the_scent_of_lilacs | Friday Challenge - Costume / Character

Robert Eggers saw the 1922 Nosferatu at the age of nine and developed a lifelong vision for his own Nosferatu. His is a finely ground folk horror lens and he views the world through it.

Much can be found online about Linda Muir’s outstanding work on the film. Eggers should have purchased a lottery ticket the day he crossed paths with Muir for The VVitch. How lucky for us that the two of them work together so well and that we get to be taken out of our day-to-day lives and be deeply immersed in Eggers's folk / fable horror BECAUSE Muir makes Eggers’s illusion work through the costuming.

I’m focusing on Count Orlock. He has one costume. The elaborate brocade mente and the fur overcoat with fur hat. The Magyar Hun, the folk costuming of Hungary, the leather / fur elegance of aristocracy and peasantry alike.

An artificially lightened screen shot to show the amazing costuming and posture of Orlock

Eggers's film is DARK. Maybe even too dark? But it works as a whole, and lends to the claustrophobic, clawing fear that something is lurking in the shadows, because actually something is

Count Orlock is only seen in the dress mente, the fur with the extended arms because the cloak is not meant to be worn as a jacket. It's ceremonial dress. He wears it throughout the film.

We know that Orlock's BLOOD is important to him. He identifies through his aristocratic bloodline and demands that Hutter refer to him as is required because of his lineage.

What is amazing is that Eggers, Muir, and Skarsgard are able to project so much of the character through ONE COSTUME!

His most frightening appearance, however, is sans clothing at all! Of course, there are still EFFECTS here because of the prosthetic penis and the Death makeup.

And he will undress again, at the end, with Ellen.

But first he comes to her regally. As her prince, in her bedchamber.

The look of Count Orlock is perfected by the look of Bill Skarsgard. The height and breadth of the actor, the moustache, and the lock of hair. The regality of the costuming adds to the oversized appearance of the character and allows the actor to work with the pride Orlock possesses about who and what he is. Vampire? Yes. But prince first.