Robert Eggers Has Hilarious Response to ‘Nosferatu’ Mustache Criticisms

Few things got me as riddled with anticipation as Robert Egger’s Nosferatu did last year. I’ve enjoyed the director’s previous films (though I have yet to see The Northman) and such a unique filmmaker releasing a horror movie at Christmas time was a reason to celebrate. Each trailer displayed the scope, scale, and weirdness Eggers was looking to bring to the classic vampire tale (which was an adaptation of another classic vampire tale). My body was ready when I sat to watch it in the middle of a cold afternoon and man oh man. Good movie. Not for me.

There was so much to love about Eggers’ visually stunning film. The sets felt lived-in and real. Every actor, even the ones I was familiar with, felt like they were plucked right from early 1800s Germany. Not a single performance or accent felt out of place. There is a sense of creeping unease and despair baked into every frame of the film. However, the emphasis on grotesque sexuality was too much for me to enjoy. The last scenes left me saying, “That was very well done and I don’t need to see it again.”

That isn’t a knock against the film, nor the people who enjoyed that aspect of it. It just got under my skin to the point that I wasn’t enjoying myself even in an “Ooo, I’m creeped out” way. Perhaps that was the point! If so, well done, Mr. Eggers. Regardless of how the film left me feeling, I will happily go see Eggers’ next film (and will probably watch The Northman at some point). What I won’t be doing is complaining about the director giving his titular vampire a big ole honking mustache.

Bill Skarsgard’s version of Count Orlock was hidden from the marketing of the movie. Heck, the moments you get a good look at him in the film are few and far between. Still, I had heard about his facial hair before I went to the theater. Perhaps I would have cared more if I was suddenly greeted by an undead monster that resembled a deteriorating Pringles logo had I not been given an unintended heads-up (damn you, Letterboxd). Instead, I viewed it as another artistic flourish of a creative director.

Now, Eggers is defending his mustachioed menace. “I get that,” Eggers told Empire, showing some sympathy for detractors. “It’s a hard pill for some people to swallow.” But the man behind The Witch is not backing down. “But I also don’t care, because there’s just no f***ing way that this guy wouldn’t have a moustache.” Eggers has explained the mustache in the past. He intended for Orlock to resemble a Transylvanian nobleman from the 1500s. Makes a lot of sense!

While Eggers had his own take on Orlock, he’s a fan of the original. That’s why he made his version. “I love the way Max Schreck looks too [in Murnau’s original], and it’s a change,” he noted, while also accepting that some folks may not be on board with the switch. “So, fair play, as people say over here.” It’s another example of Eggers being the artist that he is. He’s a confident filmmaker who continues to play by his rules. I’m beyond thrilled that someone like him gets to make movies on this scale, even if the most recent made me extremely uncomfortable by the end. Like, I was squirming.