Overview

• Director Robert Eggers aimed to create a terrifying, folklore-inspired vampire, rejecting modern, romanticized depictions of the creature.
• Bill Skarsgård underwent a dramatic transformation, requiring up to six hours of makeup application, including 62 prosthetic pieces for full-body scenes.
• The design emphasized decay and rot, inspired by historical depictions of corpses and early Baltic vampire folklore, while incorporating noble details like a mustache to reflect 19th-century Transylvanian aristocracy.
• Prosthetic makeup designer David White collaborated with Eggers to achieve a skeletal, emaciated look, balancing realism and horror while maintaining Skarsgård’s performance flexibility.
• Focus Features has withheld full images of Count Orlok, building anticipation for the film’s unique reinterpretation of the iconic vampire.