Those who want to see Bill Skarsgard as Count Orlok in Robert Eggers' newest film, Nosferatu, will have to actually go see the film in theaters since his character design has not fully been revealed elsewhere.
Nosferatu is a modern-day retelling of a 1922 film of the same name. The story is loosely based on Dracula, as it is about a nobleman (who is also a vampire) who becomes obsessed with a woman to the point he will terrorize anyone and anything to get what he wants - her.
The film (which has its own special popcorn bucket) is directed by one of the most influential horror filmmakers in recent history, Robert Eggers, who has also been behind the camera for flicks like The Witch and The Lighthouse.
Why Does Bill Skarsgard's Count Orlok Look the Way He Does in Nosferatu?
Warning - This article contains spoilers for Nosferatu.
Those who have ventured to the movies and watched Nosferatu are the only ones who have been able to truly see Bill Skarsgard as the modern-day iteration of Count Orlok.
Skarsgard's character design was largely kept a secret throughout Nosferatu's marketing. In teasers, trailers, and even posters, Count Orlok was not fully revealed. Instead, only his silhouette or eyes were shown, or, in rare circumstances, an entirely out-of-focus shot of half his face.
However, one aspect of his design that was constantly marketed was his abnormally long, bony fingers and long, sharp fingernails.
The marketing material painted Orlok as being some unworldly-like creature. From what could be seen in that material, he had extremely long fingers, grayish skin, colorless eyes, and just looked like a monster in general.
So, when Skarsgard's character was first fully revealed, one would assume it would be completely satisfying - only it wasn't - since Eggers only revealed Skarsgard's full face for less than one second in a shocking jumpscare at the beginning of the film, not allowing the viewer to take him in.
Like the marketing, most of Count Orlok's early appearances were hidden by darkness, clever camerawork, etc., essentially causing more and more discomfort for the viewer.
However, his full look was fully revealed over time, with each time he showed up on-screen seemingly revealing a bit more than the last time.
When his full body was finally on-screen and in focus, he didn't look entirely how many likely expected him to look.
Unlike other vampires, and especially unlike Count Orlok from the 1922 film, Skarsgard's version of the character was crafted to look historically accurate.
In an interview with Variety, Eggers described his decisions regarding the character design, specifically saying that he went back to the folklore versions of vampires, which were "walking undead corpses:"
"So to try to make a more scary vampire than we’ve had in quite some time, I went back to the folklore. It’s something that I like anyway, but the early folk vampire was written about by people who believed that vampires existed. There was going to be some good stuff there, and the vampire of folklore is a putrid, walking undead corpse. And so the question then became, 'What does a dead Transylvanian nobleman look like?'"
Eggers then described how every style choice he made for Count Orlok lined up with history and the true way that they would have looked in old folklore:
"That means this complex Hungarian costume with very long sleeves, strange high-heeled shoes and a furry hat. It also means a mustache. No matter what, there’s no way this guy can’t have a mustache. Try to find a Transylvanian person who’s of age who can grow a mustache that doesn’t have a mustache. It’s part of the culture."
There's no doubt that Orlok looked terrifying, but his appearance did probably throw a lot of people off. However, in addition to being historically accurate, everything Orlok sported, from his hat to his mustache, conveniently hid his vampire features.
For example, the hat covered his pointed ears, rotting skin, and hair. His mustache didn't allow people to see his long fangs. And his thick coat, while not of much use to a vampire, wouldn't have allowed normal humans to see his rotting, gray, body.
It is also worth noting just how terrified Skarsgard's co-stars were of him when they shared the screen.
In an interview with On Demand Entertainment, Lily-Rose Depp, who led Nosferatu's impressive cast, talked about how Skarsgard was "very, very scary:"
"He was scary in real life, for sure, yeah, yeah, because everything is real, there's like very little CG in this movie, and so the Count Orlok that you see on-screen is the Count Orlok that we were seeing in real life. He's completely scary and imposing, and Bill is quite tall already, and then he had these, like, Orlok heels that made him even taller. He was, yeah, very, very scary, and, of course, you know he's a phenomenal actor, so when we were shooting those scenes, he was completely embodying that role. It was very impressive."
In another sit-down, this one with Yahoo UK, Emma Corrin (who plays Anna in the movie), talked about how Skarsgard transformed himself in the role. She specifically stated, "No sense of Bill as well. He's so unrecognizable."
In that same interview, Depp talked about Skarsgard again, mentioning that "he feels like some real creature that's been unearthed:"
"And what you see on-screen is exactly what we were seeing in person. Like, he really felt real, I think that's what makes the character so scary is that he doesn't feel like some kind of made up monster. He feels like some real creature that's been unearthed."
Another aspect of Skarsgard's performance that fans have been enthralled with is his Count Orlok voice. From the accent to the line delivery to the actual tone of his voice, Skarsgard did not sound like himself and came across as someone of pure darkness.
Nicholas Hoult, who also starred in the film and is set to play Lex Luthor in James Gunn's new Superman movie, talked about Skarsgard's voice in the same interview mentioned above.
He recalled the first time he heard Skarsgard's voice as Count Orlok, and how it was a recording director Robert Eggers played from his phone. In Hoult's words, he described Skarsgard's voice as "unexpected but so powerful," and even said it "got inside [his] soul" and terrified him:
"I remember the first time I kind of got a sense of maybe what Bill was going to be doing was Rob had a recording of the voice he had been working on, on his phone. So, we were in rehearsals, and he played it to Lily and I, and I was like, 'Whoa, this is unexpected but so powerful.' And even though it was just playing off a phone speaker, it completely filled the room and like got inside your soul and was terrifying."
It is clear that Robert Eggers wanted Bill Skarsgard's version of Count Orlok to be different from any other vampire that has ever been seen on-screen before, including the version that was featured in the original 1922 Nosferatu film.
In that film, Count Orlok is completely bald and has bushy eyebrows, wide eyes, and fangs that are easily seen.
So, it was quite surprising when Eggers' version didn't look like a typical vampire, but it does make sense seeing as how Eggers has valued historical accuracy in his previous films.
At the same time, while unexpected, one could argue that Skarsgard's version of Count Orlok is as scary as the character could be.
Nosferatu is now playing in theaters worldwide.
