Robert Eggers on Nosferatu’s Most Startling Personal Style Choice

One of the most secretive elements about Robert Eggers‘ Nosferatu—a reimagining of a silent film that famously lifted its plot from Dracula—is what Count Orlok would look like. Before the film hit theaters, marketing material showed the vampire played by Bill Skarsgård only in silhouette or shadow. This was couched in discussion of how freakishly terrifying the character would appear on-screen, but now that the movie’s out, audiences are also taking note of a surprising grooming choice.

Obviously… it’s that mustache!

In a spoiler-y interview with Variety, Eggers 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 research ahead of production.

“To try to make a more scary vampire than we’ve had in quite some time, I went back to the folklore,” he told the trade. “It’s something that I like anyway, but the early folk vampire was written about by people who believed that vampires existed. There was going to be some good stuff there, and the vampire of folklore is a putrid, walking undead corpse.”

That led to, he explained, wondering “What does a dead Transylvanian nobleman look like?”

From there, Eggers said, he figured that meant “this complex Hungarian costume with very long sleeves, strange high-heeled shoes and a furry hat. It also means a mustache. No matter what, there’s no way this guy can’t have a mustache. Try to find a Transylvanian person who’s of age who can grow a mustache that doesn’t have a mustache. It’s part of the culture. If you don’t want to bother Googling, think of 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, other characters in the film, including Willem Dafoe’s Prof. Von Franz, also rock ‘staches—and it’s one Stoker himself took into consideration while working on the 1897 novel that started it all.

Nosferatu is in theaters now.

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