Christmas is coming, and there’s no better way for horror fans to celebrate the Ghoultide Season than with the gift of vampire movies—specifically, the Christmas Day premiere of Nosferatu, writer/director Robert Eggers’s remake of the 1922 classic silent movie that starred the iconic Max Schreck as the undead Count Graf Orlock.
This version stars Bill Skarsgard—best known for playing the demonic clown Pennywise in It, and the Marquis in John Wick: Chapter 4—as the count, alongside Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult, and Lily-Rose Depp. Based on the trailers, it looks like it’s going to be a good time; I’ll definitely be on line to see it that weekend.
Speaking of the rat-faced, vampiric Count Orlock, you’ll also find him in “Night’s Children,” a short story I wrote that appears in Tales of the Shadowmen 4: Lords of Terror (and was reprinted in Black Coat’s The Vampire Almanac, Vol. 2). In that tale, the great thief Irma Vep—the lead female character and femme fatale of the 1915–16 French movie serial Les Vampyres (The Vampires)—travels to a Berlin museum to steal a painting, only to run into Orlock, who’s intrigued by her bat-themed attire and considers taking her as his next bride—or victim…
Tales of the Shadowmen 4: Lords of Terror is available in print from Black Coat Press; visit its product page for ordering information. With “Night’s Children,” you’ll have something to read while you’re waiting for Nosferatu to start!
