Opening Christmas Day nationwide, “Nosferatu” hardly rates as warm and cozy holiday fare.
But that’s the point. To revel in the dark arts of Nosferatu (Bill Skarsgård), aka Count Orlok, the lord of the Carpathian mountains from whose Transylvanian digs a coffin will be delivered with its daylight-averse passenger to Germany.
It is 1838 and pain and possession looms for the Count’s new estate agent (Nicholas Hoult) whose wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) is already being bound to his malevolent desires.
For Depp, 25, the key was writer-director Robert Eggers, a specialist in highly detailed Gothic period pieces, beginning with his hit 2015 debut “The Witch,” the 2019 “The Lighthouse” and his epic “The Northman” (2022).
“Nosferatu” began as Germany’s F.W. Murnau’s now-revered 1922 silent classic. Because it was illegally adapted – they hadn’t bought film rights to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” simply changed the names – a fine was paid.
Eggers had planned this “Nosferatu.”
“Robert Eggers is one of my favorite directors, somebody that I had always dreamed of working with. And this story,” Depp allowed in a Zoom interview, “has always fascinated me.”
Eggers works in close collaboration with his cinematographer Jarin Blaschke. Like Hitchcock, his vision of the movie is completed before filming begins.
“It’s a very specific process, the way that he works. He and Jarin, our wonderful cinematographer, have worked together forever. They have a really seamless dynamic. They’re kind of a duo on set.
“They storyboard the whole movie basically before we start shooting. So it’s almost like the movie exists – and then you fold yourself into it,” said Depp.
“There’s a very specific and precise camera movement that’s going on. As an actor, you have to almost learn to dance with the camera in this way that’s very specific.
“I found it quite liberating. Because you’re being led by this very beautiful and precise structure. It allows you to find freedom in that.”
A hallmark of an Eggers film is his attention to plush period detail and lusciously created costumes. Depp, a blonde, is here a raven-haired object of desire.
“That hair is the iconic Ellen look. Anything that takes you out of yourself physically,” Depp said, “whether that’s hair, makeup, costume, is an aid for the performance.
“For me getting to wear that beautiful wig, getting to put it on every morning, really made me feel like I was stepping into the skin of the character. So I loved that.
“And the costume fittings were fascinating. Our costume designer Linda Muir’s a genius. The costumes were not only so beautiful and incredible but were made in a period accurate fashion.
“They serve to that aliveness that we all speak about for the world that Rob created.”
“Nosferatu” opens Dec. 25
