Inspired by the classic 1922 silent film notoriously based on Dracula, NOSFERATU Director Robert Eggers and his team delve deeper into folk horror, where superstitions and fear grip the local people. Set Decorator Beatrice Brentnerova SDSA and frequent Eggers collaborator Production Designer Craig Lathrop dive into folklore and history to create the 1838 Germany of creaking building facades, Biedermeier furnishings, and lifestyles, from well-appointed homes to Transylvanian Roma/gypsy tent enclaves and moldering castles, with even the smallest detail bringing symbolism.    

Don Diers SDSA discusses with the decor/design pair the massive amount of research, fabrication, refurbishment and rats to make this frightful and atmospheric tale of Count Orlok. Click on the video above for the fascinating conversation, complete with clips and images from the film!

Here are but a few of the highlights, with captions and insights provided by SDSA Executive Director Gene Cane.

Grunwald Manor Chapel – The resting place of Count Orlok’s sarcophagus. The property is dilapidated before the Count moves in. Built on a soundstage in Czechia, all of the crumbling, peeling, decrepit surroundings were created, including the destroyed pews and furnishings. Covering the floor is the ingenious rat mat, molded plastic rodent bodies affixed to sheet to resemble hundreds of gnawing beasts. Photo courtesy Focus Features @2024.

Streets: A view of various streets, all built from the ground up, showing aged materials, swayed beams and leaning facades. Photo courtesy Focus Features @2024.

Harding Anteroom: In the Biedermeier style, Friedrich and Anna Harding are upward middle class, part of the Biedermeier movement which was almost more a lifestyle than a design movement. The large sunburst medallion carpet would herald a successful occupant of the home. Delicate, light wood Biedermeier, likely Austrian welcomes visitors. Everything in its place. Odd creatures inhabit the relief above the doors. Photo courtesy Focus Features @2024.

Drawing Room: More formal, for the Hardings to receive visitors. Anna Harding, as the Mistress of the House, would be charged with the décor to properly show the family status. Mixed patterns, textures and colors all in harmony. Carved anthemion-capped arm settee in the Biedermeier style. Floor cushions are to warm stockinged feet while at home, standard practice in drafty homes. Festooned and jaboted drapery swirl among the linear wallpaper, fabrics and carpet. The painted side table holds a novelty of the time, animatronic birds in the cage. Photo courtesy Focus Features @2024.

Harding Guest Room: While Thomas Hutter Is away, wife Ellen stays with the Hardings. Diamond pattern, or lozenge, has long symbolized female fertility. A floor warming cushion and chamber pot are intriguing items, as is the prickly plant in the corner. An interesting urn shaped table holds a lamp among the Biedermeier furnishings. Furniture was sourced through European prop houses, antique shops, weekly markets and manufacturing.

Harding Guest Room, opposite view: The diamond motif continues in the parquetry of the floor, the open top panels of the screen and the grid of the ceramic stove or kachelofen, which also has open cruciform pattern within the diamond and shows foreboding beastly claw feet. Photo courtesy Focus Features @2024.

Harding Nursery: Back-to-back headboards under a swag canopy dominate the Harding daughters' nursery . A motif of sprigs in the fabrics and wall covering may be symbolic of the children being an extension of the parents, like sprigs to a branch. Children’s books and toys are scattered about, including a rather ghoulish Jack in the Box, the origins of the toy having the “Jack” holding a boot with a demon inside. Note the cranberry lamp, and other specific color lamps in other sets. Photo courtesy Focus Features @2024.

Knock Office: An astounding show of layer and texture in a built set. Furnishings from European prop houses, note the BTS photo with furniture on risers for camera height. Black lamp signals things to come. Stacks of ledgers and overflowing documents fill the room and hide the sinister purpose. Photo courtesy Focus Features @2024.

Knock’s Office, another View: Set Decorator Beata Brentnerova SDSA and her team actually wrote in ledgers with ink and dialect of the time. Stacked ledgers and rolled or bundled documents fill every shelf and surface in the small office. Most items where aged by the talented crew, though some ledgers are new, showing the company is active with a long history. Photo courtesy Focus Features @2024.

Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz’s room: A setting to sink your teeth into! Von Franz, a professor of the occult, keeps a laboratory stuffed with books, animal parts, chemicals and a nice sitting space, note the floor cushion with the tatty armchair. Every tabletop and wall space is taken with research, whether test tubes, reference books, or articles ripped from other sources. There is even added storage space with rope-suspended shelves holding items. The room is a wonder! Sidenote: Von Franz is obviously based on the book DRACULA’s Van Helsing character. Photo courtesy Focus Features @2024.