Nicholas Houltremembers his first encounter with the dreaded vampire Count Orlok.
It started with the voice a haunting, rumbling tone that cuts through shadow.
Skarsgard labeled one such audio file, “Tiger Growl,” which is just him breathing as Orlok.
Nicholas Hoult as Thomas Hutter in ‘Nosferatu’.Courtesy of Focus Features / 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
“It was chilling to me.
Rob was playing it off of his phone, but it still filled the room.”
The actual look of Orlok feels far more precious.
Ralph Ineson stars as Dr. Wilhelm Sievers, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Friedrich Harding, Emma Corrin as Anna Harding, and Willem Dafoe as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz in ‘Nosferatu’.Courtesy of Focus Features / 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
The same approach applies to the film’s marketing.
The actors themselves are careful when talking about the reveal.
He had a look that was rooted in historic accuracy and a folk tradition."
Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter in ‘Nosferatu’.Aidan Monaghan / 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
“The movie functions on that, as well.
In a similar vein,Nosferatulurked in Eggers' mind for most of his life.
“I thought, ‘That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,'” Eggers recounts.
Simon McBurney as Herr Knock in ‘Nosferatu’.Aidan Monaghan / 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
His mom then helped him order a VHS copy from a degraded 16-millimeter print through the mail.
“It just had this very haunting atmosphere,” he says of the movie.
“It almost felt real.
In the version I saw as a kid, that wasn’t there.
It had a kind of beauty and maybe, dare I say, authenticity to it.”
What remained true to his vision through it all was his story’s focus on the character of Ellen.
There’s like a forbidden love there, in a way.”
“It’s very much a tale of obsession.”
She’s desperately trying to cling to life.
In that sense, Orlok is the representation of death, and her husband is the representation of life.
She’s definitely torn between the two."
And now, he slips into Hutter’s shoes.
“I’m probably done, though, now.
Two is probably enough, but never say never.”
Dafoe is in a similar boat.
You might call him a living Easter egg of Eggers’ incarnation.
“I’m not sure exactly what it means, but sounds good!”
Dafoe responds to that notion.
It’s a rich thing to work with.
Of course, there will still be horrors plaguing audiences withNosferatu.
This is Eggers, after all.
Im going to jump, but is that frightening?
Is that what horror is about?
Skarsgard experienced his own jump scare prior to filming.
I was terrified just looking at the image, the actor remembers.
It looked so, so different from me, way more so than Pennywise.
Robert came up to me after, and he was like, ‘There he is.
