The first trailer for Robert Eggers' reimagining of Nosferatu was released way back in June 2024, but it will only be when audiences are seated for the new horror movie that they'll first catch a glimpse of the titular vampire. In all of the promotional material, Bill Skarsgård has been hiding in the shadows, quite literally – and Eggers is clear this was all by design.
"Focus Features and Universal were both also very much on the same page as myself," The Witch director tells 12DOVE. "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."
Eggers is also hopeful that the look remains a secret for all theater goers, which is an especially hot topic right now with debates raging about taking photos in cinemas on social media. "I mean, I think it's respectful to the film and the filmmakers," he replies when we ask if he hopes that Nosferatu stays offline, "Absolutely."
As the director hints, while Nosferatu's plot follows the original silent film quite closely, Count Orlok's look is very different in this iteration. And Eggers has been open about his hopes to introduce a different kind of vampire than seen in pop culture, taking the monster back to its folkloric roots.
This isn't to say, The Lighthouse director adds, that there isn't space for both. "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 adds. "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."
Alongside Skarsgård as the leading undead vampire, Nosferatu also stars Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin. The horror movie begins with Hoult's young realtor sent to meet a mysterious Count in Transylvania who is harboring a dark secret obsession.
Nosferatu is released in US theaters on Christmas Day and UK cinemas on New Year's Day. You can read our Nosferatu review here. For more scares, check out our guides to upcoming horror movies and the best horror movies of all time.
