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This Christmas, the terrifying atmosphere of ancient vampires will envelop North American cinemas.

Unlike previous years, there will be no traditional holiday blockbusters on Christmas Day in 2024. The most eye-catching one is a horror movie that is a remake of a German silent film from 102 years ago.

Nosferatu

If you don't haveBill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin and Willem DafoeWith a star-studded cast and a strangely pronounced title, this film might just be a niche work that movie fans would watch together.

But the directorRobert EggersThrough three films, including "The Witches", "The Lighthouse" and "The Norsemen", he has become a film stylist who is highly sought after by fans and Hollywood stars around the world. He chose to renovate the silent film "Nosferatu" that he was obsessed with in his childhood, just as Peter Jackson remade "King Kong".In a way, it’s a career dream come true.

Robert Eggers on set

Robert Eggers wanted to remake Nosferatu as early as 2016, but how did it become the love of his life?The story begins with a still.

When Eggers was a child, he was fascinated by classic horror movies, such as Universal's "Frankenstein", "Dracula", "The Mummy" and other films produced by the famous British horror film label Hammer Films. However, he did not expect that a still from a movie would completely blank his mind one day.

"I was still in elementary school at the time. When I saw this still, I was crazy." After finally figuring out the origin of the still, Eggers's mother drove him to a distant shopping mall to rent a videotape called "Nosferatu" at his insistence. Although she didn't fully understand why her son was interested in a silent film, she still satisfied Eggers.

That still is of Max Schreck in Nosferatu.

Max Schrecker in Nosferatu

It is no coincidence that this still has an impact on Eggers. Schreck's role as Count Orlok in "Nosferatu" can be said to be one of the most terrifying and successful horror film characters in film history. Even adults would find it difficult not to be frightened after watching it, let alone a primary school student?

In order to create a horror effect, Schreck used special makeup including wearing a headgear, a fake nose and dentures when filming "Nosferatu", and maintained a weird stiffness in his body language. Although it seems a bit rough and even too stage-like nowadays, it is still very scary.

Especially Schreck's eyes are often kept in an exaggeratedly wide-open and protruding state. When he looks down, it can be said to be creepy and unforgettable.

Back to Eggers. Ever since his young heart was shaken by Count Orlok,"Nosferatu" became an unforgettable memory for him and gradually led him to become a movie fan.

Years later, at the age of 17, Eggers saw the opportunity to perform his own Nosferatu: "In high school, I directed a stage play of Nosferatu, which was very expressionistic, even more expressionistic than the movie itself, full of the style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."

It is said that after watching the play, a theater manager in Eggers' hometown praised it so much that he even invited Eggers to perform the play in his own theater, with Eggers still serving as both director and scene designer.

From then on, Eggers determined his future career direction: "I began to know what I wanted to do. For me, Nosferatu means a close and magical connection."

Of course, from the small high school stage to the Hollywood big screen, Eggers' version of "Nosferatu" ultimately evolved over more than 20 years.

When I was 17, I dreamed that it might look like a mix of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Sin City". After completing my first feature film "The Witch",Eggers knew that a 21st-century Nosferatu had to feel authentic.

Obsessed with history and legends, he once restored the appearance of New England in the 17th century in "The Witches" with great enthusiasm. Similarly, he should do the same to portray a small German Baltic Sea coastal town in the 1830s.

If watching Nosferatu as a child was a memory, then the in-depth research for the remake of Nosferatu was like awakening another memory, which was ultimately used to reconstruct the world in the film.

Nosferatu (2024)

However, despite spending a lot of effort and making sufficient preparations, until the completion of "The Lighthouse" in 2019, Eggers was still deeply entangled from time to time: Should he remake "Nosferatu"?

He has previously ridiculed himself: "For someone like me who has only made one movie to want to remake Nosferatu for the second movie sounds obnoxious, disrespectful, arrogant and disgusting."

Nosferatu (2024)

Moreover, no matter how detailed the preparation and preparatory work, Eggers always has to face a problem: how to find his own Count Orlok? When he appears on the screen, even a frozen still, can he also let the soul of another little boy in the future leave his body?

Until he metBill Skarsgard。

Bill Skarsgård loved The Witches, but what he didn't expect was that he would love its director even more.

In an interview with Esquire magazine, he described his meeting with Eggers as follows: "It was like a date. When you fall in love with someone at first sight, you can't help but think about this person all the time. This kind of thing has only happened to me a few times in my life, but it was particularly true with Robert. After meeting him, I thought to myself, no matter what this person wants to do, I will follow him."

During that "date", Eggers had already mentioned the remake of "Nosferatu", and the fanboy sitting opposite him immediately said that he would play any role in the film as long as he was needed.

Then, there was a years-long struggle. The cast of Nosferatu kept changing. First, Nicholas Hoult was confirmed to play Thomas Hurt. Skarsgard thought, "Then I'll go back to play Frederick Harding." But soon, the role was also confirmed, and it was Aaron Taylor-Johnson...

Nicholas Hoult and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Nosferatu

"It's over between Robert and me!" Although he calmly accepted the fact, Skarsgard had to sigh that the end of this "relationship" was quite regrettable, "just like a passionate love affair that ended in vain."

But dear Robert soon proved that this was not the end of the story. He made a suggestion to Skarsgard that surprised everyone: "Do you want to try Count Orlok?" Yes, that ugly, disgusting, and terrifying vampire.

Skarsgard was confused again: Me? To play that old vampire? It is reported that in the early stages of preparation for "Nosferatu", the actor for Count Orlok was targeted at around 45 years old, which is far from Skarsgard, who was born in 1990.

For example, Doug Jones was one of Eggers' first choice of actors. Jones, who is 1.9 meters tall and thin, is well-known among movie fans for his non-human characters in Guillermo del Toro's films, especially the fish-man Abel in "Hellboy" and the amphibian in "The Shape of Water".

Doug Jones in The Shape of Water

But as time went on and Eggers argued with the team, Count Orlock's position quietly changed.

In fact, as early as 2016, Eggers made it clear that he could not follow the old path of the original "Nosferatu". He was not looking for the Max Schreck of the new century, but to find another way, such as tracing the origin of vampires, or imagining: "What should a dead Transylvanian noble look like?"

We don’t know whether Skarsgård’s terrifying look in IT inspired Eggers’ casting, but in the process of contacting Skarsgård, Eggers felt that his appearance might be an advantage: “His beauty is like a blessing. It might be good if the audience can be attracted by the monster he plays.”

Skarsgard in IT

Since Eggers was so sure, Skarsgard also began to immerse himself in the role. He first practiced the lines, which he recorded himself and read through a video link. Later, when he went to the recording studio to record the lines, he straightened his hair and wore false nails to help himself get into the role.

Seeing all this, Eggers gradually understood what was going on, and then began the next crucial step: trying on makeup."There was probably a moment when I told myself he was Orlok, because the makeup test was so horrible, and everything he did in front of the camera proved that he had done it," Eggers recalled.

Eggers on the set of Nosferatu

For this cooperation with Robert, Skarsgard paid the following price:

He tried to lower his voice as much as possible during the filming of "Nosferatu", as low as possible (according to Eggers, it was lowered by an octave); he lost a lot of weight on the eve of filming; depending on the role, it took three to six hours to put on makeup every day; in order to maintain his own psychological state and create the atmosphere on the set, he stayed as far away from other actors as possible, basically staying in isolation mode.

"The whole process was like summoning pure evil, which was quite hurtful. It took me a long time to get over the drama and get rid of the demon in my heart that I summoned."

Coincidentally, it is said that Max Schreck, who advocated method acting at the time, always appeared in the same costume as in the play during the filming of the old version of "Nosferatu", and tried not to communicate with others during the breaks in filming.

Up to now, Skarsgard's look in "Nosferatu" has not been really revealed. It may become one of the most gimmicky movie topics in the next six months, as well as the killer of "Nosferatu" to attract audiences. Skarsgard described it as "disgusting, but very attractive."

Skarsgard only shows his hands but not his face in the trailer

Although Skarsgård was completely transformed in the film, it was Eggers who knew best how much homework he had put into the role:

"I know a lot about mysticism, but during a conversation I realized that he and I were not on the same level. He was completely transformed in every aspect. If you could still recognize him in IT, then in Nosferatu, you would never think it was him. I believe many viewers will think that we used computer special effects on Bill, but in fact we did not."

So, are you ready to be shocked by Robert and Bill?