Nosferatu trailer offers first petrifying glimpse of vampire Bill Skarsgård

Even though you can't quite see the full form Bill Skarsgård takes as the vampiric Count Orlok, you can still feel his haunting presence.

That's the impact of the first Nosferatu trailer, which sets the stage for a truly nightmarish reimagining of the 1922 Dracula tale from acclaimed horror hit maker Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman).

Those in attendance for CinemaCon in Las Vegas received an early look at the footage, which sees Lily-Rose Depp (HBO's The Idol) in the role of Ellen Hutter, the unfortunate object of Orlok's desire. Set in both Transylvania and Germany, the story unravels as estate agent Thomas Hutter (The Menu's Nicholas Hoult) is tasked with aiding Count Orlok with property, only to realize that his new client is a blood-hungry vampire who has set his sights on his wife.

The creature plagues Ellen by invading her dreams and conjuring unsettling visions, though the trailer only shows us (for now) a brief shot of Skarsgård in his true Orlok form — from behind as he's crouched on the ground gnawing on his current meal.

“It took its toll,” Skarsgård said in a recent interview of stepping into this role. “It was like conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me.”

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The actor, known for another transformative horror role as Pennywise in the It movies, worked with an opera coach to lower his voice by a whole octave. "Aside from his eyes, it’s hard to find Bill," Eggers previously told Entertainment Weekly of Skarsgård, whose brother Alexander headlined the director's last film, The Northman. "I’m trying to not give too much away, but Bill totally transforms into something that is very unique.... People are going to think it’s all digital tampering, but he put in the work."

Willem Dafoe, who starred in Eggers' The Lighthouse with Robert Pattinson, now plays Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz, described by the filmmaker as "a crazy vampire hunter." Eggers also told EW that Ralph Ineson (newly cast in Marvel's Fantastic Four) as Dr. Wilhelm Sievers is "in many ways the Watson" to Dafoe's Holmes.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter, Bullet Train) and Emma Corrin (Murder at the End of the World, Deadpool and Wolverine) will appear as friends of the Hutters, Friedrich and Anna Harding.

Nosferatu will arrive in theaters this Christmas. Watch the trailer above.