Nosferatu’s resurrection was a long time coming

How come?

An example of this is that the early vampires from Balkan and Slavic lore very often did not drink blood. They strangled their victims or fornicated with them until death. When they drank blood, it was often from the chest. It was this story of obsession and love. It seemed to me, okay, visually it seems like a nice poetic motif.

But then I also thought about where this folklore comes from. These are people who suffer from sleep paralysis and have a nightmare about this vampire visit when they are awake. They have this pressure on their chest. So it’s also based on some kind of reality, even if piercing the sternum with the vampire’s teeth is ridiculous. So it was fun to explore things like that that kind of keep it fresh but also feel like it could be integrated into this world.

Was the majority of this film shot using practical effects?

I mean, there’s a lot of CG effects in the film, but you’re trying to do all the big crazy things that you would normally do practically with CG. This way you can use the CG to fix and augment things, and you’re less aware of sleight of hand because you’re not paying attention to what looks fake because the things that would normally be fake are real.

I ask because I think a lot about AI at WIRED. There’s a lot of talk in filmmaking about, “AI could do this, AI could do that,” but when I look at your films, I don’t think AI could do that. What do you think about these things too?

Guillermo del Toro’s statement that AI’s greatest achievement is creating “semi-convincing screensavers” is fair. I think AI is best suited to inspiring people to do more human things. So that’s all I have to say about it.

I know we’re running out of time, but I have to ask: what monsters will you take on next?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I mean, I would love to see a Robert Eggers Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

Maybe I should leave that joke out because it’s probably going to be all over the place.

I mean, SpongeBob has been getting a lot of press lately.