Posted in: Focus Features, Movies | Tagged: nosferatu

Nosferatu: Robert Eggers On Keeping Orlok's Design A Secret

Nosferatu director Robert Eggers explains that everyone from Universal to Focus was on the same page regarding keeping Count Orlok's design a secret.

When it comes to monster movies, the real horror lies in the unknown. One of the reasons that creature features were so good and held up so well is that they had to be incredibly well-directed. The creatures were being held together with duct tape, string, and the hopes and dreams of the production team, so they only looked good from specific angles. Computer graphics have made it much easier for movies to show off their monster designs in all of their glory. Sometimes, that is handled well, and sometimes, it completely kneecaps a production.

From the moment they showed off the first footage for Nosferatu, everyone was worried that they would spoil Count Orlok's new design. No one did, though; no one at Universal or Focus showed more than shadows or brief snippets of bodies like the hands of Orlok. Even days after the release of the film, no official channels have released pictures or videos of the design. It turns out this was one of those rare moments when everyone, from the director to the studios, was all in agreement about something, as Robert Eggers detailed to Total Film.

"Focus Features and Universal were both also very much on the same page as myself," Eggers said. "Basically, we have a new look for the vampire and you want people to be excited and you want that to build the tension. It's even like that in the film, Orlok tries to stay in the shadows because he doesn't want his house guest to know that he's been invited to the castle of the living corpse. You would probably want to keep that a secret yourself."

Concealing Orlok's look and Eggers's use of shadows means that we're on the edge of our seats when we see this thing in front of us. The characters on screen might be looking right at him, but we only see him in flashes out of the corner of our eyes. It's incredibly effective for Nosferatu's tone. While the new design is something people have been making a big deal about, Eggers believes this monster genre is big enough for a lot of variation, but this design worked for the story he wanted to tell.

"I don't necessarily need to be changing vampires for the history of vampires, and there's room for Edward Cullen, and there's room for Blade, and there's room for all these different kinds of vampires," he explains. "But it's nice to see, for me, personally, a vampire that is a folkloric vampire and a Dracula that looks like he could have been a Lord of Transylvania."

People taking pictures during screenings and posting them on social media seem to be having a Moment right now, but we can hope that those seeing Nosferatu this week have kept their cell phones to themselves. Not just because it's clear Eggers and everyone involved with this film wants the design to be a surprise for audiences, but because taking pictures of movies is an asshole thing to do, so knock it off.

Nosferatu: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

The summary of Nosferatu is a "gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake."

Nosferatu is directed by Robert Eggers, and it will star Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Simon McBurney, and Ralph Ineson. It was released in theaters on December 25, 2024.

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