Robert Eggers has been dreaming about making a movie adaptation of Nosferatu since he was a child.
This was when Eggers first saw and fell in love with FW Murnau’s seminal 1922 silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. As he grew older, and set his sights on becoming a filmmaker, Eggers constantly fantasised about his own take on the character and story. In high-school, he even oversaw a theatrical production of Nosferatu so impressive that the artistic director for New Hampshire’s Edwin Booth Theatre asked for it to be performed there, too.
After the success of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman, Eggers was finally ready to give Nosferatu the big-screen treatment. In the gothic horror film, naive estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) travels from Germany to Transylvania to meet with Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård). When the ancient vampire attacks Thomas, his wife Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) begins to have visions of Orlok. Soon her increasing sense of dread becomes a reality.
One of the most atmospheric and haunting stories ever created, Eggers knew that Nosferatu wouldn’t work if he picked the wrong shooting locations. So where was Nosferatu shot? Which locations were reminiscent of the original story, but also allowed him to make the movie in his own distinct style and vision? Take a look below to find out.
Where was the new Nosferatu shot?
The doomed town of Wisborg was built at Barrandov Studios, Prague
One of Europe’s largest film studios, Prague’s Barrandov Studios has been used for filming Mission: Impossible, Casino Royale, The Bourne Identity and now Nosferatu. In fact, most of Nosferatu was shot at Barrandov, with production designer Craig Lathrop designing more than 60 sets for the film.
They included five streets for Wisborg, the fictitious German town where Thomas and Ellen live. Before building these streets, Lathrop and Eggers scouted various port cities and Hanseatic towns in Poland and Germany, including Lübeck, for architectural reference points. They also visited villages and outdoor museums in Romania to authentically replicate Transylvania, too.
One of the most important elements of building these sets was making sure they could be moved easily to accommodate Eggers’ ambitious vision. In particular, the walls and ceilings had to be mobile, as the filmmaker wanted to use long takes and continuous shots.
They also built the shadowy interiors of Orlok’s castle at the studio. But to recreate the fearsome grandeur of the castle’s exteriors, the real thing was required.
Orlok’s abode was filmed at Hunedoara Castle, Romania
And Eggers’ team found it nearly a thousand kilometres south-east of Prague at Romania’s Hunedoara Castle, aka Corbin Castle or Hunyadi Castle. In the final weeks of production, the film’s crew travelled to Transylvania to shoot its Gothic-Renaissance exteriors as the foreboding battlements of Count Orlok’s home in the Carpathian Mountains.
According to Eggers, the Czech Republic stood in for many of the film’s Transylvanian settings, as the unfortunate Thomas makes his way to Orlok’s creepy abode. But ‘the most epic landscapes are actually [in] Transylvania – including that castle’, he explains. Eggers picked Hunedoara Castle for the complexity of its architecture and its historical ties to the region’s lore. Visitors to the castle are told that Vlad the Impaler was once held prisoner within its walls.
Orlok’s courtyard was filmed at Pernštejn Castle, Czech Republic
Hunedoara isn’t the only castle to appear in the film. The shots of Orlok and Thomas crossing beneath the castle’s gatehouse and across the courtyard were filmed at Pernštejn Castle in the Czech Republic, a few hours drive from Prague.
The foreboding edifice already has a Nosferatu connection. Werner Herzog used the castle for Nosferatu the Vampyre, his 1979 adaptation of the film. Eggers, who avoided watching the two earlier Nosferatu films as he worked on his version, was unaware that he was following in the German auteur’s footsteps at Pernštejn – albeit filming it from an entirely different angle to Herzog. ‘We were able to use the Herzog castle without using the Herzog castle,’ he says, ‘which was kind of awesome’.
Invalidovna and Rožmitál pod Třemšínem Castle, Czech Republic
To complement Lathrop’s work at Barrandov, Eggers and his crew filmed in some of Prague’s historic buildings. This included Invalidovna, which was built in the 1730s and was used to house war veterans. It previously served as a location in 1984’s Amadeus and 2004’s Hellboy. Eggers and co also travelled to Rožmitál pod Třemšínem Castle, south of the city. Built in the 13th century, it’s very much of Nosferatu vintage.
Nosferatu is in cinemas worldwide Jan 1.
Read Time Out’s verdict on Nosferatu.
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