Get your first glimpse of Robert Eggers' Nosferatu: Everything we know

Robert Eggers has made a big name for himself in modern horror, and now he is going even bigger with his upcoming highly anticipated remake of the iconic German film Nosferatu. The original film, which was released in 1922, was a black and white silent film, and has long been considered one of the greatest and most important horror movies of all time.

Max Schrek played the role of the vampire Count Orlok in the original Nosferatu, and his physical appearance is still pretty terrifying, despite the lack of cgi and fantastic special effects in the 1920s. Nosferatu was basically an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. Although some details and names are changed, the stories are very similar, and Stoker’s heirs actually sued over the adaptation. As a result, most copies of the film were destroyed, though many remained.

Producer Richard Kobritz used Max Schrek’s appearance as inspiration for the vampire Barlow in the 1979 mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot.

In 1979, a remake titled Nosferatu the Vampyr was released. It starred Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula, Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker, Roland Topor as Renfield and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker.

Robert Eggers began his film career writing and directing short films, such as Hansel and Gretel, The Tell-Tale Heart and Brothers. His first feature film was 2015’s The Witch, which hit big at Sundance in 2015 before it was widely released by A24 a year later. A critical and financial success, it won multiple awards.

He followed The Witch with an equally dark and broody horror film, The Lighthouse, then The Northman, a brutal historical drama. But he began the initial development of Nosferatu immediately after the release of The Witch, originally intending it to be his second film.

Nosferatu cast details

Over the years, Nosferatu was often talked about, with different actors announced as being involved. At one time, Anya Taylor-Joy (who played Thomasin in The Witch) and singer Harry Styles were attached to the project, but both ended up dropping out due to some scheduling conflicts. Nosferatu finally began filming in early 2023, in and around Prague in the Czech Republic.

In Eggers’ version of Nosferatu, Orlok will be portrayed by Bill Skarsgard, who has appeared in such horror films as It, It Chapter Two and Barbarian. Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) will play Thomas Hutter, Orlock’s estate manager, and Lily-Rose Depp (Tusk) appears as Hutter’s wife Ellen, who is preyed upon by the vampire.

Other cast members include Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe, Simon McBurney and Ralph Ineson. Dafoe previously appeared in Eggers’ 2019 film The Lighthouse and Ineson portrayed the beleaguered William in The Witch.

Nosferatu is scheduled to debut in theaters on December 25 of this year, making it the perfect way to spend Christmas Day.