Robert Eggers says ‘Nosferatu’ horror movie inspiration traces to his Lee, NH school

Robert Eggers got his first inspiration for the current hit movie “Nosferatu” as a child attending Mast Way Elementary School in Lee, New Hampshire.

The school is where Eggers, now 41, first saw an image of Max Schrek as Count Orlok from F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film “Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror” on a book cover. This sparked his love of the horror genre.

“I thought it was like the coolest thing ever. With the help of my mom, and this is before the time of Amazon and YouTube, we went to the Fox Run Mall, which had the closest video store to Lee, and we had to order a VHS, which came in the mail about a month later,” Eggers said. “And that VHS was really inspiring.”

Eggers, writer and director of “Nosferatu,” the film starring Bill Skarsgard and Lily-Rose Depp has been 10 years in the making. There were three previous attempts to film and produce it before they pulled it off, he said.

Filming began in 2015 but was called off for a number of reasons, Eggers said. He had just finished post-production of “The Northman,” and needed a break. He said he’s glad “Nosferatu” came out when it did, released on Christmas Day in U.S. theaters last month, as he’s evolved over the years as a filmmaker and person.

“(It’s) become a collective vision” over the years, he said, and “we’ve done a better job of articulating what’s in our imagination and getting in onto the screen.”

Eggers attributes success to Seacoast

Eggers attributes much of his success as a filmmaker to mentors dung his time growing up in New Hampshire’s Seacoast region. Eggers attended Oyster River schools in Durham, naturally stepping into acting as his mom, Kelly, a dancer and actress, started the Oyster River Players theater company.

During his senior year of high school, Eggers co-directed a play version of “Nosferatu” with his friend, Ashley Kelley Tata, who is now a theater and opera director in New York. He had done some acting at the old Edwin Booth Theater in Dover and had invited founder Edward Langlois to the high school production. After Langlois had seen the play, he invited them to create a more professional version of “Nosferatu” at the Edwin Booth Theater.

“(It) was very thrilling, and it cemented the fact that I wanted to be a director, and also made ‘Nosferatu’ permanently, like a big part of who I am. New Hampshire roots are large for me, for sure,” said Eggers.

Eggers also credits inspiration he received from the late Hyman Bloom, a painter from Nashua. He said as of this week he had put one of Bloom’s drawings in his “look book” for a future film project. He did not specify what the film is, but Eggers said he would like to expand beyond the horror genre. He noted “The Northman” was not a horror movie, but to tell complex, personal stories, he has often used the horror genre.

“Nosferatu” in 2024 compared to 1922

Eggers’ version of “Nosferatu” is similar to the overall plot of the original 1922 Nosferatu, but with some minor tweaks, he said. Set in the 1830s, the plot follows newlywed couple Ellen and Thomas Hutter, Thomas, played by Nicholas Hoult, and Ellen played by Depp, as Thomas journeys to the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania by request of his employer to sell a new client real estate. The new client is ominous Count Orlok, played by Skarsgård, who traps Thomas in his castle and proceeds to suck his blood.

A tweak from the original while preserving the history of the film but making it more visually appealing with modern cinematography is the journey of the ship bringing the plague to Wisburg, Germany, where the film is set. The original screenplay by Henrik Galeen, depicts a “dead schooner” slowly and creepily coming into Wisburg, said Eggers. “But when I read Henrik Galeen’s screenplay, he envisioned a very chaotic storm that would bring the ship into town in a more, climactic, operatic way. Because of modern technologies and budgets, we were able to do that. It was cool to actualize the screenwriter’s original intent.”

An obvious change is Eggers’ “Nosferatu” has dialogue, while F.W. Murnau’s original version was a silent film. Count Orlok is disguised to be a Transylvanian nobleman, and instead of speaking Hungarian, he speaks Dacian, “a very ancient language of the region,” said Eggers. The Dacians were ancestors of the ethnic Romanians, said Eggers, and since Orlok is casting spells and “studying ancient magic,” it was only fitting that he spoke an ancient language, Eggers said.

Referring to how the movie ends, Eggers said, “I think that’s for each and every audience member to decide for themselves. But was it a sacrifice? You know, yes, but is there also some fulfillment there? As dark and twisted as it may be, like yes. Is it also revenge? I think there’s intended to be a lot going on. So, whatever speaks to you works for me.”

Eggers previously wrote and directed “The Lighthouse” with his brother Max, which was nominated for an Oscar in for the Best Achievement in Cinematography in the 92nd Academy Awards 2020. Released in 2015, Eggers also directed and wrote the horror film “The Witch: A New-England Folktale.” Oscar nominations this year will be announced Jan. 23.

Previous reporting by Jane Murphy was used in this report.