Very few filmmakers take research as seriously as Robert Eggers. In his first three films, 2016’s The Witch, 2019’s The Lighthouse, and 2022’s The Northman, Eggers has demonstrated not only an affinity for stories set in the distant past, but also an unyielding commitment to staying true to the rituals and beliefs unique to each film’s specific historical period. It doesn’t look like Eggers is going to deviate from that rigid, authenticity-first style in his latest film, this year’s Nosferatu, either.
The movie, a remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name, is set in Germany during the early 19th century. It stars Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok, an immortal vampire who becomes dangerously infatuated with Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), the wife of an ambitious real estate broker named Thomas (Nicholas Hoult). While Nosferatu is deeply indebted, like its 1922 predecessor, to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, though, Eggers’ historical research resulted in him deviating from usual vampire-movie tradition in one surprising way.
“You’ll notice that [in this film] Orlok drinks blood from the heart, not the neck. Now obviously you can’t pierce a breastbone, so it doesn’t really make sense. It makes much more sense to drink someone’s blood from their neck,” Eggers revealed in a new interview with SFX Magazine. “But in folklore, when people are experiencing vampiric attacks it’s similar to old hag syndrome [a colloquial term for sleep paralysis] where you have pressure on your chest, so people interpreted it as vampires drinking blood from their chest.”
The early trailers for Nosferatu have kept Skarsgård’s Count Orlok shrouded in darkness and mystery. As a result, moviegoers are likely going to head into Nosferatu completely unaware of what its central vampire looks like. The film is nonetheless shaping up to be one of the last big, potentially mainstream hits of the year. There’s already considerable anticipation surrounding the horror movie, and it may turn out to be yet another successful step forward on the journey up Hollywood’s ladder that Eggers has been on since The Witch.
The full breadth of Eggers’ take on Nosferatu, of course, remains to be seen. When they do set out to see it in late December, though, it looks like moviegoers can at least expect to see a take on Nosferatu‘s iconic immortal villain that is fully informed by Eggers’ enduring interest in forgotten myths and beliefs.
Nosferatu is scheduled to hit theaters on December 25.
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