Nosferatu Remake Reveals First Perfectly Creepy Look

In this new version of Nosferatu, those spindly digits and their menacing manicure belong to none other than Bill Skarsgård, best known for his portrayal of Pennywise the Clown in 2017’s It and 2019’s It Chapter Two. Written and directed by Robert Eggers, best known for The Lighthouse, The Witch, and The Northman, the new film represents the second direct adaptation of the original silent film classic, which was released in 1922. The previous adaptation, Nosferatu the Vampyre, was directed by Werner Herzog and released in 1979.

Following Herzog’s remake and F. W. Murnau’s original Nosferatu, Eggers’ film will be the first version of the story not directed by a German filmmaker. A New Yorker born in 1983, Eggers was not yet on the planet the last time this film was adapted, though his penchant for historical accuracy in his work is sure to lend a great deal of credibility to the film’s setting and characters. For its part, the original film was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, which led to the majority of the copies of the film being destroyed after a lawsuit from Stoker’s heirs.

Nosferatu’s director calls the film “scary” and  a “Gothic horror movie,” saying that there hasn’t been such a film that is Gothic and “actually scary” for quite some time. He says he believes most audiences will find the film genuinely frightening. Of particular note for Edgar’s is Bill Skarsgård’s performance as Count Orlok, noting that the actor completely disappears into the role. 

Joining Skarsgård in the Nosferatu cast are Willem Dafoe, who starred alongside Robert Pattinson in Eggers’ The Lighthouse, Nicholas Hoult, Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Simon McBurney, and Ralph Ineson, whom Eggers directed in The Witch. The casting of Willem Dafoe is a particular interest since the actor has a connection to Nosferatu already, having starred alongside John Malkovich in the 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire, a fictionalized retelling of the making of the original silent classic. 

Malkovich starred as Nosferatu director F. W. Murnau, while Dafoe played Max Schreck, the actor who had the role of count Orlok. The conceit of the film is that Shrek was so convincing in his role because he was actually a real vampire. Dafoe received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal, and the film was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Makeup, which it lost to How the Grinch Stole Christmas. 

Still, both the makeup effects and Dafoe’s portrayal set the bar high for the new Nosferatu film, which is expected to be released in 2024.