Oscar Voters, Don’t be Scared of ‘Nosferatu’: Director Robert Eggers Explains His Gothic Horror Vision at First Screening (EXCLUSIVE)

“Nosferatu” has arrived.

Robert Eggers’ reimagining of the 1922 silent German horror classic “Nosferatu” is being hailed as one of the year’s most terrifying yet visually stunning films. At a special screening Thursday at the Directors Guild of America theater in Los Angeles, Hollywood heavyweights including Chris Pine, Giovanni Ribisi, Casey Affleck and Ruth E. Carter joined an enthusiastic crowd to see Eggers’ haunting vision come to life. Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski and vice chairman Jason Cassidy also sat through the film to garner the audience’s reactions. Following the screening, Eggers and Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro led a Q&A, diving into Eggers’ fascination with history, his intricate blend of occult theories and folklore, and the captivating performances of stars Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård. Watch the video of the conversation above that was shared with Variety exclusively.

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For Eggers, horror and history are intertwined, each holding a mirror up to human nature. His exploration of horror, he revealed, is rooted in an intense curiosity about the past. “Every movie is like a cabinet of curiosity,” he said. “I think if I weren’t making films, I’d probably be an archaeologist or something.” Eggers drew from early 20th-century occultist Alvin Grau to infuse “Nosferatu” with European folklore and Jungian psychology.

Depp and Skarsgård bring their own transformative approaches to the roles.

Depp immersed herself in the eerie movements of her character with help from choreographer Marie Gabrielle Rotie. Eggers shared his admiration for Depp’s dedication: “Lily did tons and tons of bodywork,” he said, explaining how she achieved her hypnotic, supernatural scenes through physicality alone, without CGI enhancement. Depp’s mesmerizing, organic performance has already sparked talk of best actress consideration.

For Skarsgård’s portrayal of Count Orlok, Eggers envisioned a creature that looked unsettlingly real yet grotesquely unnatural. Eggers initially created digital sketches to refine Orlok’s iconic features, but it was makeup designer David White who realized the vision, adding haunting touches such as “rotted away” pointed ears. Eggers also sought inspiration from folklore: “The team took inspiration from descriptions of red-faced vampires,” he noted, explaining how blood was subtly “pooled under [Orlok’s] skin” to evoke the appearance of decay. The transformation took six hours to complete each day, but it proved essential for Skarsgård’s ability to fully inhabit the character. “When Bill put it on, I saw the moment he was inspired by the makeup and knew he could do something incredible with it,” Eggers recalled.

As with all of Eggers’ films, the production design, costumes and cinematography meticulously transport viewers to another time and place. Eggers and his longtime cinematographer Jarin Blaschke worked to achieve a hand-tinted look evocative of silent-era cinema, which they complemented with period-accurate costume and set designs. “This allowed the audience to feel grounded, not like science fiction, because [the film’s world is] based in reality,” Eggers explained. This attention to detail adds authenticity, evident in Eggers’ previous movies such as “The Witch” and “The Northman.” In this case, his team constructed over 60 sets to recreate an evocative, bygone era.

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Beyond Eggers’ dedication to his craft, the film’s Christmas release raises an intriguing question: Could a horror film like “Nosferatu” find a place in the Oscars’ best picture category?

In the history of the Academy Awards, horror films have often been overlooked. Only six — “The Exorcist,” “Jaws,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Black Swan” and “Get Out” — have received best picture noms, and none featured vampires as central figures. The vampire genre has its own storied cinematic history, but no film featuring these undead characters has ever made it to the best picture lineup. Even “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), directed by Francis Ford Coppola, received three Oscar wins for costume design, makeup, and sound effects editing (and an additional nom for production design) but missed the top category despite its commercial and critical success.

If the Academy had recognized 10 Best Picture nominees in 1992, some argue that Coppola’s “Dracula” could have made the cut. Therefore, Eggers’ “Nosferatu” could potentially claim a spot on the 2025 voting ballot. However, it’s still a horror movie, and a gory one at that. Sitting around the living room with the family on Christmas morning could be challenging, but stranger things happened at the Oscars.

“Nosferatu” also stars Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe and Simon Burney. In addition to Eggers, the film is produced by Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Chris Columbus and Eleanor Columbus.