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Director Robert Eggers and the absolute legend Willem Dafoe have reunited for the upcoming Nosferatu. Among the Nosferatu popcorn buckets, replica sarcophagus beds, and yes, even an officially branded real-life casket you can be buried in, lies a gorgeously grotesque gothic romance.
Bill Skarsgård disappears entirely into his role as Count Orlok, his look is being kept under wraps like a rotting Christmas present you can unwrap for yourself this holiday season. At this point, Eggers has a bit of a track record for working with folks who could very easily coast on heartthrob blockbuster fare if they chose, but Eggers gives them something much more interesting to work with, (and a chance to get a little weird).
When it comes to the inspiration behind Orlok’s design, Eggers wanted to make vampires scary again. Eggers elaborates: “In the cinematic vampires’ evolution from Max Schreck to Edward Cullen, we needed to make the vampire scary again. So I went back to the folklore when people actually believed in vampires, and these early Baltic folk vampires are closer to zombies in appearance. I had to ask myself, what does a dead Transylvanian nobleman look like? And that is what Bill looks like.”
Nosferatu star Willem Dafoe adds, “Besides having jump scares and some horror elements, it’s also a gothic romance. There is this triangle, and there’s this incredible attraction between Nosferatu and the Ellen character. This is a guy whose flesh is rotting. He’s been dead for a long time, so that is a very specific aspect of his look that’s quite frightening.”
Dafoe’s character is a bit of a misfit in the buttoned-up world of 1800s Germany, and his performance injects a bit of whimsy and levity into the dark, romantic fairytale. “You know, it’s all in the writing,” says Dafoe. “It’s all in the situation. I mean, he’s an outsider, and he’s sort of rejected with the exception of his former student and his complicity in his being able to see the Ellen character and really understand what she’s going through rather than judging her because he understands the importance or the existence of the darkness. He understands the little ironies of life, and I think that’s just expressed in the text. To be there with those thoughts, they’re just naturally expressed. I never thought of it as having levity, but it’s just the situation that really gives it that I think.”
The story that unfolds on the screen is a very specific vision that feels born of the desire to create an incredibly faithful adaptation. When asked whether he had to fight or go to bat for anything in particular, Eggers laughs and asks whether I’m referring to going against the studio or himself, creatively.
“The studio couldn’t have been more supportive, and they gave me immense support and creative freedom. Obviously, when you’re dealing with an adaptation of a piece that’s important to so many people, it’s important to be very respectful to the original, which I also deeply deeply deeply love.”
Eggers continues, “But at the same time, you have to do your own thing with it. The way the vampire is is different. It’s new. It’s never been done in any version of Dracula before cinematically. Nosferatu or not. The other main difference is that there’s never been a version of this story that, from the very beginning, the whole film is seen through the eyes of the female protagonist. The Ellen character, played by Lily-Rose Depp.”
Thirsty for more? Nosferatu will be landing in our upcoming Winter issue of FANGORIA #26 this January. Read our Nosferatu review right here, an watch our full interview with Robert Eggers and Willem Dafoe below.
