Robert Eggers on Nosferatu’s most surprising choice of personal style

One of the most secretive items around Robert Eggers‘ Nosferatu– A reimagining of a silent film famous for having its plot lifted from it Dracula– What is it Count Orlok It will look like. Before the film hit theaters, marketing materials showed the vampire played by Bill Skarsgård only in silhouette. This was mentioned in the discussion How terribly terrifying The character will appear on screen, but now that the film is out, audiences are also starting to notice the surprising grooming choice.

Obviously… it’s that mustache!

In a spoiler interview with diverseEggers was asked why Count Orlok has such distinctive facial hair. As is often the case with this writer-director, it started while he was doing extensive pre-production research.

“To try to make a more terrifying vampire than we’ve had in a long time, I went back to folklore,” he told the trade. “It’s something I like anyway, but the first folk vampires were written by people who believed in the existence of vampires. There’s going to be some good stuff out there, and a folklore vampire is a rotting corpse that wanders around without dying.”

He explained that this led to the question, “What does a dead nobleman look like in Transylvania?”

From there, Eggers said, he realized it meant “this complicated Hungarian outfit with very long sleeves, weird high-heeled shoes, and a fur hat.” It also means drinker. No matter what, there’s no way this guy doesn’t have a mustache. Try to find an adult Transylvanian who can grow a mustache who doesn’t have one. It’s part of the culture. If you don’t want the hassle of Googling, consider Vlad the Impaler. Even Bram Stoker had the sense to give Dracula a mustache in the book.

So there you have it: It’s a culturally appropriate choice – as you can see, the other characters in the film, including Willem Dafoe’s Professor von Franz, and also the rocker Stash – are one of the characters that Stoker himself took into consideration while working on the novel The year 1897. That started it all.

Nosferatu In theaters now.

Want more io9 news? Check when to expect the latest marvel, star warsand Star Trek Releases, what’s next for DC Universe in film and televisionAnd everything you want to know about the future Doctor Who.