Robert Eggers\u2019 \u201cNosferatu,\u201d an update of the silent vampire classic, is a Christmas movie. Even the prestige-cult director thinks so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the film is about a monster\u2019s thirst for blood and psychic domination, the backdrop is yuletide season, just like other festive movie offerings during this time of year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFocus Features [the film’s distributor] pitched the Christmas release date to me,\u201d Eggers told NBC News in an interview earlier this month. \u201cAnd because of what was in the film and because of my particular interests, I was really happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(NBCUniversal is the parent company of Focus Features and NBC News.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For years, the Christmas horror genre has helped movie fans get their scare on. Think: 1984\u2019s \u201cSilent Night, Deadly Night\u201d<\/a> and 1980\u2019s \u201cChristmas Evil.\u201d<\/a> Even \u201cGremlins,\u201d a major studio release produced by Steven Spielberg in 1984, is bursting with matinee-show mayhem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These films have become part of holiday movie culture \u2014 and now, \u201cNosferatu\u201d could join them as another not-so-festive flick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA Christmas Day release like \u2018Nosferatu\u2019 is like a much welcome creepy gift for film fans and horror buffs alike looking to counterprogram \u2014 as the song goes \u2014 \u2018the most wonderful time of the year\u2019 with a very unconventional holiday moviegoing experience,\u201d Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore\u2019s senior media analyst, said.The appetite from audiences is there. \u201cTerrifier 3,\u201d which is out on Blu-ray and 4K disc in time to be a stocking stuffer, became the highest-grossing unrated film<\/a> earlier this year. Its central character, the demonic Art the Clown, dresses as Father Christmas while slashing through the snow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Christmas horror spirit also lives in streaming service Shudder\u2019s \u201cThe Last Drive-In,\u201d hosted by trash cinema maven Joe Bob Briggs. For six years now, the series has released a Christmas special accompanied by a charity auction that gives fans a chance to bid on items ranging from props to Cracker Barrel meals with Joe Bob. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe raised, I think, almost half a million for various charities, and that helps set that episode apart from our normal \u2018Last Drive-In\u2019 episodes,\u201d Matt Manjourides, a co-creator and producer of the show, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year\u2019s special showcases the bloody double feature \u201cRare Exports: A Christmas Tale\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Knife.\u201d The auction runs through Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cLast Drive-In\u201d approach to the holiday isn\u2019t exactly highbrow, but it\u2019s all about fun and community, in Manjourides\u2019 view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And when it comes to Christmas horror, there\u2019s not much daylight between the grits and grease of the Joe Bob Briggs world and Eggers\u2019 ecstatic gothic glories. Both Manjourides and the \u201cNosferatu\u201d director cited 1974 proto-slasher \u201cBlack Christmas\u201d as a prime example of the category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBlack Christmas\u2019\u201d own pedigree shows just how flexible Christmas can be at the movies, no matter the genre. That film\u2019s director, the late Bob Clark, would eventually apply his holly-jolly-terror talents to a harrowing Santa Claus scene in another cult favorite \u2014 1983\u2019s \u201cA Christmas Story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eggers\u2019 bloodsucker saga is the third \u201cNosferatu,\u201d following F.W. Murnau\u2019s unauthorized \u201cDracula\u201d adaptation in 1922 and Werner Herzog\u2019s remake in 1979. The 41-year-old American director had for years wanted to bring his own sensibilities to the story of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsg\u00e5rd) and his parasitic link to Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bram Stoker\u2019s original 1897 novel begins around Walpurgisnacht, a European springtime festival often associated with spirits and witchcraft. But Eggers\u2019 aesthetic is autumnal and wintry, and Christmas was part of his \u201cNosferatu\u201d plans early on. \u201cThere is something cozy about a ghost story around the fire when it\u2019s cold out,\u201d he said, evoking Charles Dickens\u2019 classic ghost story \u201cA Christmas Carol.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The wintry setting made sense for the plot of \u201cNosferatu,\u201d too. \u201cThe vampire is coming at Christmastime and it sort of heightens the emotional stakes,\u201d Eggers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the vampire\u2019s plague spreads, actual holiday imagery gets only minor screen time. Still, given Eggers\u2019 passion for detail, even that required specialized craftwork for the 1830s-set film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI did do a bunch of research on what Christmas would look like at the time, and Christmas trees that were on tables, which seemed a little bit different to me, to my modern eyes,\u201d production designer Craig Lathrop told NBC News. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lathrop\u2019s team found a company outside Prague, where much of the movie was shot, that still possessed 200-year-old molds to make little glass ornaments for the tabletop tree. They also learned that people of that era would fill the decorations with wax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo we did it, and it looked fantastic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether the ghoulish gambit of the movie\u2019s Christmas release pays off remains to be seen. Eggers won a fervent following with \u201cThe Witch\u201d in 2015. The period creepfest cleared $25.1 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to Comscore, more than six times its reported budget. His other features, 2019\u2019s \u201cThe Lighthouse\u201d and 2022\u2019s \u201cThe Northman,\u201d bolstered his fan base, although neither set the box office on fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also usually a time for families to catch up on fare like Paramount\u2019s \u201cSonic the Hedgehog 3\u201d and for adults to flock to potential Oscar contenders such as Bob Dylan biopic \u201cA Complete Unknown\u201d and the Nicole Kidman-starring \u201cBabygirl.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNosferatu,\u201d though, could lure moviegoers with a mix of critical buzz and a star-studded cast, including Depp, Skarsg\u00e5rd, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s also precedent for a horror film scaring up big bucks during the holidays: \u201cThe Exorcist,\u201d released on Dec. 26, 1973, grossed nearly $200 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n