The remake of the classic film Nosferatu is cleaning up at award shows as Bill Skarsgård seems poised to take a well-earned spot atop the horror genre.
Count Orlok is at the window in Nosferatu – YouTube, Focus Features
Nosferatu is making waves, and Bill Skarsgård is quickly becoming an iconic horror phenomenon. The film has earned over $135 million worldwide so far on a $50 million budget. Now, both Skarsgård and Nosferatu have earned their first awards!
Nosferatu Brings Home Awards
Bill Skarsgård and Nosferatu have already begun bringing home awards.
At the 2024 Puerto Rico Critics Association Awards, Bill Skarsgård won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Count Orlok.
Bill Skarsgård wins Best Supporting Actor for ‘NOSFERATU’ at the 2024 Puerto Rico Critics Association Awards. pic.twitter.com/P3fm91kgiI
— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) January 12, 2025
At the Music City Film Critics Association, Nosferatu has won three category awards: Best Production Design, Best Cinematography and Best Horror Film. The film has also been nominated for Best Cinematography, Original Score, Production Design, Costume Design and Hair & Makeup at the 2025 BAFTA Awards. All of these wins are most certainly deserved!
Bill Skarsgård first showed his affinity for horror in 2017 in Steven King’s IT, with his unforgettable role as Pennywise the Clown. Since then, he has been cast repeatedly in the horror genre. In 2024, his casting in The Crow remake raised a few red flags. Some critics believed his poor portrayal of Eric Draven, and the film’s overall terrible ratings, would tank his acting career.
But Nosferatu has put those fears to rest. In fact, his role as Count Orlok might even be his best performance yet!
Bill Shares His Experience
Earlier this week, the film’s account on Twitter/X shared a video of Bill Skarsgård discussing his experience portraying the character.
The pinnacle of horror characters.
Bill Skarsgård on the preparation that went into his Orlok transformation, “the scariest performance of [his] career.” pic.twitter.com/fb82GumjeS
— Nosferatu (@NosferatuFilm) January 13, 2025
“It’s the scariest performance of my career,” he said. “I’ve never been more scared in playing a character. I’ve done these sort of performances before, but none quite like this. I felt like I could become this vessel of evil playing Orlok; he’s the pinnacle of horror characters.”
Bill then explained the steps he took to perfect the iconic role.
“The voice was the biggest challenge, [because] Robert really wanted the voice as deep as possible. So I worked with an opera singer to get the vocals right. We [also] worked with a movement coach to explore different ways of how [Count Orlok] would move; there’s so much power in how deliberate his movements are.”
Willem Dafoe in the trailer for Nosferatu – YouTube, Focus Features
The interviewer then asked Bill how his castmates reacted to his transformation.
“I think it’s a better question for them,” he answered, explaining that he thought they were both scared and surprised.
The History of Nosferatu
The original Nosferatu film, a silent movie from 1922, was the very first vampire movie in cinema history.
It was inspired by Bram Stoker’s legendary novel, Dracula. However, because copyright laws were still in effect at the time, the film could not be called Dracula nor follow the storyline and characters exactly.
The original Count Orlok in Nosferatu – YouTube, Porfle Popnecker
Thus, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror and Count Orlok were born. Max Shreck was the first to bring the iconic vampire to life. Since then, the film has been an inspiration for the genre and has remained the pinnacle of horror, as Bill Skarsgård called it, for over one hundred years.
In short, Bill Skarsgård is on his way to become to the newest icon of horror cinema. And Nosferatu might be the film that raises him to that status.
What do you all think? Have you seen the movie yet? What were your impressions? Let us know in the comments below.
Raven Redgrave, AKA Writing Raven, is the co-host of the Gothic Therapy YouTube channel with her husband MasterOfTheTDS. The channel features a look at pop culture, entertainment, and gaming with insightful commentary, sharp critiques, and a dose of dark humor.
He is a weird looking dude, so I guess he’s fit for horror roles, but seeing him everywhere is tiring.
I’m not impressed with him (nor with the new Nosferatu, which was basically porn disguised as Oscar bait). He takes as many misses as hits, and his hits are pretty dubious sometimes.
I was checing out the trailers a while back and It called my attention, guess if its good i will go to cine!