Nosferatu is considered one of the best vampire movies out there following the plot of vampire Count Orlok preying on the wife of a real estate agent. After initial reports came out in 2015 that Nosferatu would get the remake treatment, it was announced in 2022 that the silent film classic remake was back on with The Lighthouse’s Robert Eggers directing and Bill Skarsgård playing the Transylvanian vampire. While Skarsgård’s look as Count Orlok is top-secret for right now, he teases his appearance in the upcoming horror movie will either gross out audiences or, in fact, turn them on.
Bill Skarsgård is no stranger to taking on creepy roles. He channeled killer clown Pennywise in It, andjoined John Wick: Chapter 4 as the villainous High Table member Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont, and will be lead in The Crow remake as the famed resurrected musician. In his upcoming 2024 movie release, Skarsgård will play Count Orlok in the Nosferatu remake where he teased to Esquire that his unrecognizable vampire look can go in the direction of either grossing out audiences or even turning them on:
He’s gross. But it is very sexualized. It’s playing with a sexual fetish about the power of the monster and what that appeal has to you. Hopefully you’ll get a little bit attracted by it and disgusted by your attraction at the same time.
Based on Bill Skarsgård’s description of his Nosferatu character, it looks like we’ll be dealing with a very “gross” vampire that might also carry a strange sex appeal. It sounds very complex in that we might be seeing some predatory behavior as Count Orlok targets Lily-Rose Depp’s character of Ellen Hutter, but it may come off as sexually appealing to the eyes of the audience as well? I guess it’ll take viewing the Nosferatu remake to understand Skarsgård’s descriptions of his character.
The look of F.W. Murnau’s vampire had a round bald head with pointy ears, thick eyebrows, hunched shoulders, sharp teeth, and abnormally long nails. If Robert Eggers follows that same look, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be dealing with an Edward Cullen or a Damon Salvatore who’s easy on the eyes. With an updated look and more charming qualities, maybe we’ll have an understanding of the sex appeal the Barbarian actor is talking about.
Playing the role of Count Orlok must have been a very intense experience for Bill Skarsgård as he told Esquire the “demon” inside of him playing the dark role “took its toll” on him. That must mean we’ll all be in for a wild ride with what Skarsgård’s got in store for us.
Other things we know about the horror classic remake is that it was reported in Total Film (via GamesRadar) that the Castle Rock actor lost a “tremendous” amount of weight and even worked with an opera coach to lower his voice down an octave. If we thought Skarsgård was unrecognizable playing Pennywise, it looks like we’ll be getting a real treat seeing Nosferatu.
Bill Skarsgård’s top-secret Count Orlok look in the Nosferatu remake has the ability to either turn people off or on. With so much mystique going into Skarsgård’s appearance in the Robert Eggers film, this only makes me want to add it to my watchlist more and more. Audiences will have the chance to see Nosferatu in theaters this Christmas Day.