Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu sees Count Orlok terrorize with shadows, dreams and other means, but perhaps nothing is as stomach churning as the film’s myriad of rats.
F.W. Murnau’s original 1922 film saw the otherworldly count’s arrival attended by a small cadre of rats (we see them emerging from the ship he travels on).
That group of rodents has become a full-on army in Robert Eggers’ recent adaptation, seen in the trailer, below. Even if the rats are well trained, the sheer added complexity to the production process.
According to the film’s star Nicholas Hoult, working with the movie’s sea of rodents was indeed a difficult endeavor, but the reasons diverge wildly from what one might expect.
The real reason why working with an army of rats was difficult
As told during his December 2024 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Hoult says the sheer amount of rats was impressive. “I think we had 5,000 rats,” he says, “some of them were trained, as well.” As he tells it, the biggest issue with working alongside literally thousands of rats wasn’t because of squeamishness to be in a rat sea, though.
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“They were incontinent rats, so it was kinda stinky… They just pee and poo anywhere. Luckily, I just had to wade through them,” added Hoult.
In an earlier interview with Deadline, director Robert Eggers said that foremost among the cast members challenged by this rat attribute was Emma Corrin, who had live rats on her physical body. “Rats are incontinent,” says Eggers, “so they were defecating and urinating on her, take after take. That’s difficult.”
Interestingly enough, Eggers also explained that training and working with the rats wasn’t the hardest challenge. “The big thing that makes it difficult is that we had to contain them for their safety with plexiglass that you don’t see on camera.”
Critics are praising Nosferatu, and you can now bring his full-sized coffin home.
