- Robert Eggers’ gothic horror is arriving on Christmas Day
- Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult and Willem Dafoe star in the latest version of the 1922 German expressionist classic
- Development on the film began almost 10 years ago
When it comes to classic Christmas films, you would ordinarily think of the first two Home Alones, Scrooged, Jingle All The Way, A Muppets Christmas Carol, Elf, the bits in Goodfellas and The Godfather where it’s Christmas, Die Hard and Rocky IV (the fight take place on Christmas Day. It’s a Christmas film). You would not necessarily think of a 1920’s German gothic vampire horror as an automatic choice for Christmas Day viewing.
But, here we are, with Robert Eggers’ new Nosferatu flick dropping on Christmas Day this year in the US, before heading to the UK and elsewhere in the New Year.
And, to help get everyone in the festive mood, the first full trailer for the latest reworking of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 original, has dropped online, providing plenty of eye-bleeding Yuletide cheer along the way.
The film will star Bill Skarsgård as the iconic Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on Ellen Hutter (played by Lily-Rose Depp), the wife of estate agent Thomas Hutter (played by Nicholas Hoult). Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willen Dafoe, Emma Corrin and Ralph Ineson and Simon McBurney will also feature.
Despite beginning development on the project in 2015, Eggers has only just got round to completing his work on the film and, judging by the glimpses we’ve been given in the above trailer, it appears safe to say this incarnation of Nosferatu is going to be well worth the wait. Given Egger’s previous work on The Witch and The Lighthouse, he certainly has the chops to do justice to one of the most historically beloved (and feared) characters of the horror genre. As wholesome a scene as Bing Crosby and David Bowie ‘pa-rum-pum-pum-pum’ing’ around the piano.
