirs actually sued over the adaptation with a court ruling that all copies of the film had to be destroyed. However, one print of the film survived and the film lived on to become one of the most influential films in not only the horror genre, but for vampire films — and lore — more broadly.
In terms of Eggers’ take, this version will also revamp things just a bit. Eggers has previously said that the film focuses more on Depp’s Ellen than previous takes.
“It’s a scary film. It’s a horror movie. It’s a Gothic horror movie,” Eggers said. “And I do think that there hasn’t been an old-school Gothic movie that’s actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of audiences will find this one to be the case.”
He added, “It’s even more Ellen’s story than previous versions … And Lily-Rose is absolutely phenomenal.”
Nosferatu opens in theaters December 25th.
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