The trailer for Robert Eggers' Nosferatu leaked online last week after debuting in theaters ahead of The Bikeriders, and Focus Features has now officially released the unsettling first footage from The Northman director's highly-anticipated remake.
The teaser begins with Lily-Rose Depp's Ellen Sutter praying by candlelight. “Come to me, come to me, hear my call,” she intones before a hand reaches out to grab her neck. Ellen then asks Willem Dafoe's character, Van Helsing substitute Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, whether evil "comes from within us, or beyond."
From there, there are moody shots of the Count's castle, rats scurrying across cobblestones, frightened villagers with wooden stakes at the ready, and Thomas Sutter (Nicholas Hoult) and Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor Johnson) looking suitably unsettled.
As for Bill Skarsgård's titular undead nobleman, Count Orlok, we only catch a very quick glimpse of the vampire sinking his fans into an unfortunate victim's neck, and another as he slowly turns around to face the camera.
During a recent interview, Eggers noted that Skarsgård completely lost himself in the role, and was even more "unrecognizable" as the vampire than he was under the prosthetics that allowed him to bring Pennywise to life in the It movies..
"There are things that are Schreck-like but I felt we had to do something else," said The Northman director. "Basically I was like, 'What would a dead Transylvanian nobleman actually look like for real?' Bill lost a tremendous amount of weight."
"He’s so transformed in every aspect that I don’t know if people will give him the credit," the filmmaker went on. "You can see Bill [as Pennywise] in the It make-up; you can’t detect any Bill here. He worked with an opera coach to lower his voice an octave. I think people are going to think we treated it digitally, but that’s his performance."
Check out the trailer below, and let us know what you think in the comments section.
F.W. Murnau directed the original 1922 classic, while Werner Herzog helmed a rather bizarre 1979 remake. The story is loosely based on Dracula, but there are several key differences.
"Nosferatu tells a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him."
Nosferatu was recently given an official release date, and will arrive on Christmas Day, 2024.