Is "Nosferatu" and Director Robert Eggers “Giving Rats a Bad Name”?

One of this winter’s theatrical highlights is Nosferatu, directed by Robert Eggers and starring Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Willem Dafoe. The film is a remake of the silent classic of the same name by German director F.W. Murnau, essentially another adaptation of the Dracula story.

Inevitably, the film depicts an outbreak of the plague after the vampire count comes ashore. In Murnau’s original film, Nosferatu has the power to command animals at will, so under his control, countless rats pour into the streets of the fictional north German harbor town of Wisborg, spreading pestilence throughout the city and triggering mass panic.

Eggers’s remake retains this concept. In the film’s plague segment in London, over five thousand real rats were used to create a surreal sense of horror. During publicity for the film, Eggers mentioned that any rats in the foreground shots are genuine, only some of the rats in the defocused background are CG-generated. In doing that, the film preserves a sense of authentic horror.

He also remarked: “I didn’t know that rats are incontinent, so the smell is insane.”

Naturally, all of this information has reached the ears of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), a well-known global animal rights organization—and their members are very, very angry. Lauren Thomasson, PETA’s Director of Animals in Film and Television, put out a statement:

“A human is no more likely to be harmed or killed by a rat in real life than by a vampire, and false portrayals of these animals as harbingers of death deny viewers the chance to see them as the intelligent, social, and affectionate individuals they are. The only ‘pests’ moviegoers need to be concerned with are directors who subject animals to the chaos and confusion of a film set, and PETA encourages everyone to see through these shameful stereotypes and give rats the respect they deserve.”

Recently, PETA members even appeared at the film’s special screening for Academy voters, protesting the movie’s “disparaging depiction” of rodents.

So, do they have a point?

First, in the story context, the rat plague sequence is justified. While the detail of thousands of rats disembarking the ship alongside Nosferatu is pure fiction, it effectively taps into real historical experiences in Europe, where rats were often blamed for spreading plague and the Black Death, thus heightening audience fear.

Second, creative license in filmmaking should be respected. Horror films often take place in a heavily fictionalized, nearly surreal setting, so comparing that world directly with real life is nitpicking.

Moreover, film and TV have not always treated rats “unfairly.” We all know that if rodents are raised in extremely hygienic conditions, they can be harmless and even lovable pets, hence Stuart Little. But if they live in unsanitary environments, are they likewise harmless? Ratatouille realistically depicts rats’ living conditions, yet still portrays Remy, who leaves his family for his dream, as cute and courageous—and not at all a vector of bacteria or plague. Is that realistic? Not necessarily. Does it help tell a great story? Absolutely.

Hence, if using rats to help Robert Eggers better convey this classic vampire tale is effective, who cares if it’s “accurate”? We should trust that adult viewers can distinguish some basic facts for themselves.

Compared to PETA, Transylvania’s folks are perhaps more endearing. Ever since Bram Stoker turned it into Dracula’s homeland, the region has been synonymous with vampires, and Hollywood has continued to produce vampire stories set there. Even so, we rarely see locals stage large protests claiming negative stereotypes, that their people have been depicted as bloodthirsty savages.

The new Nosferatu production designer, Craig Lathrop, also stressed in interviews that the crew took the welfare of the rats seriously. Not a single one was lost after filming, and because they feared the horses in the same scene might trample the rats, they specially installed some plexiglass barriers: “The horses were on one side of the plexi, the rats on the other, so they simply couldn’t be stepped on or hurt.”

PETA, however, remains unmoved. At the special Nosferatu Academy screening at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles, a handful of PETA members turned up for a protest—one of them in a white rat costume, brandishing a placard: “RATS HAVE RIGHTS! THE PLAGUE ISN’T OUR FAULT!”

Also, according to PETA’s official social media, “Rats form close bonds with their families and friends, enjoy playing and wrestling, and even giggle when tickled—and are less likely than dogs or cats to catch and transmit parasites and viruses.”

So, having taken in all of this, what’s your view? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.