Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman) is back on the prowl in the horror movie genre with Nosferatu, and we finally have the creepy first image of his modern take on the classic.
The image comes from Empire Magazine as part of its 2024 Preview. The exclusive shot shows the shadow of the elongated hand of Bill Skarsgård's Count Orlok looming over a shocked Ellen Hutter (Lily Rose-Depp), the wife of real estate agent Thomas (Nicholas Hoult), as she looks out the window under the moonlight.
Eggers tells Empire that his rendition of Nosferatu — which was announced in 2015, and will be the third Nosferatu film in existence after the original 1922 silent vampire film by F. W. Murnau and the 1979 remake by Werner Herzog — will be more of a scary “old-school Gothic horror movie” than the other horror and vampire films that have come out in recent years. The story, too, will focus more on Rose-Depp’s Ellen than its predecessors.
“Yeah, it’s a scary film. It’s a horror movie. It’s a Gothic horror movie,” he said. “And I do think that there hasn’t been an old-school Gothic movie that’s actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of audiences will find this one to be the case.“
The role will see Pennywise actor Skarsgård transforming into a horror icon once again, and Eggers teased that he "has so transformed, I’m fearful that he might not get the credit that he deserves because he’s just… he’s not there."
“He felt like honouring who had come before him," Eggers added, referring to previous Court Orlok actors Max Schreck and Klaus Kinski. "It’s all very subtle. But I think the main thing is that he’s even more a folk vampire. In my opinion he looks like a dead Transylvanian nobleman, and in a way that we’ve never actually seen what an actual dead Transylvanian nobleman would look like and be dressed like.”
We currently don't have a release date for Nosferatu, but it'll arrive some time in 2024.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
