If you thought Pennywise was peak nightmare fuel, you’re honestly not ready for what Bill Skarsgård did to himself for Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. This isn’t just another tall guy in a cape.
It’s something way more disturbing.
Basically, the marketing for the movie—which finally clawed its way into theaters on December 25, 2024—did this clever thing where they hid Skarsgård’s face for months. They wanted that "big reveal" moment, and man, did it deliver. But once the lights came up, a lot of people started arguing. Is it too much? Is it better than the 1922 original? Most importantly: how did a 34-year-old actor with a "boyish face" (Eggers’ words, not mine) turn into a rotting, mustachioed Transylvanian nobleman that looks like he’s been dead for three centuries?
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The Transformation That Broke the Actor
Playing Count Orlok wasn’t just a "show up and put on teeth" kind of gig. Bill Skarsgård in Nosferatu is a total erasure of the actor. He spent six hours every single day in the makeup chair. Think about that for a second. That's a full work shift before the cameras even start rolling.
He had nine separate prosthetic pieces on his face alone. When they did the full-body shots, it was 62 pieces.
But the physical part wasn't even the hardest bit. Skarsgård actually worked with an opera singer for months to drop his voice by a full octave. He wanted to hit these deep, guttural tones that sound like Mongolian throat singing. It’s so low that Robert Eggers had to tell people it wasn’t digitally altered. That’s all Bill.
“I never want to play something this evil again,” Skarsgård told Empire. He wasn't kidding. He described the role as "conjuring pure evil" and admitted that inhabitating that headspace did a real number on him. He even stayed away from the rest of the cast on set to maintain that sense of isolation. When he finally wrapped, he said it was a massive relief.
What’s With the Mustache?
Okay, let’s talk about the thing everyone noticed immediately: the mustache.
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If you grew up with the 1922 Max Schreck version or the 1979 Klaus Kinski one, you probably expected a bald, rat-like creature with a smooth, sickly upper lip. Eggers went a different way. He looked at actual folklore and 19th-century history.
In the original Bram Stoker novel, Dracula actually has a thick mustache. Eggers also pointed to Vlad the Impaler as a reference. By giving Skarsgård that unkempt, bushy facial hair, he made him look less like a movie monster and more like a "dead Transylvanian nobleman." It’s a grounded, historical kind of scary.
The Comparison: Schreck vs. Kinski vs. Skarsgård
People love to rank these things. It's kinda what we do.
- Max Schreck (1922): The OG. He’s a silhouette. He’s a shadow. He’s pure German Expressionism. He doesn't feel human at all.
- Klaus Kinski (1979): He brought a lot of sadness to it. You almost feel bad for him because he's so lonely and tired of being alive.
- Bill Skarsgård (2024): He’s the "undead sorcerer" or "lich" version. He’s got the rot and the decay, but there’s an occult, demonic power behind it.
Willem Dafoe, who is actually in this movie as the vampire hunter Albin Eberhart Von Franz, said Skarsgård’s look is like nothing we’ve seen before. And Dafoe would know—he literally played a version of Nosferatu in Shadow of the Vampire back in 2000.
Why the Ending is So Divisive
Without spoiling every single beat, the movie sticks pretty close to the 1922 plot but shifts the focus heavily toward Ellen Hutter (played by Lily-Rose Depp).
The ending has been a huge point of contention for fans. Some critics, like those at ScreenAnarchy, felt it was a bit too familiar. They argued that because it follows the original story so closely, there aren't enough surprises.
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But then you have the die-hard horror fans on Reddit who are calling it a masterpiece of atmosphere. The cinematography by Jarin Blaschke is incredibly bleak—lots of gray and cool blue tones. It’s meant to feel like life is being sucked out of the frame.
The climax involves a "husk" version of Orlok that was inspired by a 5,300-year-old mummy found in the Alps. It’s gnarly. It’s gross. It’s exactly what you’d expect from the guy who made The Lighthouse.
The Takeaway for Horror Fans
If you're going into this expecting a jump-scare fest like The Conjuring, you're going to be disappointed. Robert Eggers doesn't do that. This is a slow-burn, Gothic obsession.
Bill Skarsgård in Nosferatu represents a shift back to the "folk vampire." He’s not a sparkly heartthrob or a slick action hero. He’s a parasite. He’s a plague.
Honestly, the best way to experience it is to stop looking at the behind-the-scenes photos and just watch the performance. Pay attention to the way he moves—he worked with a movement coach to make Orlok’s gestures feel deliberate and powerful, yet slightly arthritic.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Watch:
- Listen to the voice: Remember, that’s not a machine. That’s a human being pushing his vocal cords to the limit.
- Watch the hands: The finger extensions were designed to be functional but "slightly arthritic." The detail is insane.
- Look for the "Trance State": When Orlok is in his day look, his eyes are natural. When he's "feeding" or in a trance, Skarsgård wore milky white scleral lenses that essentially blinded him on set.
The film has already crossed $180 million at the global box office, proving there’s still a massive appetite for "pure" horror. Whether you love the mustache or hate the slow pace, you can't deny that Skarsgård has cemented himself as the definitive monster actor of this generation.
If you want to see the full evolution of the character, it’s worth revisiting the 1922 original first. You’ll see exactly which shots Eggers "quoted" and where he decided to tear up the rulebook.