You’ve seen the trailers. You’ve seen the shadows. But honestly, nothing really prepares you for what Bill Skarsgard actually does in the 2024 remake of Nosferatu.
When Robert Eggers announced he was taking on the 1922 classic, people were skeptical. How do you top Max Schreck? How do you even compete with Klaus Kinski’s weirdly pathetic, rodent-like version from 1979?
The answer, apparently, is to lock Bill Skarsgard in a makeup chair for six hours a day and have him work with an opera singer to find a voice that sounds like a gravel pit collapsing.
Nosferatu 2024: Bill Skarsgard and the Death of the Sexy Vampire
For the last twenty years, we’ve been fed a steady diet of "hot" vampires. They sparkle, they brood, and they definitely don't look like they’ve spent three centuries rotting in a damp basement in Transylvania. Skarsgard’s Count Orlok is the hard reset the genre desperately needed.
He’s not a romantic lead. He’s a corpse.
Robert Eggers was very specific about this: Orlok is a "folk vampire." He’s a dead person. In the film, his skin looks waxy and translucent, almost like old parchment paper. It’s a far cry from the chiseled jawlines we usually see in Gothic horror. Skarsgard, who is naturally a pretty striking guy, is completely buried under layers of prosthetic latex and glue.
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Actually, it was so intense that Skarsgard admitted he felt like his body was absorbing toxins from the sheer amount of makeup. He wasn't just wearing a mask; he was encased in a second, decaying skin that didn't let his real pores breathe.
The Voice That Rattles Your Ribcage
Most actors would just rely on the makeup to do the heavy lifting. Not this guy.
Skarsgard went to some pretty extreme lengths to make sure Orlok didn't just look dead, but sounded dead. He teamed up with an Icelandic opera singer, Ásgerður Júníusdóttir, to lower his voice by a full octave.
If you watch the movie in a theater with a decent sound system, you’ll feel it. It’s not just a deep voice—it’s a physical vibration. He used Mongolian throat singing techniques to create this guttural, rattling resonance that sounds like it’s coming from his chest rather than his throat.
It’s a deliberate, painful way of speaking. Every word seems to cost him effort, which makes sense for a creature that shouldn't be breathing in the first place.
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Behind the Scenes: Puppeteering the Shadows
One of the coolest, and honestly kind of weirdest, things about his performance is how he handled the shadows. We all know the iconic shot of the long-fingered shadow climbing the stairs from the original film.
In Nosferatu 2024, those shadows weren't just CGI or a stand-in.
Whenever you see Orlok’s shadow stretching across a wall or creeping toward Lily-Rose Depp, that’s usually Skarsgard himself behind the camera. He spent hours "shadow-acting," using his lanky frame and those massive, prosthetic fingers to create the silhouette in real-time.
He basically had to play two roles: the monster on screen and the monster on the wall.
Eggers also brought in a movement coach who specializes in Butoh, a Japanese form of dance that focuses on slow, hyper-controlled, and often grotesque movements. This is why Orlok doesn't just walk; he drifts. He moves with this predatory stillness that makes you feel like he could be anywhere at any moment.
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Is He Scarier Than Pennywise?
It’s the question everyone’s asking. After playing the dancing clown in IT, Skarsgard became the go-to guy for nightmare fuel. But Pennywise was loud. Pennywise was chaotic and colorful.
Count Orlok is the opposite. He’s quiet. He’s ancient.
There’s a scene in the film where he’s just... standing there. No jump scare, no loud music, just a tall, dead nobleman staring at Nicholas Hoult’s character with sunken eyes. That’s where the real horror is. It’s the realization that this thing has all the time in the world and absolutely no soul left.
Practical Insights for Horror Fans
If you're heading to the theater to see this, pay attention to the small details that make Skarsgard's performance work.
- Look at the Eyes: Skarsgard can actually cross one eye while keeping the other straight—a trick he used for Pennywise—and he brings a version of that unsettling gaze to Orlok.
- Listen for the Breath: The character has a distinct, wheezing breath that sounds like air escaping a punctured lung.
- The Hands: Notice how he never uses the "claw" position from the 1922 version. Eggers banned that specific pose to make sure this Orlok felt like his own beast.
To truly appreciate the transformation, try watching the 1922 original and the 1979 Herzog version before you go. It highlights just how much Skarsgard is leaning into the "corpse" aspect of the lore rather than the "rat" aspect.
Ultimately, Skarsgard has managed to do the impossible: he made the most famous vampire in history feel like something we’ve never seen before. He’s not a monster you want to understand or a villain you want to root for. He’s just a plague in a tall hat.
The best way to experience this is to find the largest screen possible with the best sound—Skarsgard’s vocal work is half the experience, and you need those low frequencies to really feel the dread.