Robert Eggers' eagerly awaited remake of the 1922 silent film Nosferatu won't appear in theaters until December 25th, but select guild members and press enjoyed a special screening of The Lighthouse director's newest horror hit on Thursday night. Afterward, a Q&A with fantasy-horror filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro revealed some of the key behind-the-scenes elements that helped to transform Eggers's darkly gothic Nosferatu into what may be one of the best horror movies of 2024.

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With a terrifying repertoire of A24 staples that includes The Lighthouse and The Witch, Eggers has already proven himself to be a master of the supernatural, but competing against the legacy of the classic Nosferatu -- which has long been declared one of the templates of the monster movie genre -- requires no small amount of innovation. To distinguish his version of the iconic vampire tale, Eggers relied on a star-studded cast, several thousand trained rats, six hours of intense makeup, and the little-known Japanese dance style butoh.

Eggers's Nosferatu casts Bill Skarsgard as the pivotal Transylvanian, Count Orlok, with Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult playing Thomas and Ellen Hutter respectively, and Willem Dafoe (an essential in any good horror film) as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz. Though each member of the cast had their own obstacles to overcome, Skarsgard's was particularly daunting: his role as the film's villain required up to six hours of makeup, transforming the Swedish actor into a terrifying creature of the night. Meanwhile, Depp took on a more physical challenge, learning how to contort her body in chilling, inhuman ways with the help of a professional instructor. "[We had] Marie Gabriel Rotie, a Butoh choreographer who I worked with also with on The Northman," Eggers recounted during the post-screening Q&A. "Lily did tons and tons and tons of body work with her."

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A lot of people have wondered if some of that stuff is CGI enhanced, but she did all of that stuff physically.

Last, but certainly not least, were the rats. After crafting over 60 sets for the film, Eggers populated many of them with real rodents, saying, "There's 5,000 real rats. So basically, if there's rats in the foreground, they're real, and then they thin out and become CG rats in the background." Although the rats were meticulously well-trained, working with them did offer one unfortunate side effect: a pervasive odor due to rats' natural incontinence, which likely added a bit of realism to Nosferatu's drafty, abandoned setting.

Early Screening Reactions Reveal a Nosferatu Worthy of Its Namesake ✕ Remove Ads

Critics have received their first look at Nosferatu, and their reactions are indicating the emergence of a new horror classic. As one of the genre's oldest villains, vampires have a long and resplendent history in film, from terrifying appearances in Salem's Lot and 30 Days of Night to their pop culture immortalization as dark and brooding lover boys via Twilight and The Lost Boys. But according to the initial reviews of Nosferatu, Eggers has managed to combine the two molds, creating a type of vampire that is as frightening as it is alluring. And according to the director himself, this was exactly his goal: to depict a creature that audiences would invoke simultaneous feelings of disgust and attraction.

Reviews of Nosferatu praised Skarsgard's performance in particular, identifying it as "pure sinister nightmare fuel," although several other cast members enjoyed their own share of the spotlight. "Lily Rose-Depp is fantastic as the woman at the center of it all," one review says, while another simply states: "One of the most seductively macabre films ever made."

✕ Remove Ads Nosferatu (2024) HorrorFantasyMystery

Nosferatu is a remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name from director F. W. Murnau. Robert Eggers is crafting his own version of the story for the reboot as writer and director, with Bill Skarsgård stepping into the shoes of Count Orlok. Nosferatu tells the tale of a young woman who falls victim to a vampire utterly infatuated with her.

Release Date December 25, 2024 Director Robert Eggers Cast Bill Skarsgard , Lily-Rose Depp , Nicholas Hoult , Willem Dafoe , Aaron Taylor-Johnson , Emma Corrin , Simon McBurney , Ralph Ineson , Paul Maynard , Stacy Thunes Runtime 132 Minutes Main Genre Horror Writers Robert Eggers Studio(s) Regency Enterprises , 1492 Pictures Distributor(s) Focus Features , Universal Pictures Character(s) Count Orlok , Ellen Hutter , Thomas Hutter , Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz , Friedrich Harding , Anna Harding , Knock , Dr. Wilhelm Sievers , Dockhand , Head Nurse Expand