“Nosferatu” is here, and it is appropriately horrifying.
Focus Features unveiled the first teaser trailer for “The Witch” filmmaker Robert Eggers’ long-gestating take on the iconic vampire movie on Monday, offering a taste of what’s to come when the film hits theaters this Christmas.
Bill Skarsgard stars as the legendary vampire in the film, but the teaser only offers glimpses of the figure, saving the full reveal for down the line. Instead, the teaser focuses on Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, haunted by an unseen force and warning others of the vampire’s arrival.
The vibe is very much in line with the dread that permeated Eggers’ breakthrough film “The Witch,” but with a much larger production like his last film “The Northman.”
The film is described as “a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.”
Skarsgard previously revealed that he immersed himself so deeply into the character it took him a bit to shake it off.
“It took its toll,” he told Esquire. “It was like conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me.”
And while the full transformation is under wraps, the Pennywise actor said they hoped to make Nosferatu attractive as well as unnerving.
“It’s playing with a sexual fetish about the power of the monster and what that appeal has to you,” Skarsgård explained. “Hopefully you’ll get a little bit attracted by it and disgusted by your attraction at the same time.”
Eggers has been developing “Nosferatu” since 2015 and at one point eyed a cast that included Anya Taylor-Joy and Harry Styles, but the project went through ups and downs before landing at Focus with the ensemble set now.
Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Simon McBurney and Ralph Ineson also star in the film.
“Nosferatu” opens only in theaters on Christmas Day.