A vampire exhumed for the modern audience

CEBU, Philippines —  A brand new “Nosferatu” emerges from acclaimed director Robert Eggers’ mind, and for him, it’s also a story close to his heart. “In many ways, my adaptation of Nosferatu is my most personal film. A story, not engendered by me, but one that I have lived with, within, and dreamed about since childhood. I often felt I had the same un-jaded creative spark of a first-time filmmaker when finally making the film because of the years of thought I have put into it. I feel more fortunate than ever to have had the chance to make it with my trusted team of long-time collaborators,” he says.

Eggers recalls experiences of folk legend still alive in rural Europe, and for “Nosferatu”, his goal was to instill that old, mythic terror that has haunted mankind for generations. “The folk vampire is not a suave dinner-coat-wearing seducer, nor a sparkling, brooding hero. The folk vampire embodies disease, death, and sex in a base, brutal, and unforgiving way. This is the vampire I wanted to exhume for a modern audience,” he explains.

“Nosferatu” is a gothic tale of a young woman, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), haunted by visions of an ancient, terrifying vampire (Bill Skarsgård), who is infatuated with her, and bound her to him in his obsession.This causes untold horror in Ellen’s small German town of Wisburg.

Eggers’ fascination with Nosferatu was instilled early, as he fell in love with F.W. Murnau’s 1922 film, “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” as a child. As he grew older he started to write an adaptation of it in high school, and has been looking for an opportunity for it to come to fruition. “I intended to return to Nosferatu, but it never happened,” he says.

He finally finished his draft after finding success as a director, creating critically acclaimed films such as “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse.” He draws upon the original “Nosferatu” film, and that film’s influence, Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula”, but shifts his focus on the beauty-and-the-beast tale of the vampire Nosferatu and Ellen. “As an evolution of the story, the thing that is most significant is that this is Ellen’s film. She is a victim not only of the vampire, but of 19th century society,” says Eggers.

Casting the perfect Ellen was vital to the film, and for Eggers, none embodied his vision as fully as Lily-Rose Depp. “Her audition was so strong. I was crying, the casting director was crying, the videographer was crying.  It was clear she was going to be powerful as this character,” Eggers recalls.

Depp was completely enthralled by the script, and she was very eager to make the role hers. “There’s something about this script and this movie that feels very real, visceral, and human, which is interesting because we’re talking about demons, and ghosts, and this other realm. That’s what I think is the scariest part about the movie: just how real the nightmares are,” says Depp.

“Nosferatu” will haunt Philippine theaters starting February 26.