New vampire horror movie Nosferatu used 5,000 "well-trained" rats which director Robert Eggers now admits was a mistake: "I didn't know that rats are incontinent"
Nov. 12, 2024Neither did we, Robert
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Nosferatu director Robert Eggers recently found out the hard way that, while practical effects are sometimes the best way to go, they also smell really, really bad.
“There’s 5,000 real rats. So basically, if there’s rats in the foreground, they’re real, and they thin out and become CG rats in the background,” Eggers explained during a Q&A that followed an exclusive screening of the film in Los Angeles, hosted by Guillermo del Toro. “And they were well-trained – like when the rats like run off of the ship, they were on buzzers. And the rats that were on Emma Corrin… I didn’t know that rats are incontinent. And so the smell is insane.”
The upcoming pic serves as a remake of the 1922 pre-code silent film (based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker) is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Lily-Rose Depp) in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire (Bill Skarsgård) who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him. The cast also includes Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, and Simon McBurney .
The rats aren’t the only thing that stink:Eggers previously told Total Filmthat Skarsgard’s Count Orlok is the complete opposite of Twilight’s Edward Cullen in that he is a “scary, smelly corpse.” Can’t wait.
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Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent’s Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.
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