Focus features has released the long-awaited teaser trailer for Robert Eggers’ reimagining of the vampire classic, Nosferatu. It’s absolutely spine-tingling.
Though the teaser threatens a vampiric threat capable of consuming an entire town, the The VVitch and Lighthouse filmmaker is promising more atmosphere and harrowing character moments than all-out vampire hunting action.
Genre fans will be glad to see that, much like the classic Francis Ford Coppola adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Eggers’ Nosferatu seems to blend elements of new and old filmmaking such as CGI and miniature work to come up with uniquely unsettling imagery.
But, having come out in 1922, it’s completely understandable that most are entering this ride out of love for Eggers’ past work, not because they know a thing about Nosferatu itself. Let’s find out all there is to know about it, shall we?
What is a Nosferatu?
The word Nosferatu has been associated with the specific image of a vampire with an almost goblin-like appearance. “A” Nosferatu is the opposite of the usual image of the suave aristocrat seen in most vampire tales.
In the popular Vampire: The Masquerade board and video games, “the” Nosferatu are a clan of vampires that’s confined to the sewers as the Masquerade believes there’s just no way they could blend in with society at large.
“Nosferatu”, however, is just the old Romanian word for “Vampire”.
The original Nosferatu told the story of a vampire named Count Orlock but he was meant to be Count Dracula. Filmmaker F.W. Murnay just wanted to adapt the story of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and avoid copyright-related repercussions, so the production changed the name, a few story beats, and the character’s overall appearance. Eggers is sticking with the name Nosferatu instead of Dracula, seemingly because he loves the classic.
Is Nosferatu a remake?
Though it shares the name with 1922’s film, the new Nosferatu is being touted as a reinvention of the classic. This is the second retelling of this sort-of bootlegged story, as Werner Herzog also gave it a shot with Nosferatu the Vampyre back in 1979.
Lily-Rose Depp will star alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Nicholas Hoult, who’ll be joined by Eggers regulars Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson. Though we only see glimpses of the titular Nosferatu in the teaser, we know he’s played by Bill Skarsgård, whom you might know as Pennywise the clown from It. Nosferatu will open on December 25.
